Center for Community School Partnerships

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Executive Summary

Substantial numbers of older San Joaquin Valley youth are not connected to the support they need to become healthy, economically prosperous, civically engaged adults. Existing research does not provide an adequate picture of who and where these youth are, and what is needed to better connect them. This report is an initial effort to fill the information gap, in order to inform effective investment and program and policy development in the region.

Data collection focused on seven counties and, within them, 15 municipalities and school districts. Census data and maps reveal the intensity of factors associated with youth disconnection, such as dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, juvenile crime, involvement with the foster care system, and poverty. A scan of available program supports provides information about (1) the breadth of types of programs that already exist in the region, (2) the availability of support tailored to the needs and interests of older, disconnected youth and (3) the distribution of programs in the region with respect to the distribution of youth and youth need. Finally, interviews with leaders of youth-serving community-based organizations, regional organizations, and county offices of education provide information about youth supports, initiatives to coordinate services, and local challenges. From these data, we began to learn about the nature of youth and regional need, the infrastructure of support, and some important areas for further investigation and investment.

The Need is Strong

• The seven-county San Joaquin Valley region fares poorly across multiple indicators associated with youth disconnection from key sources of support for successful transition to adulthood.
• Pockets of disconnected youth can be found within all counties where youth well-being suffers from multiple factors.
• Youth of color—particularly Black, Latino, and Native American youth— appear to be overrepresented amongst the population of disconnected youth, based on juvenile sentencing data and drop-out rates. In some localities, Pacific Islander, Filipino, and Southeast Asian youth populations also face significant challenges.

The Infrastructure of Support is Uneven

• Programs for older youth are mostly focused in the areas of education, health (including pregnancy prevention/support services and substance abuse intervention/prevention), employment preparation and training, support for foster/juvenile transitions, enrichment/recreation, youth leadership/civic engagement, and mentoring. Few programs appear to adopt comprehensive approaches to serving youth. Few programs are specifically organized to address the language and cultural backgrounds of youth participants.
• The largest sources of programmatic support for older youth are run through government agencies and their contracted service providers with federal, state, county, and, in larger population centers, municipal funds. Large non-profit organizations and networks (e.g. 4-H, Boys and Girls Clubs, Future Farmers of America) are another important source of programming in the region. Grassroots networks and non-profit organizations and faith-based organizations provide programs tailored to the needs of specific local populations, but tend to be under-resourced and are smaller in terms of numbers and reach.
• In some counties there are efforts to increase collaboration across sectors (e.g. health, education, juvenile justice, economic development) and between different types of organizations. However, there appear to be few strong working relationships between grassroots organizations that have strong links to low-income communities/communities of color and public agencies. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that public resource allocation and program planning processes are well-informed about the interests and needs of harder-to-reach populations.
• Rural areas in particular have very small youth development non-profit sectors; even relatively large population centers, such as county seats, in some cases have small youth development non-profit sectors (for example, Madera, Merced and Hanford). While county agencies are working to extend services to rural communities, access continues to be limited in many places.
• There are a variety of challenges to serving older youth well that are related to logistical issues, program foci, current resources, and the nature of institutional and cross-cultural relationships.