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January: A Month of Opportunity

January 25, 2019

The opportunities for young people to do meaningful service and reap those benefits are inequitably distributed, just as are access to a multitude of caring adults, a healthy start in life, an excellent education and safe places to learn and grow. These are the promises that every child needs to thrive and we as adults need to provide.

Type: Opinion

promises: Opportunities to Help Others, Caring Adults

3 Reasons to Apply for the Power of Youth Challenge

December 06, 2018

America’s Promise Alliance, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Peace First are partnering to create opportunities for more young people to be agents of change in their local communities.

Type: Opinion

promises: Opportunities to Help Others

This Back-to-School Season, Let’s Not Forget that Hope Matters

September 06, 2018

As millions of young people begin a new school year, many parents and adults are no doubt worried about how well they’ll fare. From concerns about screen time to college and career readiness, there are plenty of headlines that fret over the well-being of young people.

Type: Opinion

promises: Caring Adults, Safe Places, Opportunities to Help Others, A Healthy Start, Effective Education

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

I Was a Homeless Student and School Helped Me Find My Way Home

July 10, 2018

I first experienced homelessness with my family, then on my own. I was born to a single mother and a father who was absent because of post-traumatic stress disorder he developed after the war. Throughout my childhood, my mother, two sisters and I moved from home to home, sometimes not having one at all.

Type: Opinion

TAG: Homeless Youth, Special Populations

promises: Effective Education, Safe Places, Opportunities to Help Others

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign, Youth Voice: Homelessness

Why Pathways Matter

May 17, 2018

When America’s Promise talks about pathways, we’re often talking about the experiences, programs, or initiatives that help prepare young people for life after high school—often while they’re still in it. Since pathways are a key part of our GradNation Action Platform, and because it’s a term we use quite a lot, we think it’s worth exploring a little more.

Type: Opinion

TAG: Career Pathways

promises: Effective Education, Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, Opportunities to Help Others

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign, GradNation State Activation

Today's Entitled Youth

March 08, 2018

It’s a common, easy thing to dismiss young people who demand a better world than the one they were born into as arrogant, spoiled, and even naïve. Yet the Parkland students and too many other young people like them have survived extreme trauma and emerged braver, wiser, and more mature than anyone should have to be at their age. That does make them entitled—to share their story, get an education without fearing for their lives, and, one would hope, have adults listen.

Type: Opinion

TAG: Youth Involvement, Youth Voice, Safe Schools

promises: Caring Adults, Opportunities to Help Others

Mentorships Critical to the Success of the 21st Century Workforce

February 28, 2018

America’s Promise and Milton Hershey School call on schools and other organizations to better collaborate by establishing partnerships that share knowledge, teach essential workplace skills, and create lifelong role models for the young people who make up our next workforce. We all have an obligation to prepare young adults for the competitive global job market they will enter post-graduation.

Type: Opinion

promises: A Healthy Start, Caring Adults, Effective Education, Safe Places, Opportunities to Help Others

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

The Power of a Single Word

December 07, 2017

As 2017 comes to a close, we’ve gathered a handful of the stories that capture the kind of tough but important work that people across the country do with and for young people every day. If you’re tired of bleak headlines filling your newsfeed and want examples of how to enact positive change in ways both big and small, check out a few of our favorites from the last year.

Type: Opinion

promises: Caring Adults, Opportunities to Help Others

campaigns & initiatives: Recommit2Kids, GradNation Campaign

Youth Voice: I am Not Your Good Immigrant

November 14, 2017

I am not better nor am I worse than the other 10.2 million undocumented immigrants that were not granted this protection in the first place. I am not the “Good Immigrant.” I am not the “Dreamer.” Our parents, our families, those who made the decision to come to a country in which they are criminalized, they are the original dreamers. Not us.

Type: Opinion

TAG: Special Populations

promises: Caring Adults, Opportunities to Help Others

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign, GradNation State Activation

Youth Voice: When Guidance Counselors Fail Their Students

November 02, 2017

In the spring of my junior year of high school, I planned a meeting with my guidance counselor. We were set to go over my college application plans in preparation for the upcoming school year.

Type: Opinion

TAG: Youth Voice

promises: Opportunities to Help Others, Caring Adults

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign