What are all the things we need to do to help kids move from birth to work?

Below I've posted one of my presentations, that starts with the question "What Will it Take to Assure that all Youth Born or Living in High Poverty are Starting Jobs and Careers by Age 25?"

   Career Ladder - Helping Inner City Youth Through School to Careers by Daniel F. Bassill

Over the past few years I've connected with a variety of educators via on-line cMOOCs where the ideas exchanged by participants, and the relationships created, are as important as the learning that takes place.  Through this I was introduced to a web platform called EdTalkTech, where educators are connecting and sharing ideas with each other on an on-going basis, via many formats, including Google Hangouts. Last night the hangout focused on a platform called Youth Voices, where youth from around the country are connecting and sharing ideas and reflections. 

I'm currently following the Digital Writing Month cMOOC and through that I connected with Simon Ensor, who shared this Tweet with me:

@tutormentorteam this is an example of doodle to blog. https://t.co/D8kkrsefmm

— Simon Ensor (@sensor63) December 10, 2015

I visited  his blog and saw how he had turned his own free-hand notes into an info-graphic and wanted to encourage him to use concept mapping tools like Kumu to do that.  So I visited Brian Dowling's G+ page to get a link to one of the Kumu maps he has been creating and writing about in his blog.  I found one under the topic of "How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?"  

My goal in telling this story is that I think youth in organized non-school programs, along with youth in junior high, high school and college could be asking questions like the one Brian is asking, or the one I posed at the top of this article. They could be connecting on platforms like Youth Voices. They could be mentored by a variety of adults.  The could be sharing ideas on blogs, in videos and in public presentations.  They could be learning many new skills and habits (see article about passionate employee). 

They could be taking an active role in helping all youth have robust and creative support systems helping them overcome obstacles, like poverty, as they moved through school and into careers, with a growing network of adults who are part of their own personal learning and support networks (see article).

This process could engage youth in thousands of locations, focusing on many complex problems, not just health care or poverty.

I also think this process could attract the attention and support of a wide range of funders, ranging from business leaders concerned about the quality of their workforce, to philanthropy leaders who want to stimulate collaboration and information sharing, as well as youth engagement and empowerment.

I hope my ideas inspire others to engage their students in such activities.