After more than 20 years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation today unveiled a new logo to better reflect its mission, work and vision. The new symbol brings an updated identity that evokes five key attributes — humanity, creativity, movement, strength and versatility  — that represent the Foundation’s values and its mission to improve the lives of the nation’s most disadvantaged children and families.

The logo replaces the original logo that was created in 1992.

Nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in school nor in the workforce, veering toward chronic underemployment as adults and failing to gain the skills employers need in the 21st century, according to a new Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Many of these young people, ranging from ages 16 to 24, face numerous obstacles, according to the report, Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity.

Often described as disconnected youth, they are encountering greater competition from older workers for increasingly scarce entry-level jobs, especially in light of the recession. Many lack the higher skill set required for the well-paying jobs that are available. A number of them contend with hurdles beyond their control.

The lack of education, opportunity and connection to school or work has long-term implications, the report shows. They also can present a significant cost to taxpayers, as government spends more to support them. 

The report emphasizes the need to provide multiple, flexible pathways to success for disconnected young people and to find ways to reengage high school dropouts.

Read the news release: Youth Unemployment Soars in Past Decade

The Annie E. Casey Foundation and national partners hosted a policy forum on the crisis of unemployment among America's young people on Dec. 3, 2012, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The event coincided with the release of the Foundation's KIDS COUNT policy report on youth, work and opportunity.

Speakers included leaders representing:

• the Casey Foundation
• the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions
• Civic Enterprises
• Corporate Voices
• the Forum for Youth Investment
• Johns Hopkins Health System,
• the National Council of Young Leaders,
• Opportunity Nation and
• the United Way of America.

Amy Scott, an education correspondent with radio program "Marketplace," moderated a panel discussion.

View the event page to watch the forum.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation today announced that it is forming partnerships in three cities to improve the well-being of children and their families through community- and family-focused innovations.

Over the next two years, the Casey Foundation will award up to $150,000 annually to partners in Buffalo, N.Y.; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio to support community development within low-income neighborhoods in their cities, while also helping them develop programs that serve children and their parents at the same time. These partners are committed to adopting a two-generation approach — a key component of the Foundation’s work — by providing programs for children that focus on healthy development, growth and education, as well as services for adults that concentrate on parenting, job skills and financial security.

“After more than two decades of community change work throughout the country, the Casey Foundation strongly believes that children do well when their families do well, and that families thrive when they live in supportive communities,” said Ryan Chao, the Foundation’s vice president for civic sites and community change. “We are excited to work with likeminded partners in these cities to develop a more family-focused approach to community development.”

Read the full news release > 

The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced today that it will discontinue providing direct services through Casey Family Services in order to shift to a grantmaking strategy that will help hundreds of foster care and other nonprofit human services agencies adopt innovative, proven approaches to improve child welfare practices. By redeploying these resources to invest in improving the practice of a diverse set of nonprofit providers instead of its own agency, the Foundation will have the potential to impact thousands of children and families, far beyond those currently served, and help to advance stronger practices across the field in general.

Founded in 1976, Casey Family Services (CFS), headquartered in New Haven, Conn., provides high quality foster care services to children under state contracts in Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. CFS currently provides therapeutic foster care services to approximately 400 children. Several offices also offer other services to support permanency for kids and families including family preservation, reunification and post-adoption supports.

Throughout this transition, the Foundation is committed to working with states to meet their service needs and ensure the stability of the children and families in its care. We will transition the majority of these children and their foster families to other providers with capacity by December 31, 2012, but the agency will remain open until June 30, 2013 with a small staff to support any cases that need additional time to transition. We are providing the 280 employees affected by this decision with resources and support as they pursue new employment, further education or retirement.

The Foundation plans to execute its new strategy through partnerships with premier free-standing provider agencies, with the goal of helping them to develop and/or scale up proven models. We will also help increase adoption of effective practice by building awareness, providing education and technical assistance, and supporting efforts to ensure public funding supports these practices at the federal and state level. Additional grants will go toward developing hands-on, user friendly materials and tools that leverage the accumulated knowledge of direct service providers and the expertise of Foundation staff. While these partnerships will begin with child welfare providers, the Foundation plans to expand to providers in other human service fields such as juvenile justice, mental health, community change, substance abuse and workforce development.