The Illinois AfterSchool network has become a part of a national group of select sites looking into the development of career pathways for youth workers. Illinois is one of eight sites selected to participate in the Career Pathways Project through the National Collaboration for Youth and the National Institute on Out-of-School-Time.

THE YOUTH WORKER CAREER PATHWAYS PROJECT

GUIDING STATES, LOCALITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS TOWARD A FRAMEWORK FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

The Career Pathways Project will advance the field’s understanding of, and recommend ways to implement, systematic career pathways for youth workers – pathways that are clear, supported by incentives, connected to credentials, recognized with compensation, and embedded in policy and practice. This effort will learn from where action is already underway and use these places to both assess and refine a framework for understanding pathway systems. Through these processes, the Career Pathways Project will create a Blueprint for Action: Guidelines for Building Career Pathway Systems for Youth Workers. Such career pathway systems are essential to, and consistent with, the broader efforts of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition’s efforts to promote success and strengthen the youth work workforce toward stability, preparation, support, and commitment to the well-being and empowerment of youth

The Illinois AfterSchool Network and Gateways to Opportunity on October 4th, 2006 held the first School Age/ Youth Credential Symposium. Over 80 individuals, representing a vast population of school age stakeholders, took part in this ground breaking event for Illinois' school age and youth providers. The work of the Illinois School Age/Youth Credential (I-SAY) will be studied at a national level and will be closely watched by other states.

Ellen Gannett, was the featured speaker. She enlightened the group with the fact that Illinois is once again in the national forefront by attempting to integrate the School Age/ Youth development fields into an early childhood system, Gateways to Opportunity. Her perspective and depth of knowledge has left an immeasurable impact and has motivated the I-SAY Committee to move forward with the development of a credential.

Four subcommittees have been formed to target different aspects of credential development. Those subcommittee are Quality Assurance, Access and Outreach, Qualifications and Credentials, and Core Knowledge.

Additional meetings to continue the work have been conducted and scheduled producing tremendous progress toward the development of a credential that strives to set a standard of professionalism in the field while remaining meaningful to the intended audience.