The Forum for Youth Investment
The Forum for Youth Investment (the Forum), having outgrown rented office space on Westmoreland Avenue in Takoma Park, MD, purchased the Cady-Lee in 2002. Several Forum staff are residents of the Takoma community, including Karen Pittman, the executive director, and Merita Irby, the managing director.
The Forum for Youth Investment (the Forum) is dedicated to increasing the quality and quantity of youth investment and youth involvement by promoting a "big picture" approach to planning, research, advocacy and policy development among the broad range of organizations that help constituents and communities invest in children, youth and families. To do this, the Forum is committed to building connections, increasing capacity and tackling persistent challenges across the allied youth fields.
The Forum is the latest manifestation of more than a decade of efforts to institutionalize a positive public idea about youth — who they are, what they need and what they can do. Karen Pittman and Merita Irby, the Forum's cofounders, laid the groundwork for the Forum in 1999 when they set up IYF-US, an operating initiative within the Baltimore-based International Youth Foundation (IYF), building on their experiences in creating America's Promise, the President's Crime Prevention Council and the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research. Since that time, the Forum (formerly IYF-US) has been on a rapid growth path. The Forum's staff and budget have grown and its issue-framing work has led to grants, contracts and partnerships with dozens of foundations, national nonprofits, states and localities interested in strengthening the policies, programs, professionals and practices that contribute to the creation of safe, supportive environments for learning and engagement. In every instance, the Forum's role has been — and will continue to be — to add value to ongoing work by helping to reframe popular issues, broker and strengthen relationships, synthesize and disseminate existing knowledge, and advocate for a "big picture" approach to tackling tough challenges.
Impact Strategies, Inc., is the nonprofit that harnesses the Forum's national research and policy horsepower and the neighborhood organizing and youth leadership horsepower of the Community IMPACT! Network (formerly Community IMPACT! USA).
The Forum now operates as a branded division of Impact Strategies, Inc. Karen Pittman, in addition to continuing her responsibilities as executive director of the Forum, is president of Impact Strategies, Inc. Merita Irby is managing director of the Forum and vice president of Impact Strategies, Inc. David Milner, founder and former president of Community IMPACT! USA, currently serves as chief financial officer of Impact Strategies, Inc.
The Community IMPACT! Network has been working to prepare and involve young people for more than a decade through an approach that galvanizes citywide resources for specific geographic neighborhoods. Now in four cities — Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; and Washington, D.C. — the Community IMPACT! Network has developed products and strategies for engaging young people, families and businesses around increasing educational and economic opportunities for youth.
For more information on the Forum and the Community IMPACT! Network, please visit the following sites:
- The Forum for Youth Investment Web site at www.forumforyouthinvestment.org
- The Community IMPACT! Network Web site at www.impactnetwork.org
