Abstract

Putting Youth on the Map: A California Youth Advocacy Tool
Track: Health and Human Services
Authors: Este Geraghty

California wants and needs for its youth to thrive-not merely to survive or face fewer problems. But how do we know whether our young people are doing well? 'Putting Youth On the Map' is an interactive website that provides access to new analyses of youth data, as well as links to a variety of existing data sources. Our website includes the Youth Well-Being Index (YWI) in which California school districts are scored based on measures of teenagers' physical and emotional health, educational outcomes, social relationships, and community contexts. We also include the Youth Vulnerability Index (YVI) that identifies places where young people might be especially vulnerable to a lack of support for their well-being; it provides a composite score based on the relative rates at which youth experience conditions associated with inadequate support: leaving secondary school without graduating, foster care referral, very low family income, and teen motherhood.