The Cradle to Career initiative, a collaboration between city officials, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica College and various community groups, expects to launch a website for youth to find relevant information and resources this fall.
The initiative aims to create a comprehensive network of support for young people to address issues early on and prevent the slide into violence and gang involvement.
Information in the youth portal would be collected from schools, the nonprofit sectors and community.
Natasha Guest, senior administrative analyst in the Human Services Division, said the goal of the updated portal is to make it easier for parents, teachers and anyone working with children and families to find information on a wide range of programs and supportive services.
"It will … create a one-stop-shop for finding services for youth and families," Guest said.
Cradle to Career received $162,500 from the City Council in June to get the ball rolling, city officials said.
In related news, City Hall's Well-being Project, which was inspired by Cradle to Career, is also looking for a project manager. The project manager position closes on Friday.
Guest said the idea of measuring well-being in Santa Monica started with the Cradle to Career Work Group's desire to create a report card on youth, which was released last year. The report card was an accumulation of publicly available information that gave a view of how well Santa Monica's young people were doing.
City Hall was able to secure a grant for $1 million from the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayor's Challenge to fund the project.
The project manager would plan, administer and oversee the Well-being Project to define, measure and actively improve community well-being, according to the Santa Monica Human Resources website. Learn more at www.smgov.net.
