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Background on the Youth Policy Institute (YPI)
The Youth Policy Institute (YPI), led by it's founder and director David L. Hackett, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization which works to inform citizens so that they can shape policies and programs which affect their neighborhoods and their lives. The Institute's goal is to provide information on policy history and policy options, including a memory of past successes and failures. YPI believes that sound program strategies can emerge only from knowledgeable debate coupled with neighborhood participation. To support and spark that debate, the Institute published objective reports on current, past and proposed policies and programs.
YPI Publications
In the 80's and through the mid-90s, YPI published two monthly magazines and a journal, and has initiated demonstration projects with neighborhood-based urban and rural coalitions who are expressing an immediate need for this information. The Institute applies a rigorous research methodology to achieve comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of topics areas ranging from AIDS and infant mortality to community development and early childhood education.
To accomplish its other goal of training and supporting young people engaged in community problem solving, the Institute combined age and experience with youth and enthusiasm.
Training & Involving Young People in Public Policy Research
Over the years, YPI has been staffed by more than 800 staff and interns. This interracial, intergenerational group has been educated about the workings of the policymaking process while at the same time serving an important role within it through their published research efforts. Operationally, a small core staff of accredited professionals guided the research and publishing efforts of a group of between eight and eighteen college and graduate school- age analysts working out of YPI's offices in Washington, D.C.
To expand the reach of YPI's research, dissemination, and training efforts, the Policy Action CORPS model was developed to reach out to college and universities. Through the Policy Action CORPS, hundreds of college students would be trained to use their research skills and information resources to facilitate the problem-solving efforts of local and national organizations. By joining their intellectual talents with direct community involvement, students trained in this unique form of service have the potential to transform the relationship between colleges and universities and their local communities.
The Youth Policy Institute has nearly twenty years of experience in the youth policy and education fields. David Hackett was involved in the creation of the federal service efforts, VISTA and the Peace Corps. YPI has maintained its focus on service and youth by training hundreds of high school and college students in it's research methodology.
YPI's Historial Roots
The underlying philosophy of the Institute was established in the early 1960s with President Kennedy's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency, which was chaired by Robert Kennedy and directed by his friend and aide, David Hackett. In 1963, the Committee created the strategy for a national poverty effort. This strategy would have emphasized local planning and decentralized what became the War on Poverty. David Hackett's contributions to urban policy during this time have been noted in numerous books, including:
The Committee's approach continued in the work of Senator Robert Kennedy, and then the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. What became clear, though, was that citizens and communities did not have the information they needed for real decision-making. Thus, the Youth Policy Institute was established in 1979.
YPI has painstakingly developed a new way to look at information. As a partner in the strategic planning for Miami’s empowerment zone in 1994, YPI began presenting this information directly to communities for local decision-making. During 1995 and 1996, this new approach was implemented as part of a $25 million project in Washington, D.C. Over an eighteen-month period, the Youth Policy Institute worked intensively with the residents of the Ellen Wilson community, less than ten blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The goal was straightforward: empower residents to shape the programs that would affect their families, their jobs, and their neighborhood.
The YPI approach to community building and “direct democracy” was featured in the book 1,000 Ways to Make America Better, edited by George magazine.
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