The Context for Collaboration

How do we best meet the needs of our youth as they make the transition into the adult world? For young people to succeed in life, they need to develop competence, confidence, and connections to real-world experiences at critical points during their educational, career, and personal development. Our schools cannot do this alone, nor can youth development, social service, or workforce preparation organizations - they need partners. For this reason, over the past decade collaborative structures called Intermediaries have emerged, designed to bring together a range of local resources to promote young people’s self-confidence about their abilities, increase their connections to adults and opportunities, and foster the personal, academic, and work-related competencies they need to succeed. Intermediaries support effective programs for youth and augment the efforts of local organizations dedicated to serving youth in a wide variety of programs and settings including education, workforce development, after-school, youth development, community and school partnerships, and others serving special populations of vulnerable youth.

About the Intermediary Network

The Intermediary Network connects local and national organizations to share effective strategies, to learn from one another, and to grow and professionalize intermediary practice across the country.

The Intermediary Network

• Promotes the importance of intermediary organizations and activities on the public policy agenda.
• Establishes standards of quality for intermediaries and their staff.
• Provides state-of-the-art professional and leadership development opportunities through a facilitated network of the top practitioners in the country.
• Engages members in a peer-supported, self-managed, professional learning community.
• Represents the collective voice of organizations and individuals performing intermediary functions.

• A leadership team, composed of local, state, and national practitioners and policy makers to fully develop and refine the standards of membership, address the core questions surfaced as allied fields of practice are brought to the same table, identify quality practices, and inform the creation of initiative approaches, tools, and materials to support local practice.
• Intermediary Network Practice Communities.
• Common tools and frameworks that reflect an expanded vision of local intermediary practice in order to promote, guide, reflect and support the work at the local level.
• Peer-to–peer coaching strategies, where network members work to support others faced with similar challenges.
• Documentation, collection, and dissemination of quality practices and promising approaches to challenging issues.
• Research and evaluation of the effectiveness of intermediary approaches in addressing the issues of transitioning youth.
• The development of a public policy agenda, to promote and sustain intermediary practice.
• A regular electronic newsletter to update progress and communicate success to a broad audience.