Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) and Interagency Collaboration
The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP), formed in 2008, has been coordinating federal activities to support positive outcomes for youth by sharing information; deepening collaboration and understanding across departments, agencies, and offices; creating a robust web presence; and developing and advancing the strategic plan for youth. Membership has expanded from *12 to 25 federal departments and agencies, representing more than 75 offices and divisions. Through multiple administrations, the IWGYP has sustained and grown collaboration efforts between and among federal staff and agencies, fostering productive interagency collaboration, reducing duplication, improving efficiencies, and inspiring new directions for federal efforts. This includes the new Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council (CICC).
Since 2009, AIR has served as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation contractor to support the IWGYP’s accomplishments. These include:
- Developing, finalizing, issuing, and implementing a strategic plan for Pathways for Youth, which crystallizes the commitment of IWGYP partners to achieve a meaningful, positive impact on our nation’s youth.
- Increasingly engaging youth in IWGYP activities, contributing to partner agencies’ efforts to further engage youth, and establishing the YE4C Editorial Board.
- Providing a robust digital platform for individual agencies to extend their impact and help coordinate interagency efforts to realize major federal priorities, reaching an average of 233,807 people per month in FY 2022.
- Building and continuing to enrich and refine youth.gov and engage.youth.gov.
- Continuing across four administrations and expanding federal membership from the originally mandated 10 departments and two agencies to 13 departments and 12 agencies.
- Developing equity-informed common outcomes to be used across all 25 departments and agencies, a common federal definition of positive youth development, and a federal youth development research agenda.
The Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council
Under the newly awarded contract for IWGYP, AIR stands ready to support the development of this new interagency collaboration effort, having supported many local, state, and national interagency efforts. The CICC will be the first coordinated effort to examine and engage across federal agencies to reduce child poverty and advance child well-being, drawing on expert input from practitioners, administrators, researchers, advocates, and those with lived experience.
* The original IWGYP agencies were the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and Transportation; the Corporation for National and Community Service; the National Science Foundation; the Office of National Drug Control Policy; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Small Business Association; and the U.S. Social Security Administration.
