Many states across the country are building and using indicators of youth well-being to guide state and local policy development. This group of reports provides an overview of the origins, operation, and data sources of twelve states' initiatives to use measures of youth well-being--such as health, educational achievement, social and emotional development, self-sufficiency, family, and community environment--in state and local policy development.

Youth Indicator Initiatives in Place in States as of September 2002 contains overviews for 14 states, each of which consists of a discussion of the initiative origins, its partnerships, frameworks used, data sources, and Principal Staff and Contact Information. The overviews were developed collaboratively between those working to develop and implement these initiatives at the state level and staff at the Chapin Hall Center for Children. The work of the following states is represented: Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Vermont, and Wyoming. This work was funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Youth Indicators in Use in States as of September 2002 contains a series of six matrices of measures of youth well-being in place across states as of September 2002. The cross-state matrices include a selection of indicators currently in place to measure youth health and safety, educational achievement, social and emotional development, youth self-sufficiency, family environment, and community environment at both state and local levels.

Also included are proceedings from a Washington, D.C. workshop hosted by ASPE and Chapin Hall that brought together policymakers, researchers, and other experts to share their experiences and knowledge about the use of youth well-being indicators in state and local policy development. The objective in this summary is to synthesize what was discussed in a wide range of workshop forums.