The Forum for Community Solutions, chaired by Melody Barnes, former Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for President Obama, will spotlight success stories, educate national and local leaders and encourage new collaborations that will build resilience and lasting progress in communities around the country. Specifically, the Forum for Community Solutions will focus on 3 key objectives:

1. Engage and inspire community leaders to pull together for needle-moving change
2. Provide the knowledge and tools communities need to create effective needle-moving collaboratives
3. Build an Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund to incent more needle-moving collaborations that are focused on addressing the needs of the 6 million+ young people 16-24 who are disconnected from school and work, a problem of critical importance to the long-term strength of our communities.

The needle-moving collaboratives strategy may be used to address a range of social and economic challenges facing communities. Today, we are applying the strategy to a particular challenge in order to demonstrate the potential of this approach and to develop the critical proof points needed to inspire and inform other communities.

The Aspen Forum will also convene roundtable discussions around the country with mayors, community leaders, philanthropies and businesses to highlight best practices and successful, needle-moving strategies. A media campaign will help publicize what works, and the Forum will also encourage communities to explore new approaches to engaging residents.