The city of Chicago is home to over 1 million youth ages five to 24 — 69.3% of them identify as Black or Latine. Of those, more than 20% live at or below the poverty line. When politicians, advocates and other adult experts develop programs, they fall flat and fail to achieve the long-term social…
StriveTogether is partnering with Walmart.org to support the Retail Opportunity Network, which is a community of leaders focused on upskilling and learning, job success, and economic mobility for all people working in frontline roles across America. Orlando Cazarez, a senior program manager at the Center for the Future of Arizona shares some of his learning…
Guest post by Kristin Todd, executive vice president at the Daniels Fund In the world of philanthropy, we’re all striving to invest limited financial resources in ways that will yield the highest social impact, to achieve the “biggest bang for the buck,” so to speak. And I can speak from experience when I say that…
Guest post by Erica Valliant, an organizer, activist and mother in Saint Paul, Minn. I am a mother of three sons in Saint Paul, Minn. My children are 7, 10 and 17. I do not have a bachelor’s degree, so I have only secured jobs that do not require a college degree. I began working…
Guest post by Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for public interest technology and local initiatives at New America One of the many lessons I learned working for President Obama comes from his insistence that cynicism is one of the biggest threats our democracy faces. We believe that the system is broken so we back away, taking…
Guest post by Ta’mya Davis, communications chair for the Teen Advisory Committee at Step Forward. My name is Ta’Mya Davis and I am a junior at Benton High School in Benton, La. I serve as the communications chair for the Teen Advisory Committee (TAC) at Step Forward, a member of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career…
Guest post by Herb Tillery, co-chair of Raise DC’s Leadership Council. Above photo courtesy of Higher Achievement – DC Metro. On behalf of our partners in the District of Columbia, Raise DC is thrilled to welcome the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network communities to the nation’s capital for this year’s convening. The District is popularly…
Guest blog post co-contributed by April Black, deputy executive director at Tacoma Housing Authority, and Elvin Bucu, director of systems alignment at Graduate Tacoma I always find it helpful to get out of my “Tacoma tunnel vision” and see how other communities think differently. I recently had the chance to learn with eight other communities…
Guest blog post by Sarah Clarke, director of government affairs at Hylden Advocacy & Law. Photo above: Rep. Rena Moran, holding microphone, speaks on a panel with Northside Achievement Zone and Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood parents. When communities work together at a state level, they can get powerful results for kids and families. Recent policy work…
Guest blog post by Kimberly Thomas, Parents as Teachers manager at Porter-Leath Through the Prenatal to Age 3 Impact and Improvement Network, I had the opportunity to help impact home visitation in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. The Impact and Improvement Network is a collaboration of communities from across the country building strategies to improve…
Guest post by Jon McGoh, co-founder and a trustee at Reach Academy in Feltham, England. For three weeks this spring, I was fortunate enough to tour the U.S. visiting a variety of cradle-to-career initiatives on a Winston Churchill Fellowship. The Fellowship enables UK citizens to travel the world looking at innovative solutions to the world’s…
Guest blog post by Linda T. Francis, director of Success of All Youth. Oak Park, Ill., is an aspirational community, touted by residents as a diverse and progressive place where all people can live and thrive together. But despite efforts to promote Oak Park’s legacy of integration, ongoing discrepancies in student achievement tell another story:…