Twenty-five years ago, Kim Johnson turned to the Women, Infants and Children program — WIC — for help as a new mom. Now as director of the California Department of Social Services, she is responsible for deploying billions of dollars to support children and families in poverty with dignity, in a way that puts them…
Reciprocity and respect — how you care for yourself and others — was the Nakoda way of life for generations. The concept of economic mobility did not exist because it wasn’t needed. Erik Stegman, CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy, shared the stories of his great grandfather and grandfather at the Cradle to Career Network…
StriveTogether President and CEO Jennifer Blatz opened the 2022 Cradle to Career Convening with a bold vision to place 100 million young people on a path to mobility in the United States. The Cradle to Career Network already reaches one in seven young people ages 0-24. Its work to change lives by changing systems is…
Emmy-winning journalist and self-proclaimed Democracy junkie Maria Hinojosa’s words stung like a paper cut, conjuring up my memories of growing up Black and invisible in a semi-rural white community. As she kicked off the fourth day of the 2021 Annual Convening, I found myself relating to the powerlessness she described of young Latinx children who…
Social-impact icon asks equity changemakers to take a stand Winter is coming and it’s time to take stand for children and families. Geoffrey Canada’s message to more than 1,400 community changemakers was to the point. He helped kick off the 2020 Cradle to Career Network Convening by encouraging true believers in equity to have the…
Jennifer Blatz invited women of color from the Cradle to Career Network to join her and Cecilia Muñoz for a candid conversation about leadership. Muñoz was the first Latinx to lead the White House Domestic Council and is the author of a new book, More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You … and Other…
Packed in a room with 500 “justice fighters” and “champions of children,” I could feel I was part of something big – something unstoppable. StriveTogether CEO and President Jennifer Blatz opened the 10th annual convening in Washington, D.C., with a film that captured social justice movements that “challenge how we think and the status quo.”…
Above: Kelly, left, as a child with her family, looking forward to a vacation in Hawaii. Why All Hands Raised is challenging how educators think about skilled trade professions I still vividly recall the heart-to-heart conversation my father had with me long ago about college. He never went to college or graduated from high school.…
Preparing students for success is a critical component of the Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship program. Young men of color receive rigorous ongoing training in research-based early literacy intervention strategies that prepare pre-K children to be successful in school and later in life. Ten fellows — ages 18 to 24 — make up the Leading…