I just returned from Salt Lake City after a few days at the Winter Innovation Summit listening to policymakers, funders, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs explore the future of social innovation. This experience brought to mind a blog by Jeff Edmondson about “creating a marketplace for results” where he challenged investors to put results at the…
Remember navigating the murky waters of college enrollment as a high school senior but finding clarity with the assistance of a college counselor? You might recall asking your counselor: Where should I attend? What should I study? Will my major translate into meaning employment after I graduate? How will I pay for tuition? Books? Room…
Guest post by Esmeralda Castillo, District 3 representative of the San Antonio Youth Commission. On Oct. 3-5, 2017, I had the incredible opportunity to attend StriveTogether’s 2017 Cradle to Career Network Convening in Phoenix, Arizona, as the District 3 representative of the San Antonio Youth Commission (SAYC). Managed by the P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar…
Guest post by Justin Piff, a senior director at Equal Measure in Philadelphia, Penn. Despite national and international attention on collective impact since 2011, few individuals and institutions have articulated what it looks like or ought to look like in practice. In 2015, Equal Measure and StriveTogether set out to understand how civic infrastructure —…
Guest post by Sara Maranowicz, community programs director at Bohemian Foundation, a participant in StriveTogether’s Investing in Community Outcomes Network. Nearly a year ago, my executive director and I signed up for what seemed like an interesting learning opportunity: Investing in Community Outcomes Network (ICON). This is my DIY story. Not DIY as in — I…
Guest post by Mackenzie Magnus of Thrive Chicago, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network community. Thrive Chicago is now trending in #Chicago. On March 14, Thrive Chicago launched the 10,000 Reconnected Campaign, a citywide initiative to reconnect 10,000 youth ages 16-24 to school or work by 2020. Although March 14 was a visible moment for…
Earlier this month, Parv Santhosh-Kumar and I had an incredible opportunity to gather together with 35 social sector leaders and spend three days at the Skid Row School for Large-scale Change. The experience was transformative. For one, it came at the end of what has been a year filled with high highs and low lows.…
Guest post by Victor Cedeño, director of networks and education policy with Generation Next, a cradle-to-career partnership in Minnesota. This past June, I had the opportunity to attend the StriveTogether Expert Convening in Las Vegas. I was honored to be invited but was even more excited for the opportunity to learn from other communities. As it…
Guest post by Juliette Price, director of The Albany Promise, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network partnership. Communities and individuals, from California to New York, are working every day to change adult behavior to improve the outcomes for our nation’s most vulnerable students. But this work can be lonely. At this year’s StriveTogether Expert Convening,…