Forbes Someone might want to write a book about Spartanburg, S.C. As an innovative city, it seems to be ahead of most other American towns. A quarter century ago, it partnered with BMW to create 11,000 new jobs at the automaker’s state-of-the-art BMW manufacturing plant, which transformed the region’s economy from textiles, tobacco and tourism…
The Modesto Bee Mini construction workers, tiny first responders and junior engineers were running around with abandon last summer at the Head Start preschool at Modesto Junior College. The preschoolers were unaware of the attention focused on them and their future careers by team members of StanReady!, a program designed to ensure that every Stanislaus…
Save the Children, StriveTogether, Partners for Education at Berea College and the Annie E. Casey Foundation focus on improving outcomes for children through $1.2 million Rural Accelerator Initiative Save the Children, which works in rural communities across the United States where child poverty rates are high and resources are low, has joined forces with StriveTogether,…
U.S. News & World Report In Cocke County, Tennessee, Kathy Holt is meeting with parents, day care providers and others to spread the word about what children need to know to be ready for kindergarten. The former educator is among a group of leaders in three Appalachian communities chosen to try a new approach to…
Equal Measure validates StriveTogether community change framework CINCINNATI, OH — While collective impact is widely regarded as the best approach for large-scale social change, evidence of its effect in communities has been scant until now. StriveTogether, a national network of nearly 70 communities, asked independent evaluator Equal Measure to follow the progress of its network to…
Dayton Daily News African American boys and girls are behind their white peers on too many measures of academic achievement. These distressing disparities also show up in students’ absenteeism and suspension rates. Those numbers matters because missing school has a negative effect on school performance regardless of how many days are missed or for what…
Deseret News Since its earliest days, the work of United Way of Salt Lake’s Promise Partnerships has been guided by the phrase, “trying hard is not good enough.” Also the title of a book by Mark Friedman about how to design and measure social change efforts, this phrase became our mantra for building an infrastructure…
CINCINNATI, OH — StriveTogether and KaBOOM! are partnering together to increase equitable access to play for kids across the country. Three communities from the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network have been selected to lead a playground project with KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit that works to ensure every kid and all communities have equitable access to quality,…
Stanford Social Innovation Review Despite growing pains, the pay for success funding model is finding renewed success in communities across the United States and is primed to evolve into an ever-more-powerful tool for social change. Read more
Rochester Business Journal ROC the Future, in partnership with Common Ground Health’s Healthi Kids Initiative, is one of the three StriveTogether communities that will work with KaBOOM! to design a community playground that will help close racial and socioeconomic gaps in kids’ access to great places to play. The partnership will build the civic infrastructure…
The Journal Times Modine Manufacturing Co. this week announced a Modine Foundation contribution of $200,000 over five years to Higher Expectations for Racine County. Read more
Muncie Star Press Muncie Community Schools, which has one of the highest percentages of needy students in the state, took time out this week to work on an academic innovation plan required by the state. In kicking off the 1½-day “innovation summit” on Wednesday, school board President Jim Williams said innovation meant “1,000 little things”…