Six months after becoming an independent nonprofit, StriveTogether has launched a bold and ambitious plan for building stronger systems for better outcomes. Our vision — Every Child, Cradle to Career — has been clear since the beginning, when the local partnership in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky began to take shape in 2006. Since then, change…
At StriveTogether, we are still riding high on the energy and ideas generated at the eighth annual Cradle to Career Network Convening. I hope you are feeling that high too if you were among the 400-plus champions of change who gathered in Phoenix last week for Be the Change: Getting Results for Every Child. Amid…
“It’s time for us to lay it all down on the line for entire populations.” This was PolicyLink President Michael McAfee’s closing call to action for attendees at the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network Convening last week. His keynote — which galvanized everyone in the room — was a reminder of what’s at stake and…
Imagine you are a leader in your local community partnership and you face the following news: USA news reports, “1 in 10 schools are dropout factories.” 34 percent enrollment gap in pre-K. 32 percent of all third-graders read at grade level. This news can be disheartening for any leader. However, at Be the Change: Getting…
Today, Connie and Steve Ballmer, co-founders of Ballmer Group, announced a major investment in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. The announcement was made at the conclusion of Steve Ballmer’s morning plenary remarks in front of more than 400 community leaders representing local community-based partnerships across the country. The investment includes $10 million per year over…
As hundreds of leaders and practitioners across sectors arrive in Phoenix for Be the Change: Getting Results for Every Child, StriveTogether’s 2017 Cradle to Career Network Convening, we are proud to announce the designation of the Commit Partnership in Dallas County, Texas, as our second Proof Point community, a recognition that outcomes are improving as…
Guest post by Brian Spicker, chief program officer at Valley of the Sun United Way. On behalf of my colleagues in Phoenix, Thriving Together would like to welcome community leaders from the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network who are attending the national convening in our community in October. We look forward to sharing our warm…
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 —…
(Caption for above photo) Teams from Porter Leath, Communities in Schools, Latino Memphis, Knowledge Quest and Literacy Mid-South participated in a series of Beyond the Classroom workshops to spread a culture of results and data within their organizations. Before we all held Global Positioning Systems in our hands, we used maps and compasses to navigate…
Guest post by Eric Wilson, president and CEO of Graduate Tacoma, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network community partnership in Tacoma, Wash. In 2010, just more than half of Tacoma students were graduating. Front-page headlines in USA Today pronounced Tacoma schools “dropout factories.” The incoming superintendent declared the 55 percent graduation rate “shameful” for the 30,000-student school district. That…
Named after one of the earliest and staunchest champions of our work, the Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award annually recognizes a local advocate from a community in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. We’re excited to open the nomination process for this year’s award. A tireless advocate for kids, Bill Henningsgaard brought together…
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…