In systems change work, we tell stories to generate community engagement and support around what we’re doing to improve outcomes for kids and close disparity gaps. There’s an art and a science to our storytelling. The science is about the formula. Storytelling can be broken down into three parts: Finding the story, telling the story…
Guest post by Joshua Childs of the University of Texas at Austin; Ty Davidson of Travis Early College High School; and Sonia Dominguez of E3 Alliance, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network community. Communities across the country, from Pittsburgh to Oakland, are working every day to improve student attendance, but addressing complex educational issues often can…
Recently I’ve talked with several Cradle to Career Network partnerships that are considering spinning out from their parent organizations to become independent 501 (c)(3) organizations. As I just spent the last year of my life working on the spin out of StriveTogether and have more than a few gray hairs as a result, I decided…
Guest post by Kirstin Yeado of Higher Expectations for Racine County, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network community. Data is a tool that should be used as a flashlight, not a hammer. This is one of the many lessons Higher Expectations for Racine County has learned from the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. Racine is…
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…
Having a rigorous process for testing and implementing changes to get better results has always been deeply embedded in our work at StriveTogether. In fact, developing a culture of continuous improvement is one of the four principles in our Theory of Action. We know it is crucial for Cradle to Career Network communities if they…
As communities work to change systems, improve outcomes for kids and close disparity gaps, one of the most common questions is: How do we talk about this work? Systems change efforts take time and don’t result in immediate outcome improvement. But a multitude of wins and successes occur on the path to changing behaviors, practices…
Communities across the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network are making significant strides in improving education for kids, but we still struggle with communications and messaging about our work. That’s why I was excited to attend an advocacy training held earlier this month by The Campaign Workshop in Washington, D.C. Along with another colleague, Robert Harris,…
“What is the best way to visualize data?” asks Lee Feinberg, president of DecisionViz. Lee is standing in front of 17 data managers from across the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, all of whom are intent on identifying the correct answer. They offer several suggestions in response to his question — pie charts, bar graphs,…
Guest post by Becky Hoffman, executive director of Adams County Youth Initiative, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network community. In late 2016 our team and board of directors at Adams County Youth Initiative took some time to gain additional clarity on our mission, to define our role as the backbone and to further develop our…
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.…
Collective impact has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the social sector, and, unfortunately, the term gets used for a range of activities that deviate from the original intent: achieving results at scale. Our focus with the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network has been to establish standards for what this work really takes to…