For too many young people today, the dream of a brighter future feels hard to reach. We’re living through a season marked by political division and violence, economic uncertainty and deep inequities. Families are stretched thin by rising costs, housing insecurity and barriers that stand in the way of opportunity. Immigrant families live in fear.
It hasn’t been easy — for any of us in this field, or for anyone in our communities. But we persist because we believe in possibility. And we believe in the power of collective action to make it real.
Together, we’re rewriting the story for millions of young people across the country. The StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network has set an ambitious goal: to transform 4 million futures. Our task is to ensure that every one of those young people has the chance to make their own path and the support they need to reach their dreams. 
The Network is showing the country what’s possible through the power of place-based partnerships: community coalitions that connect nonprofits, businesses, schools, philanthropy and more, bringing together neighbors to build a stronger future. Here are just a few recent successes across the Network:
- In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Partnership advocated for a historic win: $380 million invested into the state’s early care and education.
- In Indiana, Cradle to Career Muncie is supporting big wins in early grade reading, improving scores by nearly 10% in one year — that’s twice the state average.
- In Texas, Good Reason Houston is guiding powerful school improvement work that reduced the number of F-rated schools from 56-0 in the span of one year. This is work that will lead to better experiences for hundreds of thousands of students.
- And in Maryland, Baltimore’s Promise continues to lead on workforce development with a pilot that’s preparing high schoolers for jobs in seven critical health care pathways.
These place-based partnerships are creating opportunity at every stage, from cradle to career. Their success reminds me that what we started together 15 years ago was more than a hypothesis. It was a movement in the making.
We began the 2025 Cradle to Career Network Convening, our annual national gathering, by looking back. I joined in conversation with someone who has been on this journey since the very beginning — a leader who has not only transformed her own community but has helped shape our entire movement.
Susan Dawson is the founder of one of the longest-running place-based partnerships in the country: E3 Alliance in Austin, Texas. She recently published an extraordinary book that shares what she’s learned from decades in this work, called Changing Education Systems: Wisdom Gained by E3 Alliance in Driving Effective Change Using Data and Collaboration.
At the convening, Susan sat down with me to share some of this wisdom. Here are a few things I’m taking away from our conversation.
Everything starts with data.
Across the Cradle to Career Network, communities are committed to providing and analyzing data that improves decision making, resource allocation and strategy creation. E3 Alliance is a leading example of powerful data use.
In one case study from Susan’s book, data unlocked new possibilities for students through advanced math courses that lead to future success. E3 Alliance led a comprehensive study to find out which math courses correlate with better outcomes after high school. This research showed that just 33% of high-performing black students completed Algebra I by eighth grade, compared with 90% of high-performing white students — a disparity that has far-reaching impact. Susan shared that this data moved people, literally, to tears, and it also moved them to action.
With this data, E3 Alliance created and implemented a new policy to automatically place qualified Central Texas students in advanced math courses. This change closed the gap between high-performing black and white students by 91%. E3 Alliance brought that data to the state level and changed the state policy, too — a shift that will benefit 52,000 students every year.
Thanks to E3 Alliance’s strong reputation for providing insightful, unbiased data, they’re able to support policies like this one that are proven to make a difference for young people. This kind of evidence-based approach is exactly what we need in this moment to move progress forward.
Trust unlocks progress.
Data is also a key ingredient in trust, which Susan described as foundational. Early in the development of E3 Alliance, she had to decide whether to create an authority structure over education systems in the region. She chose not to, instead deciding to lean on relationship building and what she calls “the moral authority of influence.” 
We often hear in this field that “relationships move at the speed of trust,” and we know that strong relationships are critical for our ability to achieve impact. The best way to build trust, Susan believes, is to follow through.
“Deliver on what you say and deliver results,” she said. “Those of us in the education space often are paralyzed by trying to do too much or trying to wait until everyone is at the table. You actually have to move forward and drive results. And by driving results, people will start to see those results and will gain trust in you.”
We must be relentless.
Our work is complex and, at times, daunting. Susan captured the scale of our vision perfectly: “What we’re trying to do is change systems, not change things for one student or ten students or a thousand students. How do we change systems that affect tens and hundreds of thousands of students?”
The most important quality in her journey and the success of E3 Alliance, Susan shared, is relentlessness.
“If the data says or your community says this is the right thing to do, that this will change outcomes for students’ lives, then you have to be absolutely relentless,” she said. “Don’t take no for an answer. Find a way around it, find a way through it. Find some way to move forward, because you’re not going to succeed unless you’re absolutely nose to the grindstone day after day, year after year, making change happen.”
Susan knows better than almost anyone the incredible impact that that tenacity can unlock. With her example in mind, this is the attitude that I’m carrying forward into the rest of the year.
Yes, the work is difficult, and yes, it takes time. But change is happening. We’re staying focused. StriveTogether is moving forward in our work to create economic opportunity for millions more young people. And we will be relentless.
