Proven Strategies for Community Change

Our Approach

Helping communities get better results for young people, cradle to career.

A large group of Cradle to Career Network members smile up at the camera, holding pennants at the Cradle to Career Network Convening.

StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network Convening

Our Framework for Local Change

The StriveTogether Theory of ActionTM is our proven framework for results, built with communities and constantly evolving with their insights. It helps partners create the civic infrastructure needed to change the systems that shape opportunity. 

Our framework lays out progressive milestones, not a rigid recipe. Local context leads the way. These milestones bring together leaders across education, housing, health care and more, so communities can work better together.

The Theory of Action showed us how to do this work, and that has helped to shape our journey as we’ve been moving this work forward from cradle through career.

Dr. Russell W. Booker, CEO of Spartanburg Academic Movement

Spartanburg, South Carolina

See the Impact
Dr. Russell W. Booker, CEO of Cradle to Career Network member Spartanburg Academic Movement, smiles at another person standing across from him.

How Progress Happens

Cradle to Career Network members apply shared principles to their work: expanding access to opportunity, prioritizing community engagement and local context, focusing on outcomes and the systems that impact them, and securing public sector adoption. 

These principles guide how partners use data and shift policies, practices, resources and power to improve results for young people. 

Together, our collective vision is to support 4 more million futures on the path to economic mobility by 2030, as measured by milestones from cradle to career.

Our Four Pillars

Communities build their work on four pillars, designed to create the civic infrastructure needed to increase economic opportunity.

A woman stands with a microphone speaking in front of a conference workshop.

Shared Community Vision

Communities come together to build a shared vision for improved cradle-to-career outcomes. Partners align their work and hold themselves accountable to that vision, helping ensure collective efforts lead to meaningful progress.

Evidence-Based Decision Making

Communities use qualitative and quantitative data to guide decisions and strengthen their shared vision for improving outcomes. Over time, partners build a culture of learning and data use, using their insights to shift policies, practices and resources in ways that best support the community’s goals.

Collaborative Action

Partners across sectors work together to change policies, practices and how resources are shared to improve outcomes. Over time, partners deepen collaboration and expand their efforts to reach more young people. These ways of working become embedded across organizations, leading to lasting, communitywide change.

Investment & Sustainability

Partners build the teams, skills and resources needed to support the community’s cradle-to-career vision. Over time, partners strengthen staffing, leadership and funding so the work can continue and grow, helping ensure long-term progress.

What We Measure

Our network members get better results for young people from cradle to career, measuring key milestones to track their progress. These seven milestones are critical steps on the path to economic mobility.

We expand our impact by supporting policies proven to get better outcomes for young people.

StriveTogether partners with communities across the country to turn data and local insight into evidence-backed policy.

StriveTogether staff member Josh Davis stands at a podium addressing the room.

Related Resources

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