Guest post by Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for public interest technology and local initiatives at New America One of the many lessons I learned working for President Obama comes from his insistence that cynicism is one of the biggest threats our democracy faces. We believe that the system is broken so we back away, taking…
Guest post by Ta’mya Davis, communications chair for the Teen Advisory Committee at Step Forward. My name is Ta’Mya Davis and I am a junior at Benton High School in Benton, La. I serve as the communications chair for the Teen Advisory Committee (TAC) at Step Forward, a member of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career…
Guest post by Herb Tillery, co-chair of Raise DC’s Leadership Council. Above photo courtesy of Higher Achievement – DC Metro. On behalf of our partners in the District of Columbia, Raise DC is thrilled to welcome the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network communities to the nation’s capital for this year’s convening. The District is popularly…
Guest blog post co-contributed by April Black, deputy executive director at Tacoma Housing Authority, and Elvin Bucu, director of systems alignment at Graduate Tacoma I always find it helpful to get out of my “Tacoma tunnel vision” and see how other communities think differently. I recently had the chance to learn with eight other communities…
Guest blog post by Sarah Clarke, director of government affairs at Hylden Advocacy & Law. Photo above: Rep. Rena Moran, holding microphone, speaks on a panel with Northside Achievement Zone and Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood parents. When communities work together at a state level, they can get powerful results for kids and families. Recent policy work…
Guest blog post by Kimberly Thomas, Parents as Teachers manager at Porter-Leath Through the Prenatal to Age 3 Impact and Improvement Network, I had the opportunity to help impact home visitation in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. The Impact and Improvement Network is a collaboration of communities from across the country building strategies to improve…
Guest post by Jon McGoh, co-founder and a trustee at Reach Academy in Feltham, England. For three weeks this spring, I was fortunate enough to tour the U.S. visiting a variety of cradle-to-career initiatives on a Winston Churchill Fellowship. The Fellowship enables UK citizens to travel the world looking at innovative solutions to the world’s…
Guest blog post by Linda T. Francis, director of Success of All Youth. Oak Park, Ill., is an aspirational community, touted by residents as a diverse and progressive place where all people can live and thrive together. But despite efforts to promote Oak Park’s legacy of integration, ongoing discrepancies in student achievement tell another story:…
Written and illustrated by Connor Johns, graphic design intern at StriveTogether. In the past 15-20 years, we have heard the words “innovation” and “design thinking” thrown around a lot in the corporate world. But what do these words really mean? How do they work in the nonprofit field? I’m a graphic designer and did not…
Guest post by Melissa McCoy for StriveTogether. The data is stark: Our schools are not preparing every student to succeed in life. Seeking change, educators try programs and initiatives to improve outcomes for kids. These reform efforts often treat students the same, using widespread, one-size-fits-all approaches. But each student is unique and a few solutions…
Guest blog post by Tracy McDaniel, Early Childhood Accountability Partnership coordinator at Cradle to Career Network member Mission: Graduate. It all started with a question that we heard over and over from service providers across Albuquerque: How do we talk with families about technology? Parents are busy, distracted and often checking their devices. Phone alerts and…
Guest blog post by Ida Thompson, director of national network and program affairs at Spartanburg Academic Movement. 2012 in Spartanburg, S.C.: Too many children were entering kindergarten not ready to learn. Access to developmental screening for young children was non-existent. Only a few educators and advocates kept early childhood issues front and center. The Children’s…