At the 10th annual Cradle to Career Network Convening, StriveTogether recognized an individual and an organization exemplifying these qualities with our two annual awards: the Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award and the new Nancy Zimpher Courage in Leadership award.

For its inaugural year, StriveTogether is proud to present the Nancy Zimpher Courage in Leadership award to ROC the Future, a Cradle to Career Network member based in Rochester, N.Y. ROC the Future is an alliance of more than 60 Rochester-area institutions and community partners that aligns community resources to support the success of Rochester’s children.

ROC the Future’s team and partners showcase the leadership characteristics embodied by Nancy Zimpher, founding board chair of StriveTogether. These qualities include taking risks to improve the lives of kids and families, holding partners accountable, challenging the status quo and advocating to include diverse perspectives.

“ROC the Future’s work to embed community voice in policy making is no easy task, yet it is truly what’s necessary to transform systems,” says Jennifer Blatz, StriveTogether’s president and CEO. Here are a few examples of the community’s progress in changing systems:

• The ROC the Future team recently adopted a new Outcomes Framework to understand core outcomes, prioritize actions that make a difference, target resources and monitor progress. The partnership also launched two new Outcomes Teams to improve early-grade literacy and high school graduation.
• The Rochester community has been recognized with three Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Pacesetter Honors, for leading by example to solve one or more of the challenges that can undermine early literacy. Rochester was recognized for progress in school attendance, summer learning and early-grade reading.
• ROC the Future has expanded its Leadership Table to be more representative of all the efforts in the community to improve education for children

StriveTogether also presented the Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award, which commemorates the tireless advocacy of Bill Henningsgaard. Through his work with Eastside Pathways in Bellevue, Wash., Bill brought together partners with a common vision of a productive, fulfilling life for every child. In 2013, Bill and his son, Max, were involved in a fatal airplane accident. To honor Bill, this annual award is presented to individuals who embody the passion, commitment and persistence that he modeled every day.

The 2019 Cradle to Career Champion Award was presented to Susan Dawson, founder, president and executive director of Cradle to Career Network member E3 Alliance. In 2006, as collective impact work was just emerging, Susan trailblazed a path to get eight institutions of higher education, 17 school districts and more than 100 community partners working together to change the face of education in Central Texas and across the state.

From its beginnings with two employees and a tiny budget, E3 Alliance has grown into a pace-setting model serving more than 190,000 students annually, earning the Proof Point designation along the StriveTogether Theory of Action^TM. Key components of this success include forging partnerships, supporting effective data use and actively involving those most impacted. Here are just a few of Susan’s notable accomplishments:

• Susan created the Central Texas Math Alignment Taskforce to educate parents and students and get high-achieving students into the math classes they need to succeed in college.
• She initiated a regional school-based flu shot campaign, reducing absenteeism and returning $37 million in state funding to schools.
• Susan created Austin College Access Network, a coalition of community-based organizations, higher education institutions, school districts and other stakeholders whose collaboration increased first-generation college-goers from 1,500 to about 19,000.

Susan’s achievements are noticed throughout the Cradle to Career Network and her community, and she motivates others to work for the best for families and children. “Her commitment to changing the lives of young people is contagious,” says Colette Pierce Burnette, president and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University.

StriveTogether is grateful for the commitment and leadership of Susan and the ROC the Future team and is honored to recognize their contributions.

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Artwork by Guadalupe Hernandez-Rodriguez

Guadalupe Hernandez-Rodriguez has had a passion for art from a young age. From Bellevue, Washington, home of Cradle to Career Network member Eastside Pathways, Guadalupe dreams of being a concept artist. This fall, she’ll attend Western Washington University to study studio art or visual journalism.

Guadalupe’s scholarship-winning artwork connects with the theme of community. It shows three young people growing a tree together, symbolizing the desire to build an inclusive community. In this community, she says, youth will set an example for future generations that their goals are possible. “No matter the color of your skin, only you should define what you can amount to,” she said. 

Artwork by Connor Johns

Connor Johns is a student at the University of Cincinnati majoring in fine arts. He also grew up in Cincinnati, home of Cradle to Career Network member StrivePartnership, and he said he’s seen community transformation in his hometown. “I got to really see the city change and transform into something completely different and something just so cool to be a part of,” he said.

Connor’s scholarship submission shows a family interacting with a neighbor, a moment he says is key to improving a community. “These small gestures of just getting to know your neighbors and doing your part is really how a community begins to change,” he said.

Connor plans to work for a design firm after graduation and hopes to mentor younger designers to pay forward the support he’s received.

Artwork by Toscya Jordene Williams

Toscya Jordene Williams is from Green Valley, Arizona, home of Cradle to Career Partnership. She’ll attend the University of Arizona to study biochemistry and pursue a career in medicine, inspired by the women in her family who have done the same.

“As a pediatrician, I will be able to transform young lives by being a positive role model, overseeing not only their physical growth, but their mental and emotional health as well,” she said.

Toscya’s art depicts the connections, support and growth involved in an educational journey. Encouraged by her family to take school seriously, she believes every kid should have the opportunity to take advantage of education. “They should be able to dream about being anything they set their minds to. Whether that be as graduates, valedictorians, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, activists or scientists,” Toscya said. “They can pursue all of this with the aid of an education.”

Artwork by Aileen Shi

Aileen Shi is from Charleston, S.C., a community supported by Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative. She plans to attend Ringling College of Art and Design to study computer animation, focused on her goal of creating stories with a range of representation, including people of color and the LGBT community.

Her scholarship-winning art shows a confident young woman carrying books, smiling with the knowledge that she is a force of progress. Aileen says the opportunities opened through education make students and communities unstoppable.

“By using the power gained through education, you can overcome the expectations of those who underestimate you, and ultimately reveal the true potential of both yourself and your community.”

The selected artwork from the four scholarship winners will join the work of our 2018 winners at StriveTogether’s Cincinnati office. You can read about last year’s winners on our blog at these links: Denzel Chase, Lauren DeMarco, Amaia Johnson, Camille Richmond and Shani Salinas.

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Last week, sociologist of education Eve L. Ewing shared insights from this event with Cradle to Career Network members gathered to deepen their work at StriveTogether’s Racial Equity and Inclusion Convening: Moving from Talk to Action. Highlighting lessons from her book “Ghosts in the Schoolyard,” Eve explored the cause of the school closures and their disproportionate effect on black communities.

“I don’t see this as a story about one city or about school closures in particular,” Eve said. Rather, she said, she looks to the event to learn “how we can be more honest about our history in order to make more equitable choices as teachers, school leaders, community members and policy makers.”

Here are three key insights from her talk:

The systems that shape opportunities for kids and families intersect and problems compound each other, so solutions must take a cross-sector view. The story of the school closings, Eve shared, shows the interdependence of housing, education and other sectors that affect families.

Chicago’s African American population grew rapidly during the Great Migration that followed World War I. The city’s new black residents settled in a restricted geographic area, prevented from moving elsewhere by real estate laws and violence. As more families and children arrived in the neighborhood, called Bronzeville, a housing shortage quickly appeared.

Faced with violent resistance to integrating housing throughout Chicago, the city filled Bronzeville with highly concentrated, high-rise public housing. As population density increased, schools in Bronzeville became more and more crowded. Over the next few decades, segregation and the community’s lack of resources worsened.

In 1999, responding to the declining perception of public housing, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced a plan to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing. With this sharp decline in the neighborhood’s population, the schools that had once been overcrowded were now emptying, leading to what school officials called underutilization.

Our history continues to shape our present, and this context must be addressed in making policy decisions that best support every child, regardless of race, zip code or circumstance.

While underutilization was the most widely cited reason for the 2013 school closings, Eve said, this reasoning was conspicuously missing discussions of the roles of segregation, history or housing.

“The history of segregation, even when it seems very distant, actually does a lot to shape our present moment and our present reality,” she said.

Eve shared that she’s often asked a seemingly obvious question: “Are school closings always bad?” No, she answers, we need to adapt to new circumstances to best serve students. But history and context matter. And in the case of the 2013 Chicago school closures, a 2018 study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research revealed that the decision failed to help students.

This story doesn’t end in Chicago or in 2013, Eve said.

“We have to look forward to the recurrence of not only this policy question — should we close schools? — but any policy question, whether it’s at the classroom level or at the district level or at the state level, that runs the risk of disproportionately harming communities that have already been disrespected, disregarded and marginalized,” she said.

Changing adult behavior changes systems. To avoid repeating harms, communities need to think critically about such decisions and frame them in historical and social settings, “even when that means facing some very ugly history,” Eve said. Despite the discouraging patterns of the past, she sees reason to have hope for the future.

“Human people made these decisions through human polices, and what that means is that human people can unmake them,” she said.

To learn more about Eve’s work, connect with her on Twitter and visit her website.

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In Boston, 75% of students graduate from high school — a promising start to their postsecondary futures. But for those who go on to college, just 52% complete their degrees. How can data help predict which students will complete college and what support others need to reach that milestone? Cradle to Career Network member

Why focus on college, career and life readiness?

Our college completion numbers show that our young people are not ready to be in college when they get there. Based on our data, we need to do a better job of thinking about what it means when you graduate from high school to be ready for what’s next — whether what’s next is college or entering a workforce training program or becoming an entrepreneur.

In 2017, we gathered a cross-sector group of individuals in Boston — from workforce development, education, philanthropy and more. Together, we created a definition of what it means to be college, career and life ready.

How do you measure what it means to be ready?

In our definition, we agreed on five important readiness metrics that we found in a review of national research. In our new report, we wanted to see if these metrics played out for students in Boston. If we look at our data over time, do these measures help predict if students will be successful when they graduate?

We tested three of the metrics where we had access to systems-level data, which were having a 2.7 or higher GPA, 94% attendance and access to rigorous coursework. With support from Bob Balfanz, a researcher from the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, we found that the metrics were strong predictors of success. The young people who had combinations or all three of these success factors completed degrees at much higher rates than those who don’t, and much higher rates than our overall completion rates. 

How did you get the community involved?

We involved our community partners so that everyone is oriented to where we’re trying to go and becomes part of how we’re going to get there. From the start, the school system has been at the table — not just the superintendent, but people at every level, from the data accountability office, to the school improvement office, to the high school office. We also brought in higher education and researchers from multiple institutions, and we involved philanthropy from the very beginning.

How will this report make a difference in Boston?

Boston Public Schools, along with Boston’s charter and Catholic schools, are going to be using this report to make policy changes. They’re going to be using it as a guide for school improvement and redesign. At Boston Public Schools, the superintendent has appointed six working groups that are looking at college-, career- and life-readiness supports that go beyond academics, because our definition is much broader than that. Our Catholic and charter schools are going to be doing similar work based on the needs of their students.

What else is next?

We’re going to learn and adjust as we go, but this report gives us a starting point for the things that we know need to happen. In May, we’re going to publish a citywide goal so that we can track our progress on getting students ready. After the goal is announced, we’re going to launch a campaign to help parents, students and teachers understand why this work is necessary. We’re moving forward knowing that how we’re measuring success is valid, because we’ve shown it through the research that the community was involved in.

Kristin McSwain is executive director of the Boston Opportunity Agenda, pursuing a future in which all of Boston’s children and youth are prepared to succeed in college, career and life. Read the new college, career and life readiness report online here. 

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At the ninth annual Cradle to Career Network Convening, StriveTogether recognized two women who exemplify these qualities by presenting them with the Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award. This year, we honored Lisa Morrison Butler, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, and Becky Hoffman, CEO of the Youth Initiative of Adams County.

As commissioner of one of the country’s largest local human services agencies, Lisa Morrison Butler has devoted her career to improving educational outcomes, eliminating disparities and expanding opportunities for youth.

One of the first city leaders to call for targeted support of opportunity youth, she served as chair of Thrive Chicago’s Opportunity Youth Working Group. Lisa led the coalition to set a bold collective goal, use data to build strategies and inform critical policy changes.

In her role at the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), Lisa supported these policy changes by expanding a youth workforce initiative to focus on opportunity youth and investing $500,000 to launch Chicago’s first neighborhood-based Reconnection Hub to reconnect youth to school or work.

“Investing in Chicago’s youth not only helps them to build a bright future for themselves, it helps strengthen our entire city. We cannot and will not accept any young person giving up on themselves and giving up on their futures,” Lisa said. “We are proud to partner with Thrive and support the fantastic work they do for our city’s youth and communities in need.”

Before leading DFSS, Lisa served for a decade as executive director of City Year Chicago, where she increased tenfold the number of at-risk Chicago Public Schools students served. For her innovative, effective leadership, Lisa was nominated for the C2C Champion Award by Sandra Abrevaya, president and chief impact officer of Thrive Chicago.

In Adams County, Colorado, Becky Hoffman leads the charge to improve educational outcomes for children and youth. After supporting the community to adopt StriveTogether’s guiding framework, she dedicated herself to bringing the framework to life by assembling a cross-sector team of leaders through the Youth Initiative of Adams County (ACYI).

Becky has supported these leaders to disaggregate data and incorporate community voice into their work. One example of this commitment, shared during the convening’s opening plenary, is the TEGA pilot program, which trains girls to conduct interviews throughout their community.

Becky has also worked to ensure that ACYI is an inclusive space for cross-sector partners to work together. She supported the launch of a Juvenile Justice Collaborative Action Network, connecting traditionally disparate partners to come together on behalf of youth. With data at the forefront, a new way of working is emerging in Adams County.

“The collective impact mindset is really starting to take hold in the community,” Becky shared. “The conversations are shifting from ‘my’ kids to ‘our’ kids and ‘our’ community. Our double down has been infusing youth voice and perspective, which has had a powerful impact in informing our strategies.”

Becky was nominated by Lisandra Gonzales, ACYI’s chief operating officer. “Anyone who is focused on systems change will say, ‘This work is hard,’” Lisandra said. “Becky always adds, ‘This work is hard, but we have to do it anyway.’”

The Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award commemorates the tireless advocacy of Bill Henningsgaard. Through his work with Eastside Pathways in Bellevue, Wash., Bill brought together partners with a common vision of a productive, fulfilling life for every child. In 2013, Bill and his son, Max, were involved in a fatal airplane accident.

StriveTogether established this annual award in recognition of Bill’s work to better the lives of the people living in Bellevue, as well as his many contributions to the Cradle to Career Network. The award is presented to individuals who embody the passion, commitment and persistence that Bill modeled every day.

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Not every piece of content is a story. The best way to determine whether something is a story is to ask yourself, “Why would my audience care?” If you can’t answer this question, it’s not a story yet. Readers and listeners have endless content available to them online, and they’re looking for something that will pay off their investment of attention. Always ask why your story matters to them and keep this reason front and center.

You don’t have to tell every story. Part of telling stories well is deciding what to pursue. Collect as many ideas as possible so you have the freedom to say no to stories that may not be the right timing, topic or tone. When choosing stories to tell, consider your audience’s needs and interests.

Combine essential storytelling elements. In her workshop, Megan Jones of The Moth shared her formula for remembering a story’s key aspects: CROWE.

C: Characters
Who are the main actors in your story, and what details do you need to share to connect them with your audience?

R: Relationships
What are the important connections between characters – and between characters and the audience?

O: Objective
What are your characters’ goals?

W: Where
What is your story’s setting? What details can you ground your story in?

E: Emotion
What are the emotions of your characters, the overall tone of the story and the desired reaction from your audience? Remember, you can’t get anybody to do anything if they don’t feel something.

Don’t be afraid to include some small stuff. To help your audience connect with what you’re sharing, weave in sensory details, including audial, visual and physical. Storytelling can be found in details. Consider the difference between this pair of sentences from writer E.M. Forster:

The king died and then the queen died.
The king died and then the queen died of grief.

Think about what moves you. “Stories create meaning and envision futures, creating an impression that remains,” Megan Jones shared. To add meaning to your future stories, reflect on a story from childhood that resonated with you. Why was it so memorable? The next time you tell a story, keep that “why” in mind.

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Student artist Shani Salinas’ artistic journey exemplifies one of StriveTogether’s core values: community. At the invitation of a teacher, Shani joined her high school’s art club, where she came up with a plan to design a memorial representing the past, present and future of the city.

Shani’s scholarship-winning art piece was inspired by the StriveTogether vision of working toward a better future for individuals and communities. In her drawing, a stack of books shows how each stage of school builds upon the last, leading to the goal of college graduation. Shani’s own future includes postsecondary plans.

“I want to make sure I reach my goal of going to school for art,” Shani says. “This scholarship will help me do that.”

Shani, a recent graduate of Washington Park High School, will attend Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wis. In Shani’s home community of Racine County, Wis., Cradle to Career Network member Higher Expectations for Racine County works to ensure the success of every student. For Shani, success looks like a career that impacts others.

“My future goal in going to college is to help further my study in art and help inspire people to be creative. I want to help people of any age express how they feel or how they view things through art,” Shani shares.

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For Memphis, Tenn., student artist Denzel Chase, the path to success is clear: Achieve his educational goals, graduate from college and earn a job in his chosen career field. This journey is reflected in Denzel’s scholarship-winning art piece, which depicts a student growing through kindergarten to his first job.

“This represents me, or anybody else who wants to succeed in their career, looking back on the progress that it took to get them there,” he shares.

Denzel, who graduated from Immaculate Conception Cathedral School in Memphis, believes that his artistic gift will help lift him into a brighter future. He plans to attend Talladega College in Talladega, Ala., to earn a degree in art illustration.

“I want to stress to my community not to make high school graduation the last point of success in your life, and to move forward onto college and, later, a better career,” Denzel said.

Denzel’s art reflects StriveTogether’s vision of the success of every child from cradle to career. In Denzel’s home community of Memphis, StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network member Seeding Success upholds this vision, bringing together community partners to ensure every child graduates from high school prepared for college, career and success in life.

“Education is a key factor in attaining a better life,” Denzel said. “I want others in my community, especially young people, to be inspired by this piece of art. I want them to understand that courage is imperative to take the necessary steps, as depicted in my illustration, toward a steady career goal.”

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On the surface, Camille Richmond’s artwork appears simple. In watercolor, colored pencil and graphite, the piece shows a father-daughter pair walking home from school, the father wearing his daughter’s “Frozen” backpack. Though it’s a common scene, Camille understands the complex factors behind the educational opportunities their walk represents.

Throughout high school, Camille volunteered with the local community center, where she tutored first-graders and learned valuable lessons about the importance of providing early educational opportunities to decrease the achievement gap in the education system.

“My community has been the leading driving force encouraging me to want to give back,” Camille said. “My eyes were opened to the many obstacles facing parents, one of which is finding safe, reliable and affordable child care. As children need to be educated and encouraged to aim high from the very beginning, early education programs can decrease the achievement gap in our public education system.”

Closing gaps and supporting the success of every student is the mission of StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network member the Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative, which serves Camille’s community of South Carolina’s Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.

Camille, who just graduated from the Charleston County School of the Arts, plans to major in international business and economics at the University of South Carolina. She looks forward to starting this journey in the fall.

“I couldn’t be more eager and excited to integrate into this new community — ready to learn and serve,” Camille said.

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When Amaia Johnson set out to make a painting inspired by StriveTogether’s core value of community, she had a colorful vision.

“I saw children and adults working together to accomplish something,” Amaia said. “I immediately thought of a community mural. Every child and adult are teaching and learning from each other. The kids learn that working together is the only way to successfully make a change that is bigger than themselves.”

In Amaia’s community of Memphis, Tennessee, StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network member Seeding Success supports these kinds of collaborative community efforts. Like Amaia, Seeding Success believes that education affects all areas of life, and every opportunity can be a chance to learn — including creating a mural.

“Showing kids how to paint, showing them how to mix colors or just working together is an opportunity for an educational experience,” Amaia explained.

At the University of Memphis, Amaia is pursuing a degree in studio arts. She plans to be an independent artist and one day hopes to open a community art center with classes for all community members. “It will be a hard road but knowing that I am doing something that I am passionate about gives me great hope for the future,” she said.

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