(Photo courtesy of StriveTogether)
Central Oregon becomes one of more than 60 communities in national collective impact initiative. More than 60 community partnerships from 32 states and Washington, D.C., are working throughout the country to connect cross-sector leaders around a common vision: Improving educational outcomes for students.
And now, Better Together Central Oregon is part of this nationwide movement that connects more than 9,600 organizations to impact more than 8.2 million students as a member of this StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network.
“This is a great opportunity for Better Together to join a national movement geared towards aligning our resources to ensure young people receive the support and training they need to enter into a meaningful career,” says Katie Condit, executive director of the partnership.
Better Together is a cross-sector, regional partnership in Central Oregon that uses the collective impact framework to galvanize community stakeholders around common goals for serving youth. As a non-profit partnership supported by the High Desert Education Service District, Better Together facilitates collective action between schools, non-profits, private industry, government agencies, and higher education institutions to make sure we maximize the positive impact of Central Oregon’s resources on youth.
As part of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, Better Together has access to resources and tools designed to help communities implement StriveTogether’s nationally recognized cradle to career collective impact approach, known as the Theory of Action. Better Together now also has a connection with communities across the country to share knowledge and learn from successes, failures and insights as each community works to align resources around improving education outcomes.
“Across the country, Network members are improving student-level outcomes through StriveTogether’s collective impact method,” StriveTogether Managing Director Jeff Edmondson said.
“Each of these communities, and the Network as a whole, are committed to putting the child at the center of their work. We are excited to welcome Better Together to the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network.”
To join the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, Better Together met a set of quality benchmarks that indicate it has engaged a cross-sector group around a common education vision. Better Together also demonstrated its ability to support the creation of a sustainable infrastructure to drive change, and committed to being accountable for improving an identified set of academic outcomes.
Better Together will join other communities from across the country from October 7-9 in Minneapolis, Minn., for the sixth-annual StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network Convening. This event will bring together more than 350 community leaders to discuss collective impact best practices and their work to unite communities around shared goals, measures and results in education. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #impactagent.
For more information on Better Together, contact Katie Condit at katie.condit@hdesd.org or 541-647-8476. For more information on the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, contact KnowledgeWorks’ PR Specialist Mary Kenkel at 513-929-1310.
About Better Together
Better Together is a regional, cross-sector partnership working collectively to improve children and youth success from cradle to career. We invite you to join schools, higher education institutions, businesses, government agencies, community based organizations, non-profits and individual community members in this collective work. We are aligning our existing, emerging and new efforts around shared outcome measures to ensure that Central Oregon students thrive.
Find your role, help students excel-we’re Better Together!
About StriveTogether
StriveTogether, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks, works with communities nationwide to help them create a civic infrastructure that unites stakeholders around shared goals, measures and results in education, supporting the success of every child, cradle to career. Communities implementing the StriveTogether framework have seen dramatic improvements in kindergarten readiness, standardized test results and college retention. For more information about StriveTogether, visit www.strivetogether.org.
