What if we could create a continuum of support and empowerment for children from birth to college and career?
What if business leaders, community members, local governments and nonprofits worked together to see an impact that couldn’t be achieved alone?
By the time children start kindergarten in Edgewater, they don’t have the tools necessary to learn. The achievement gap between students growing up in poverty and children growing up in wealthier homes shows up even by the age of four. Children growing up in high income homes hear 30 million more words than a child growing up in a low income family.
In Edgewater, we are rallying community and cross-sector stakeholders toward investing in a cradle to college/career continuum.
When we launched Edgewater Collective one year ago, we picked the name “Collective” with a specific end in mind. We wanted to build a coalition of partners to work together to invest in the next generation.
“Collective impact” is the phrase that people use to describe this type of effort. Nonprofit consulting group FSG describes collective impact this way:
Collective Impact is the commitment of a group of actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a complex social problem. In order to create lasting solutions to social problems on a large-scale, organizations — including those in government, civil society, and the business sector — need to coordinate their efforts and work together around a clearly defined goal.
We are in conversation with Strive Together about becoming part of their network for a cradle to college/career continuum.
To see thriving families and students who are college and career ready, it will take all of us working together and dreaming big.
