StriveTogether

A decade of local proof in Baltimore is now written into Maryland state law.

Baltimore's Promise, a member of the StriveTogether Network, has spent over a decade bringing Baltimore City Public Schools, employers, city government, philanthropy, nonprofits and residents around a single cradle-to-career goal for the city's young people. That approach became the blueprint for Maryland's ENOUGH Act — the first state law in the nation built to end childhood poverty, signed by Gov. Wes Moore in May 2024.

Under the initiative, Baltimore's Promise now holds two statewide roles: technical assistance provider to the 28 community quarterback organizations funded across 12 Maryland counties, and thought partner to the Maryland Governor's Office for Children.

The results so far: more than 550 cross-sector partners, over 18,000 Marylanders engaged, 81 evidence-led programs and a 3-to-1 return on public investment in the first year of grantmaking. Grantees across the state also learned alongside one another through the Training Hub Powered by StriveTogether, with a custom course page built for Maryland communities.

Place-based partnerships are critical to impacting youth at scale — and Maryland built a policy around it.

Read the full story of how Baltimore’s model went statewide, linked in the comments.

Six years ago, ImpactTulsa started matching eviction court filings against student addresses. What surfaced changed how an entire district responds to housing instability.

ImpactTulsa, a member of the StriveTogether Network, found that the property owners filing the most evictions were clustered in the same neighborhoods as the schools with the highest chronic absenteeism. Between 2020 and 2023, the organization identified filings affecting roughly 4,400 Tulsa Public Schools students. A year later, close to three-fourths of those students were still chronically absent.

That finding became infrastructure. When a student's address shows up on the eviction docket, the district can now reach out to that family with legal aid and rental assistance before a forced move turns into a lost school year. At East Central Middle School, parents can walk into an office by the front door and talk to a navigator and an attorney about rent, food, a hotspot — whatever's most urgent that week. About 40 teachers learned how to help parents document the payments, repair requests and messages that shape an eviction case.

Seven other communities connected to the StriveTogether Network spent 9 months last year studying this model, from Rochester to Dallas to Dayton. What started as ImpactTulsa scraping a court docket is becoming a blueprint in cities throughout the country.

Read the full article from The 74, then be sure to follow ImpactTulsa to keep up with their work.

https://hubs.li/Q04xSM-J0

Two weeks from today, the StriveTogether Network and partners will be in the same room — this time in Baltimore.

Before we get there, here’s a look back to last year's Cradle to Career Network Convening: the hallway conversations that turned into partnerships, the sessions that sent people home with a plan, the keynote speeches that inspired many.

That's the network effect. Connections made in one place travel back to 70 communities and keep going.

This year we're gathering September 30-October 2 for 4 Million Futures: Fulfilling Our Promise for America's Youth — four plenaries, dozens of breakout sessions and over 600 people who believe every child deserves every opportunity to succeed.

We can’t wait to see you all there!

For too many families in New York, childcare means a long drive, a months-long waitlist or stepping away from a job altogether.

Two StriveTogether Network members are working to change that — together. The Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet and ROC the Future Alliance spent years building cross-sector partnerships in their own cities. Then their executive directors, Jill Gomez and Brian Lewis, met at a StriveTogether policy summit in 2024 and founded the New York State Place-Based Policy Coalition the following year.

The Coalition now includes South Bronx Rising Together, United for Brownsville, Say Yes Buffalo and the Wayne County Community Schools Partnership, with trusted local partners like The Children's Agenda, the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI) , Ampact and the Council for Children and Families alongside them.

In August, StriveTogether awarded the Coalition a $500,000 grant to expand its advocacy — starting with universal childcare for New York families and better pay for the educators who care for the state's youngest children.

What began as two leaders comparing notes is now a coordinated statewide push, driven by parents and grassroots leaders who were organizing long before the policy work began. That is what place-based collaboration looks like at scale.

Read the full story to learn more about this work. Link is in the comments.

What will you use to know if your plan worked?

That one question is at the heart of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) — one of the core tools you'll put to work in Implementing Strategies, a free mini course from The Training Hub Powered by StriveTogether.

Plan — What will we use to know if your plan worked?
Do — What happened? Did it go as planned?
Study — What did you learn? Was your hypothesis correct?
Act — Based on what you learned, what will you do next?

Four steps. One repeatable loop. It's how good strategies stop stalling out and start improving in real time.

In the course, you'll go beyond the framework and apply it to a strategy you're actually implementing — building alignment with your team, running small tests of change to validate your approach, and identifying the data and data sources you need to measure progress.

Facilitated by Sheila Weber with live sessions on October 6, October 13 and October 27.

Start moving your teams forward. Enroll today. https://hubs.li/Q04xcbyf0

In one of the wealthiest counties in America, opportunity still hasn't reached every child. Median household income in Marin City is $56,000 — the county figure is closer to $140,000.

Since 2012, Marin Promise Partnership has been closing that gap by connecting what's already working. More than 100 organizations now share goals and data. Four communities — the Canal, Marin City, Novato and West Marin — are building Promise Neighborhoods rooted in what families say they need.

West Marin preschool grew from 29 slots to 96 with Shoreline Unified School District. College readiness for students of color climbed from 44% to 71%. And in Marin City, 17 organizations committed to shared accountability before writing a single strategy.

Paul Austin, CEO of PLAY MARIN, described the vision: "From an economic standpoint, I'd love to see an economic boom where people can work right here in their community… I see a thriving community."

Read the full case study. https://hubs.li/Q04x8YYk0

Great facilitation isn't a personality trait — it's a skill set. And it can be learned.

Building Facilitation Skills for Collaborative Action, a free mini course from The Training Hub Powered by StriveTogether, teaches the foundational skills of Results Based Facilitation so you can help groups make decisions that actually move the work forward.

In this course, you'll learn how to:
🔍 Understand the key elements of Results Based Facilitation (RBF)
🛠️ Apply RBF skills in real conversations and meetings
🚀 Move groups from talk to actions that produce meaningful results
🤝 Show up stronger in your role as a participant, facilitator or convener

Facilitated by Nicole Johnson, this mini course has live session on October 7, October 21 and November 4 from 1-3 p.m. ET

Ready to help your groups turn talk into action? Enroll today. Link is in the comments.

Can't make it to Baltimore? You can still be in the room where it happens.

Digital access to the StriveTogether 2026 Cradle to Career Network Convening gives you livestream access to three plenary sessions — for only $50 per person.

You'll be able to tune into:

• Building the Infrastructure for Impact: How Leaders in Tulsa and Ohio Are Delivering for America's Youth — featuring Mayor Monroe Nichols, Michele Jolin and Stephen Dackin, with front-line stories of shared data, aligned funding and sustained leadership.

• Youth at the Center: Young Baltimore Leaders Shaping the Future — hear from young leaders from Baltimore — Tobius Nance, Camila Calero, Kerra Dukes and Chanya Anderson — and Maryland State Senator Cory McCray on what it means to center youth leadership in place-based partnerships.

• Fulfilling Our Promise to Young People — author and youth engagement expert Rebecca Winthrop shares a forward-looking vision for supporting young people in a moment of profound change.

Watch live or catch the replay for a limited time after the event.
Register at the link in the comments.

💫 The StriveTogether team is made up of passionate changemakers working behind the scenes to connect, champion and support communities across the country. Each person plays a unique role in helping local partnerships strengthen outcomes for youth and families.

👋 Meet Mike Mozina, director of network membership at StriveTogether! In this role, Mike leads strategies to support and grow the Cradle to Career Network. Mike ensures network members have access to responsive technical assistance, aligned offerings and effective communication channels. His work advances StriveTogether’s goal of transforming systems to improve outcomes for young people and families.

We asked Mike: Who or what inspires you in your work toward systems change and economic mobility? Here's what he shared:

💬 "I’m constantly inspired by the place-based partnerships across the StriveTogether Network. These partnerships aren’t just leading change in their own communities toward better outcomes for youth and families, they also show up for one another with a real sense of collective responsibility.

We often talk about the value of ‘The Network Effect’ as one of the movement’s greatest strengths, and it’s a commitment to sharing and continuous learning that brings it to life. Every network member is just as willing to share their fail-forwards as their bright spots, and that courage moves us closer to our shared goal of putting 4 million more futures on the path to economic mobility. I feel honored to work and learn alongside leaders in this Network who hold shared goals and values in this work with one another.

Learn more about Mike. https://hubs.li/Q04wXNDd0