| Notes |
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Milwaukee Succeeds! Whatever brought you—be it a desire to learn more about the state of education in Milwaukee, or get involved in our partnership—we’re glad you’re here. I want to thank you personally for showing up, because that’s exactly what young people in our community need; more adults showing up to move forward together.
What does it mean to move forward together? It means uniting hundreds of individuals and organizations across the city around a common vision; success for every child, in every school, cradle to career. This cross-sector commitment to collaboration is what we call collective impact. Collective impact works because it depends on the engagement of many, instead of a few. It works because it uses data to drive decisions and guide progress. It works because it seeks out and invests in the expansion of what’s already working for our young people. And finally collective impact works because it’s changing the way adults work together for kids.
Over 300 cross-sector organizations and individuals have made this commitment to our young people since 2011. Our partnership includes educators, community leaders, philanthropic organizations, government and political leaders, businesses, faith-based leaders, parents and youth-serving organizations. Every part of our community has a role to play in this work, and we’d love to help you find what that looks like for you!
While exploring our website, you will learn more about our community vision that consists of 2020 goals for kindergarten readiness, school success, college and career access and success and social and emotional learning. Our website walks you through each goal, why it’s important, data we use to track progress against our goals, and the impact that our partnerships work is having. It is our sincere hope that you find our website helpful, and ultimately inspiring. We need every voice and every hand joined to continue learning how we can best support our young people.
As we charge ahead into 2018, we bring a particular focus and lens to each area of our work: equity. At the end of the day, our community must commit to eliminating racial and income disparities. As we embark on our journey to carefully discover the underlying contributors to inequities, we will engage the many organizations committed to equity for all children and young people in Milwaukee. We will include the voices of those young people experiencing barriers to success. We will discover culturally responsive practices and strategies that will result in many more success options for the future of all young people in our City. This is the hope of our community, and the charge of our partnership.
To everyone who has and continues to lend their time and resources; my deepest gratitude. And to everyone who has not yet found their place at our table, we welcome you. I am so excited to keep moving forward together!
Sincerely,
Danae D. Davis |