Five Years of Shared Commitment and Collaboration

Dear Friends –

I am hoping each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here at All Hands Raised we have much to be grateful for. It was five years ago this week that community leaders entrusted us with the responsibility to build a better system of collaboration for Multnomah County’s children and youth from cradle to career.

Together we have accomplished much. Some of the highlights include:

• Committed to racial equity as the top priority for the work–all data is disaggregated by race and all action is squarely focused on improving educational outcomes for kids of color
• Established 12 Community-wide Indicators to keep us focused on the big picture and accountable to one another
• In partnership with many of you, built seven Collaborative Action Teams that continuously use data to improve practices
• Broke down silos, partnering across sectors and organizations to align efforts and resources to have greater impact

Culture change is not easy. Bridging the communication gap between sectors–especially funders and practitioners–is critical if we are committed to real and lasting change.

Because of you and your commitment to our kids, the All Hands Raised Partnership in Multomah County is a model for the state and the nation. What was envisioned by our community’s leaders in the Parkrose Middle School Library on November 30, 2010 is coming to fruition. I am inspired by how much we have accomplished together and am mindful of how much work we have ahead.

In the spirit of this anniversary week, below you can read the email that was sent to our stakeholders five years ago. We hope you will find it as grounding, relevant and inspirational as we do.

Sincerely,
Dan

Sent: Thursday, December 2, 2010
Subject: C2C: Moving the Work Forward Together

Dear Children and Youth Advocates –

Many of us had the opportunity to gather at Parkrose Middle School on Tuesday for the joint meeting of the Leaders Roundtable and the Education Cabinet to endorse Cradle-to-Career (C2C) for Multnomah County. The Leaders Roundtable and Portland State University have worked tirelessly on C2C over the past two years and more recently this work was endorsed by the Education Cabinet; it is because of these collective efforts that we are now in a position to talk about how we as a community can better support children and youth in Portland and Multnomah County from birth through college and career.

Cradle-to-Career has the potential, if we can be bold and courageous in our conversations and in our work, to create meaningful change for all kids in our community. Agreeing upon a common set of data and identifying the key strategies to address each of the goal areas will be crucial to the success of this effort.

We are humbled to be the organization endorsed to lead this effort on behalf of our community. We are working hard to:

1. Expand our organizational plan to define roles, responsibilities, and a plan for how partners engage;
2. Create a communications plan that keeps stakeholders informed and engaged and provides a roadmap for a re-branding of the Portland Schools Foundation and this work; and
3. Draft a business plan that is focused on funding and sustaining the movement.

The first step in our work is to convene the C2C Formation Task Force that is charged with defining the charge of the C2C Council, establishing criteria for membership, and finally recommending Council nominations to our Board of Directors. We are planning frequent and consistent communication with you. As the work of the Council progresses along with other milestones, we will be in touch. It will take all of us, regardless of our role with C2C, working together for our kids to give this effort its wings and ongoing support to see it soar.

Sincerely,
Dan