WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA — The Forsyth Promise, a collaborative, education-focused initiative working to improve systemic outcomes for all of Forsyth County’s students, has received $150,000 from StriveTogether, a national nonprofit working to bring communities together around data to make decisions and improve results for kids. The Forsyth Promise will use its grant award to activate the power of those with lived experience in Forsyth County to plan and implement strategies that improve core community education outcomes by reducing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.
“The difficult challenges we face will not be quickly or easily resolved. They require our community to build new relationships, work across sectors, coordinate, and align. New solutions require a willingness to change the ways we think and work. The data from our 2018 report is clear: although many core community education measures are holding steady improving for aggregate students, our system is not working for all students. There are significant disparities in outcomes across all measures for which disaggregated data is available and these disparities fall along racial / ethnic and socio-economic lines,” said Wendy Poteat, Partnership Director of The Forsyth Promise.
The grant award from StriveTogether’s Cradle to Career Community Challenge program will allow The Forsyth Promise to build a network of grassroots community advocates and leaders. These grassroots leaders will share data and lived experiences to build a common perspective of our challenges and opportunities, collaborate on identifying the most critical issues to prioritize, and advocate and mobilize to move the needle on these community-wide priorities for education.
The Forsyth Promise has been awarded a grant from the Promising Practices Fund, which is intended to find local projects applying bold strategies that can be spread across StriveTogether’s national network. These projects will focus on deeper community engagement and align education with other sectors such as health, housing and transportation. Eleven community-based organizations were awarded grants of up to $150,000 for one year.
Through the Community Challenge, up to $7 million over the next three years will fund projects across the country that advance equity and spread bold strategies to help students progress from kindergarten to postsecondary completion and a job. During this round of grants, 10 communities also were selected for the Accelerator Fund. Communities in the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network were eligible to apply for the Community Challenge.
“StriveTogether launched the Cradle to Career Community Challenge because we refuse to settle for a world in which a child’s ability to thrive is dictated by factors like race or income,” StriveTogether President and CEO Jennifer Blatz said. “From partners across the country, we know the urgency of this work and the value of creating lasting change in communities. We are proud to start this year supporting 21 cradle-to-career partnerships to get real results for youth and families.”
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As a Collective Impact Partner of United Way of Forsyth County, the Forsyth Promise facilitates education-focused collaborative, community-wide planning and action in Forsyth County, North Carolina. They provide a framework to help all community stakeholders work together toward the goal of improved educational outcomes for all students — from cradle to career. Our core values are Educational Equity, Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement, and Data-Driven Decision Making. For more information, visit ForsythPromise.org.
About StriveTogether
StriveTogether is a national movement with a clear purpose: help every child succeed in school and in life from cradle to career, regardless of race, zip code or circumstance. In partnership with nearly 70 communities across the country, StriveTogether provides resources, best practices and processes to give every child every chance for success. The StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network reaches 10.5 million students, involves 10,800 organizations, and has partners in 30 states and Washington D.C.