The steering committee for the Evanston Cradle to Career initiative includes representatives from various community organizations. The initiative aims to coordinate community efforts around clear goals to improve outcomes for children and youth from cradle to age 23. It was inspired by the collective impact model of the Strive Partnership in Cincinnati that achieved increases in kindergarten readiness, high school graduation, and college enrollment through cross-sector coordination and data sharing. The Evanston initiative has a vision that by age 23 all young adults will be leading productive lives supported by education and community resources. It is working to develop solutions in key areas like literacy, housing, health, career readiness, and parent engagement through steering and design teams and community coalitions.

1. Steering Committee: Katie Brady (Community), Mark Dennis* (Second Baptist),
Andrea Densham (CNE), Bill Geiger (YMCA), Seth Green* (Y.O.U.), Kim
Hoopingarner (YJC), Jesse Ivory (Oakton CC), Joe McRae (City), Sara Schastok
(ECF), Marybeth Schroeder* (ECF), Sue Schultz (District 65), Karen Singer
(YWCA), and Eric Witherspoon (ETHS).
* Presenting

2.  Cradle to Career is about realizing Collective
Impact in Evanston.
 Collective Impact is about a group of
stakeholders coordinating their efforts and
working together to achieve clearly defined
goals.

3.  In 2006 community leaders from Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky joined together to
target a problem of being “program rich and
system poor”
 Successes of the Strive Partnership:
◦ 9% increase in kindergarten readiness
◦ 11% increase in high school graduation
◦ 10% increase in college enrollment

4.  The Evanston Cradle to Career initiative is an
effort to mobilize our community assets to
make a lasting difference in the lives of our
community’s children and youth
 Our vision is that by age 23, all Evanston
young adults will be leading productive lives,
building on resources, education, and
support

5.  Started over a year ago with a large meeting
that brought together many key stakeholders.
 Regular meetings and organic growth since
has solidified this partnership.

6.  Key collective impact points found in the Evanston
Cradle to Career model:
◦ Shared common vision of change and problem
◦ Shared measurement system of outcomes not outputs
◦ Mutually reinforced coordination, not necessarily
collaboration
◦ Continuous high-level communication by top leaders
in organizations
◦ Backbone support organization including, at
minimum, a full-time coordinator and a data-analyst
◦ Realignment of funding to long-term commitment to
shared goals and measurable outcomes

8.  Steering Committee
◦ The Steering Committee guides the work of the
Evanston Cradle to Career teams, coalitions and
initiatives
 Solution Design Teams
◦ Solution Design Teams will develop a theory of
action, making visible the chain of events that is
necessary to “move the needle” on shared measures
 Community Coalitions
◦ Community Coalitions will review the data related
to the topic area that they represent & provide
feedback to the solution design teams

10.  Evanston Cradle to Career will target:
◦ Literacy
◦ Community stability including housing and poverty
◦ Mental and physical health and safety
◦ Career and postsecondary readiness
◦ Parent engagement

11.  The majority of the funding for Evanston
Cradle to Career will come from local
partners, and every participating
organizations will contribute something.
 The initial budget is estimated to be
$250,000 and will include staffing and
benefits, data management resources,
meeting and administrative costs, and fiscal
sponsorship fees.

13. Date Activity
March 28, 2014 Community-wide meeting to launch C2C
April – June 2014 Support-building presentations to organizational boards
June 30, 2014 Participation agreements are secured from partners
July 2014 Partnering organizations meet to select Steering Committee
Aug. – Sept. 2014 Steering Committee sets timeline, hires staff
October 2014 Solution Design Teams & Community Coalition Launch
November 2014 Launch Baseline Data Analysis

14. $138,000 raised to date with
$50,000 commitments from
each School District.

15. Committed Partners

16. Potential Partners
(All Have Invited Board or Leadership Presentations)
Evanston
Pastors
Fellowship

17. On behalf of the entire community,
we request your advocacy, support
and investment. This is our time to
collectively secure a better and
greater future.