Mayor of South Salt Lake, Cherie Wood, and President and CEO of United Way of Salt Lake and Utah’s Promise, Bill Crim, were recognized with the “Pioneers of Progress” award for their partnership work to improve cradle-to-career education outcomes.
“[South Salt Lake] was the first community whose mayor said, ‘I want to make this promise to every resident and to every child in my community.’ And under Mayor Wood’s leadership, they’ve created the most robust and effective infrastructure in the state, and I would argue among the most effective in the country,” Bill said in an interview.
The KUTV 2 News segment highlights Promise South Salt Lake’s deep commitment to creating a cradle-to-career pipeline of services and resources for kids and families such as afterschool programs and Promise Baby & You. Wood led the establishment of Promise South Salt Lake as a city department, with much of the civic infrastructure inspired by a visit to Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City shortly after she took office in 2010.
“Sometimes I explain it is like standing on a cliff and you have something on your back, and you sure hope it’s a parachute, and we’re going to jump because our kids need us to jump. They need us to care about them and take a risk for them,” Mayor Wood said. “Since we’ve started this work, our youth crime, our youth arrest rate has gone down 85% between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. We believe that this is the right thing for our kids. They desperately need it and hopefully they know they have a community that really cares about them.”
The “Pioneers of Progress” awards were presented at a gala on July 17 at the Grand America Hotel as part of the ‘Days of ‘47’ celebration—marking the arrival of pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The Days of ‘47 Board of Trustees selects the award recipients each year, honoring “individuals who are influencing our state through their leadership in business, art, academia, philanthropy, humanitarian service and science.”
The “Pioneers of Progress” Awards were covered in the following media:
Written by Jenna Fischer, Content Strategist
