Promise Partnership Receives National Recognition for Systems Transformation Work

The Promise Partnership is what United Way of Salt Lake calls our education-focused work, and recently we received an exciting designation from StriveTogether, a national organization seeking better results for kids across the nation.

United Way of Salt Lake supports the Promise Partnership of Utah, which includes the work of hundreds of partners, volunteers, and donors who rally together to achieve better outcomes for kids.

The Promise Partnership has supported Utah schools across the Wasatch Front for the past 15 years and together with our partners, we recently received recognition from the national organization, StriveTogether, that our work is effective, noteworthy, and appreciated.

StriveTogether, a group that developed the best thinking in the country about what it really takes for cross-sector partnerships to achieve better results for kids, has been performing a rigorous assessment of the Promise Partnership, which includes all of us working in community schools and Promise Communities and doing regional policy work. StriveTogether assesses and rates partnerships like the Promise Partnership, and last month this is what they had to say:

“After undergoing the rigorous process of benchmark assessments and focus groups over the last few weeks, Promise Partnership of Utah is being designated as operating in the Systems Transformation gateway! Congratulations on this incredible achievement! The reviewers were impressed by the depth and breadth of work to shift policies, practices, resources and power structures in service of better and more equitable cradle-to-career outcomes across your partnership’s work – and your partners spoke compellingly about many specific examples of the role the Promise Partnership has played in moving the community forward. Congratulations – you are the FIRST partnership in the Cradle to Career Network to reach this major milestone.”

Our community’s hard work on behalf of Utah students and families is a massive contributor to the Promise Partnership having achieved this incredible milestone. It’s recognition that an independent third party has deeply reviewed the work of the Promise Partnership – which represents an incredible amount of shared work and accountability – and determined that together we are doing some of the most advanced work in the country to reduce disparities, address systemic racism, meaningfully engage youth and families, and change the status quo. We know we have a long way to go to make our broader community the premier place in the nation for diverse families and for equitable economic mobility, but this assessment shows we have the right ingredients and are on the right track.

Congratulations to the 600+ Promise Partners from communities, schools, districts, nonprofits, businesses, philanthropic organizations, and public agencies who worked together to make this achievement and recognition possible!

Learn more and hear from some of our partners in this video:

Read StriveTogether’s announcement in their blog, Transforming systems in Salt Lake City for lasting change.

By Jessica Gezon, Sr. Content Manager at United Way of Salt Lake