Six team members from Promise Partnership Utah gave presentations about their recent collective impact work at the 2024 StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network Convening. Held September 25-27 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, the annual convening enables partnerships and changemakers from across the country to gather and share learning about collective impact and systems change to increase economic mobility, improve outcomes, and close disparity gaps.
Promise Partnership Utah is one of 70 cradle-to-career partnerships in the national StriveTogether Network working to achieve racial equity and economic mobility. In September 2022, Promise Partnership was the first to achieve the “Systems Transformation” designation. After a rigorous assessment, this recognition acknowledges that we are doing some of the most advanced work in the nation to support children and families, leading to lasting social change and better outcomes for the community.
Read more about the presentations shared by the Promise Partnership Utah team below:
“Breaking Barriers: Leveraging Your Network for Policy Change”
Vice President of Public Policy Elizabeth Garbe and Senior Partnership Director Taryn Roch
Vice President of Public Policy Elizabeth Garbe and Senior Partnership Director Taryn Roch presented in a convening session about their work to design and implement a tool to identify policy and practice barriers. The Policy & Practice Barrier Identification Tool is meant to help Promise Partnership document obstacles to achieving our goal of having 100% of students in South Salt Lake and Millcreek graduate from high school with a career plan and have their basic needs met. Identifying and analyzing barriers is the first step in being able to solve for them.
Elizabeth reflected on her experience as both a presenter and an attendee at the convening when she said, “The best part about the StriveTogether Convening is we get to share the work we’re doing and interact with and learn from other partners. We collaborate to learn how they might be able to apply our strategies to their work, how we might improve upon what we’re doing, and generate new ideas together.”
“Redesign to Codesign: Governance for Greater Results”
Grassroots Organizer Silvia Imelda Aguero, Utah Community Schools Director Keiko Nenbee, and Lead Partnership Director Marisol Perez Gonzalez
Grassroots Organizer Silvia Imelda Aguero, Utah Community Schools Director Keiko Nenbee, and Lead Partnership Director Marisol Perez Gonzalez gave a presentation about the process of redesigning the Promise Partnership Council (PPC)—Promise Partnership Utah’s governing body. This redesign effort was conducted with the goal of shifting ownership to the individuals and communities with lived experience and expertise of the systems we’re trying to transform.
Marisol shares some of the insights from this work when she said, “During the process of redesign, we facilitated feedback sessions with different groups, including community members through cafes that were hosted at Kearns and South Salt Lake. The SSL cafe was possible thanks to Silvia and it was a great success where over 20 parents were able to provide input on proposals for the PPC governance and composition.”
“Transforming Student Outcomes with Community Schools”
School Partnership Director Patti White
School Partnership Director Patti White gave a presentation about designing strategies at East High School that were informed by student equity gaps. Teachers at the school noticed that students in the lunchrooms were segregated by East/West ZIP codes, and that AP classes had a higher percentage of white students, which does not match the demographics of the school. These observations informed the implementation of foundational pathways for 9th and 10th graders. Patti also shared her experiences implementing the “Lunch & Learn” program at East High School to help multi-language learning students become more involved in leadership opportunities in their school.
Patti describes the outcomes of this work when she said, “Giving all students in 9th and 10th grade the same 4 foundational pathway classes has given all students the opportunity to excel at East High School.” Reflecting on the Lunch & Learn strategy, Patti said, “The sessions helped multi-language learning students to see their potential and learn the value of believing in themselves, doing well in school, and taking leadership positions that would open doors to future economic opportunities.”
In addition to presenting about the critical work being done in our schools and communities, Promise Partnership Utah also sent team members to the national StriveTogether convening to attend sessions and network with other Cradle to Career Network partners from across the country.
Check back on our website for information about the 2025 convening when details become available.
Written by Jenna Fischer, Content Strategist.
