America's Promise Alliance - Making the promise of America real for every child

August 7, 2019

Dear Friends and Partners of America's Promise,

The first half of 2019 has been an eventful time for America’s Promise Alliance. Extending our commitment to creating the conditions under which every young person in America can thrive, we’ve moved from leading one signature campaign (GradNation) to leading four major efforts across the spectrum of issues facing young people. We know that it is crucial to work across all facets of what young people need to flourish, and that’s why we’ve expanded our work. Last November, we launched Every School Healthy, a campaign to increase the understanding of all the dimensions of health that are necessary for young people to succeed in school. Then this spring we launched the YES Project to focus on the challenges of youth employment and How Learning Happens to advance social emotional development and a whole child view of how young people learn and grow. We are delighted to bring together partners across all these efforts at the community, state, and national levels.

We saw firsthand how all this work connects during our recent Every Grad Healthy convening where we brought together our grantees and core partners from the GradNation campaign and Every School Healthy. Not only did our national and local partners build connections across the various projects, they also did a deep dive on How Learning Happens, a set of ideas and issues that has taken center stage in our community level work in all our campaigns.

We also recently hosted (at Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley) the State of Young People, a gathering that brought together over 200 young people, 100 of the nation’s leading adult advocates for youth, as well as business and community leaders. Young people designed and led all aspects of this three-day convening, during which they sent clear messages about the pressing issues on young peoples’ minds including safety, trauma, and belonging. And those young people made abundantly clear that they should be included in the work and leadership of youth serving organizations. The State of Young People has re-engergized the America’s Promise team to get creative on how we engage and elevate youth across all our campaigns.

Our Center for Promise continues to be at the forefront of research that uncovers and illuminates the lived experience of young people. The two-part research series on re-engagement in Tuscon, Arizona - I’m Going Back and More than a Village – builds on the body of research hearing directly from young people about their experiences with and perceptions of the educational system. The insights from these reports have already begun to influence practice and policy well-beyond Tucson. We look forward to gaining additional insights from young people nationwide through our upcoming research as a core component of the YES Project and How Learning Happens.

Beyond our programmatic progress, strengthening the connectivity of the Alliance has been a major focus of 2019. We have a strong foundation of over 450 organizations that share common beliefs about moving toward collective action. That means building stronger relationships, regularly convening the Alliance around key issues young people are facing, and engaging with partners on specific ways to accelerate change together. We’ve increased our communication and offerings for the Alliance as well as increased opportunities for partnership across all of our efforts. We will continue to work hard to serve as a platform for these issues, share information and increase alignment across organizations.

The first half of 2019 has been a season of significant growth at America’s Promise. We are unwavering in our beliefs and values about what it takes to create the conditions of success for every child, and at the same time we are always looking for ways to increase our positive impact on the life prospects of America’s children and youth. We are grateful to all our partners, and also to the strong team we have at America’s Promise.

I’m confident that we will continue this growth going forward, and I look forward to sharing those successes soon. I am also enormously grateful for your friendship and partnership in this work, and, as always, I welcome your reactions, thoughts and suggestions on how we can be even better.

With best wishes,

John Gomperts

President and CEO

Click here to see Highlights from January – June 2019.

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