In 2016, Rochester Rotary and United Way of Olmsted County asked “Are our education investments making a difference in kids’ lives?” They decided the answer could be better. Fast forward, and Cradle 2 Career is an emerging StriveTogether community, making a collective impact on the lives of Rochester’s youth.

July 2015 – October 2016 – Three Rochester Rotary Clubs gathered data, held community interviews, researched 10 cities
across the U.S. using the StriveTogether framework and obtained a Rotary grant to conduct a community summit.

November 2016 – March 2017 – Rotary joined with United Way of Olmsted County. Together they determined a collective
impact approach, held extensive meetings with ‘coalition partners’ beginning with education leaders, created a data walk to
inform the community, consulted with StriveTogether.

April 2017 – Held a community summit with 200 attendees. Immediately following the Cradle to Career summit, a group of
about 50 community members including business, government, philanthropy, service clubs and education partners met to
formally vote to launch Cradle to Career in Rochester. That team commissioned a smaller cross-section of community
leaders to serve as a Planning Team.

June 2017 – December 2017 – The Planning Team worked to define a set of recommendations for launching a long-term
sustainable initiative. The Blueprint contains this set of recommendations.