C2C Connects | Vol. 2 | June 2023
Direct from the Exec.
Happy Summer! If you are like me, spring zipped by in a blink and here we are at the end of June! For the last few months, we have been working on a planning and visioning process for Cradle 2 Career (C2C). What we heard was that many know our name but cannot speak to what we do. People asked us to refine our elevator speech, to take action on quick, visible wins and to build out a plan for the future. And, that is what we are doing! We are:
working with our networks, parent council and leadership table to define our initiative, identify group and individual roles, understand student outcomes and systems indicators, and build a comprehensive plan.
hiring! Our networks and our parent council each need a full-time staff member dedicated to facilitating these unique aspects of our work. If you or someone you know is interested, check out our section on job postings.
preparing for our 2nd Annual Education Summit (Oct.4, 2023). Here, youth-serving community partners and interested community volunteers can come together for a day of professional development. That day, we will also reveal our year-long study on the childcare landscape in Rochester. This data and research will give us, both individually and collectively, an opportunity to think about the policies, practices, resources and power structures that could be shifted to transform systems.
With each of these small steps we are taking, we see that they are leading us toward big change for children, youth and young adults in our community. Thank you to those of you that are already connected. And, if you’re not connected yet, email or call me!
Julie Ruzek, Executive Director
State of MN Funding
Cradle 2 Career is one of several Regional Neighborhood Partnerships that will receive dedicated funding through the 2023 State of Minnesota K-12 Education Finance Budget for the next three years. Funding will support collective impact efforts around local education collaborations. The seven Regional Neighborhood Partnerships of the Education Partnerships Coalition include Rochester, Northfield, Red Wing, St. Cloud, Austin, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis Park.
While this funding covers only a part of Cradle 2 Career’s annual budget, the consistency that base funding provides will allow us to further develop a plan that leads to the realization of our ends policy; where every child and young adult in our community succeeds cradle to career through shared purpose, alignment and accountability among community partners.
Childcare & its Impacts
By Kelsey Duffy, Director of Data & Reasearch
This January, I spent most of my work days sitting in coffee shops, sipping a flat white. The goal of my coffee tour was to meet folks committed to childcare and learn what their priorities were. I met people working in government, business, and community organizing. Many people connected me to colleagues focused on the same topics. Most - because I am a "data person" - contributed an article, research article, or webinar to add to my reading list. In total, I met with 29 people to get a better understanding of childcare in our community.
The goal of these meetings was to get a sense of our community’s priorities related to childcare. Then, we could convene a group of people around the issues and begin proposing solutions. Based on what I learned, we decided to focus our study on business barriers and family preferences. It was clear that people cared about childcare but didn't have a shared place to start. Our study could help create that shared starting point. With the idea of creating two teams, our team started recruiting. The first team would be daycare providers with a variety of license types. The second team would be people who care for kids of their friends, families, and neighbors.
Circling back to my original coffee shop interviewees, we got connected to their networks. And then their networks. And then their networks. After a month of recruiting, we have two full teams who will spend their summer with us. We will meet together, interview people in the community, and create recommendations for change. Each person will spend about 18 hours on the project, mostly evenings and weekends.belonging in their school, they are more likely to stay motivated and succeed.
Who would have thought that our series of coffee conversations would lead to two teams ready to commit their summers to the process of creating systems change recommendations?
Network Updates
By C2C Staff
Cradle 2 Career (C2C) currently has two networks open (Kindergarten Readiness and High School Graduation) and one preparing to open (Prenatal to Three). Networks are comprised of partners from many different stakeholder groups. Within the networks, time is spent reviewing data, affirming strategies, committing to common outcome measures, and identifying priority areas. After that, each network aligns, coordinates and leverages resources as they work toward achieving systems transformation. This takes many forms. We will be sharing concrete examples of these actions in upcoming communications.
Our Prenatal to Three development committee met several times over the past four months. Their goal was to decide the indicators the network will focus on and the strategies that will be used to address them. After several conversations and examining local data, the committee recommended three main strategies: maternal and prenatal health, mental health, and strategies that engage caregivers as a child’s first educator. The indicators include data points like access to prenatal care, ACEs, low birth weight, and/or caregiver education. We will determine how we measure success for each strategy over the summer. We will also be meeting with groups that may be members of the future Prenatal to Three Network. By the end of the summer, we will have identified our initial strategy and the organization that will work to convene work around that strategy.
The Kindergarten Readiness and High School Graduation Networks are going through a period of transition. We are in the process of hiring a full-time Network Facilitator. We are excited to onboard a dedicated C2C staff member who will focus on building and cultivating partnerships while moving the work of the networks forward.
Meanwhile, C2C staff are working behind the scenes throughout the summer. We are meeting with organizations in both networks over the next few months to understand individual and collective needs. Work will continue to progress the Kindergarten Readiness Network social-emotional learning pilot. Likewise, the High School Graduation Network is committed to understanding the 8th to 9th-grade transition and their next steps. With our new Network Facilitator at the helm, these understandings will prepare us for productive fall network meetings.
The First Annual C2C Student Data Summit
By C2C Staff
When students feel a sense of belonging in school, it positively impacts their academic success, school engagement, and mental well-being. Cradle 2 Career (C2C) collaborated with Rochester Public Schools (RPS) to address this issue. They organized the first Annual Student Data Summit on April 26, 2023. This event aligned with the vision of both C2C and RPS. It allowed students to discuss and explore their sense of belonging within their respective schools. The summit aimed to involve students in analyzing data, identifying potential reasons for the data, and generating ideas to improve the data.
Participants included students from Rochester's four in-person public high schools (Century, John Marshall, Mayo, and Rochester Alternative Learning Center), as well as students from Plainview-Elgin-Millville School District. A total of 60 students attended the summit. This includes Student School Board members and 5 to 10 more students from each school.
During the summit facilitated by C2C, students worked in small groups with peers from their own high schools. They reviewed data on sense of belonging and chose a specific data point on which to focus on. C2C and RPS staff were present to provide support as needed. Students joined in conversations about factors influencing sense of belonging and shared their personal experiences. They represented their reflections, next steps, or solutions through creative posters. Students from each high school had the opportunity to explore other groups' posters, ask questions, and gather inspiration.
The event generated a flurry of ideas among the students on how to enhance a sense of belonging in their schools. Recognizing the need for further exploration and discussion, both students, staff, and C2C agreed to meet again next year. This time with more time built in to allow for a deeper dive into school data and to involve more students and schools in the greater Rochester area. C2C, RPS staff, and the students are excited to collaborate to address the existing gaps within the education system together.
Meet our C2C Leadership Table
by Elaine Case, Leadership Table Member
The Cradle 2 Career Leadership Table is a group of cross-community members who focus on the high-level strategy, oversight, and accountability of the initiative. Members include representatives from early childhood education, K-12, higher education, philanthropic, business, government, and faith-based organizations. Additional important voices in the group are parents, students, and members from new American communities.
Overall, the Leadership Table is singularly focused on the purpose, goals and outcomes of the Cradle 2 Career initiative ensuring that children, students, and young adults are at the center of all strategies, investments, and decisions.
We are C2C
Cradle 2 Career uses the collective impact model to do our work. This means that communities identify root causes, develop strategies, learn and commit to action for children and youth in our community. Though you may not know it, dear reader, you too, are C2C! Here are some of the members of our community that you may know who actively champion collective impact on a daily basis.
Kathleen Harrington
Role within C2C: Co-chair of the C2C Leadership Table
Professional or organizational affiliation outside of C2C: I currently serve on a number of community boards including the Salvation Army, Jeremiah Program, Salt & Light Partners, and the Sheriff Department Civil Service Commission.
What are your hopes and dreams for the work of C2C? My hope is for C2C to assist in aligning all the assembled organizations around the Leadership Table in eliminating the very troubling and significant educational disparities in our community and in doing so help every child in our community achieve his/her greatest potential.
Dr. Lori Carrol
Role within C2C: Co-chair of the C2C Leadership Table
Professional or organizational affiliation outside of C2C: University of Minnesota Rochester
What are your hopes and dreams for the work of C2C? We aspire to enhance the educational outcomes and health for all of Rochester’s young people by convening groups of people whose collective action leads to constructive, measurable change.
Erin Vasquez
Role within C2C: Community Convener for High School Network
Professional or organizational affiliation outside of C2C: Community School Coordinator at John Marshall High School
What are your hopes and dreams for the work of C2C? My hopes and dreams for the work of C2C is to coordinate our greater community in supporting youth and their families. Ultimately, their work should help support positive educational outcomes for our youth.
Open Positions
Cradle 2 Career is on the lookout for two passionate individuals to join our team as our Network Facilitator or Parent Advocate!
Both are full-time positions with flexible work schedules. You can find more information about the skill sets, lived experiences we seek, and full job descriptions by scanning this QR code!
Save the Date!
The second Annual Education Summit is just around the corner! We are so excited for this year's event. If you are a youth-serving organization and/or caring community volunteer, you are welcome to attend. The theme for this year's event will be "We are all C2C: Transforming Systems Together". We are finalizing our list of presenters from a pool of amazing researchers, educators, and youth-serving organizations around the city and state. We hope you can attend our free educational summit on October 4th, 2023, from 10 am-4 pm at St. Mary's University Rochester Campus. Lunch will be provided & continuing education credits will be available!
