A Message from Melissa Hernandez

Today, as we enter another new fiscal year, I am confident in our capacity to anticipate and respond to obstacles that will surely come our way. I am optimistic about the ability to address challenges and opportunities that have been identified throughout my onboarding process. With this context and foundation, I believe it is time to expand upon the vision of the Cradle to Career Partnership and how we will collectively work toward the bold and boundless future that awaits us.

From reflecting on the internal and external conversations I have had with C2C partners, there is an expressed need and desire to better understand systems change and what that means for our community. This desire is fueled by a deep understanding that we need our businesses and educational community to work together and leverage their expertise and resources for a more just society.

C2C has identified two goals that we will address this coming year and use a framework for action: diversifying funding and increasing visibility of C2C work present in our community. These two areas interlock, inform, and complement one another. In doing so, they provide a strong foundation and framework for organizing the work ahead.

• Diversify funding: How our community invests tells us its priorities. It is important that we build a reliable foundation for reaching our long-term C2C goals. Diversifying our revenue streams is crucial to C2C’s sustainability and the importance of expanding our reach to achieve true and uninterrupted systems change.
• Increase visibility: As we advance our mission in the years ahead, we will do the hard yet important work that will establish our community as a leader in attaining educational outcomes for every child. Our community needs to know about the change we seek and how we are transforming education systems so all students succeed.

To achieve our goals, this strategic plan will be underpinned by C2C partners engaging in conversation to refine and define “systems change.” We have already started the process of laying the groundwork and thinking about what we need to change in the existing systems so our young people can succeed.

I look forward to the work ahead and the impact by the sum of our collective and collaborative efforts.