The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

StriveTogether Building civic infrastructure to put more young people on the path to economic mobility Background In 2006, a group of local leaders in Cincinnati, Ohio, came together to discuss a new college readiness programme. At a pivotal moment, one of the participants, a county coroner, stood up and said, “As long as we remain programme-rich and systems- poor, we will not get more kids into college. And what’s more, I’m going to keep seeing dead kids on my table.” This stark statement revealed the truth: children need more than a single, isolated programme. They need a system that is working in a single direction, with every stakeholder focused on successful outcomes for children and families. These leaders decided to forge a new path, creating a multistakeholder partnership to bring together businesses, non-profits, justice and education systems, and philanthropists to change outcomes for children and families in the city. They partnered with three school districts in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to build this new approach to improving specific outcomes for children from “cradle to career”, meaning from birth to employment. Importantly, they chose not to start new initiatives but rather expand local practices that were getting better results for youth. StriveTogether’s approach borrowed heavily from continuous improvement methodologies employed in health systems, applying them to economic and education outcomes with a collaborative lens. From inception, there was a strong focus on using data to ensure continuous learning and application. In just five years, the approach began to show tangible results on key outcomes, including kindergarten preparedness, fourth grade reading and math scores, and high school graduation rates. The impact of their work drew attention from communities across the country, who joined the movement to scale the approach throughout the US. To support this momentum, in 2011, the national StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network was founded. In 2013, StriveTogether worked together with network members to codify the collaborative methodology in the StriveTogether Theory of Action™, which has been rigorously evaluated to show its efficacy. Today, StriveTogether brings together 70 partnerships in 29 states to implement this approach and support each other on the journey. Headquartered: Cincinnati, Ohio, USYear founded Regions represented Entity typeGroups assembled Organizations involved Constituents represented~70 place-based partnerships Number of employees Budget range$25-30 millionUS (29 states) Non-profit organization7,000 (estimated) organizations are assembled in these partnerships 14 million young people collectively reached by partnerships across the US 50 full-time 08 2011COLLECTIVE ACTION CASE STUDY The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 55