Renowned business advocacy partnership for early childhood programs joins America’s Promise Alliance
1/19/2012
The Partnership for America’s Economic Success officially became a part of America’s Promise Alliance on January 1. A seasoned coalition of national and state business leaders focused on ensuring public investment in proven early childhood programs, the Partnership was a project created and overseen for the past five years by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
“The Partnership becoming part of America’s Promise affords us a real opportunity to expand the part of our mission that supports early childhood as a key starting point in improving high school graduation rates and delivering the Five Promises,” said Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance. “The business community is an essential part of the work of America’s Promise and we look forward to expanding that through the Partnership and seeing how their good work can help achieve our Grad Nation goals.”
Created in 2006 by Pew with support from a dozen other funders, the Partnership for America’s Economic Success is an influential network of executives, economists and civic leaders that work together to amplify the voice of business in support of smart early childhood policy and programs at the state and federal levels.
“In order to maximize the vital role business leaders play in promoting effective early childhood programs, it was important to find a partner that embraces early education and is willing to pursue a nonpartisan, fact-based policy and program agenda,” said Susan K. Urahn, Managing Director, Pew Center on the States, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts. “In America’s Promise, we found the perfect fit.”
The Partnership has supported business coalitions in over half the states. In the past year, more than 1,200 business leaders in a select number of states have worked hand-in-hand with the Partnership, engaging in more than 4,300 direct communications with state and federal policymakers with demonstrable impacts on policy victories. In states such as Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and Virginia, business leaders were able to ensure the protection of critical investments in early childhood programs, even in difficult budget times.
Sara Watson, Director of the Partnership for America’s Economic Success and Executive Vice President at America’s Promise, said, "Business leaders are unexpected, powerful and effective advocates for early childhood initiatives. The mission of the Partnership is to arm them with credible research and help them continue to push for smart early childhood investments in their home states.”
Additional support services provided by the Partnership include producing advocacy and communications material, hosting and supporting events, and offering a range of networking and learning opportunities for state allies.
As part of America’s Promise, the Partnership will help support both organizational and Grad Nation Campaign goals in several ways, such as:
- Continuing its work to mobilize the business community in advocating for public and private investments in young children that improve academic performance, including pre-kindergarten.
- Helping America’s Promise community partners engage their local business community in support of their specific agendas.
- Engaging business leaders to support the policy goals of First Focus, the bipartisan sister advocacy organization of America’s Promise.
- Providing an opportunity for corporate partners to make their voices heard in the media and in policy discussions.
Provide support for the Grad Nation Business Collaborative Summits which will be held across the country later this year and bring together local, regional and national business leaders to facilitate collaboration to support youth, schools and communities.
Grad Nation is a 10-year campaign to end the dropout crisis and prepare young people for college and the 21st century workforce. It is the second phase of the highly successful America’s Promise Dropout Prevention Campaign launched in April 2008. Between 2008 and 2010, America’s Promise sponsored and helped co-convene 105 Dropout Prevention Summits in all 50 states bringing more than 40,000 policy, business, education, community and faith leaders together with nonprofits, parents and young people to discuss the dropout crisis in their communities and begin a dialogue on solutions around it.
The transition of the Partnership for America’s Economic Success to America’s Promise was fully endorsed by the Partnership’s advisory board of business leaders, academics and advocates.
“The move to America’s Promise will enable us to continue our mission of business engagement, expand to address new issue areas in early childhood and tap into new business networks,” said financial services executive Robert Dugger, the advisory board chairman. “We are eager to start this new phase.”