The capacity to leverage policy advocacy and systems change is critical to scaling up and sustaining efforts to ensure that youth living in Promise Neighborhoods are healthy and connected to the necessary services and supports to prepare them for college and career success. During this webinar, Rosa Ramirez Richter (Healthy Schools Campaign) discussed best practices to achieve healthy nutrition and active living through policy advocacy and will highlight successful efforts in Chicago to build a parent-driven coalition that successfully reforms food and wellness policies at the district-level. Mk Nguyen (St. Paul Promise Neighborhood) and Patrick Ness (Amherst H. Wilder Foundation) shared St. Paul Promise Neighborhood’s successful efforts to achieve and sustain Promise Neighborhoods results by: building a diverse and effective coalition, partnering with community residents, and forging strong relationships with elected officials at the local, state, and federal level.

In the summer of 2014, The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink (PNI) introduced model legislation to be used at the state and local level to secure support for cradle to career efforts. The Cradle to Career Act of 201_ secures funding for innovative, results-based, and comprehensive continua of solutions that connect children and youth to a high quality education and key health and social services that prepare them to succeed in college and in their careers. The legislation was intentionally drafted in a manner that it may be used to support various strategies that advance educational outcomes from cradle through college and career.

If you have questions, or would like to discuss the legislation in greater detail, please contact Lisa Cylar Miller, Deputy Director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink. She may be reached via email at LisaCM@policylink.org or via phone at 202-906-8016.