Making the Dream Work: Conference Spotlights Teamwork

During a ceremony last month in San Francisco, StriveTogether—a national network that wants every child to succeed regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code, or circumstance—recognized Baltimore’s Promise with the Nancy Zimpher Courage in Leadership Award.

The award recognizes an organization that “takes risks and fails forward to improve the lives of kids and families, creates a culture of accountability and challenges the status quo, and advocates for the inclusion of diverse perspectives.”

For Julia Baez, CEO of Baltimore’s Promise, the award doesn’t just honor the hard work of the organization, but everyone in Baltimore who works toward equitable outcomes for city youth.

“This award recognizes the collective efforts of the team, board, partners, and community. All of us together, because it is that collaboration, those diverse experiences and perspectives, that move the needle in our city,” she said.

Collaboration is the heart of Baltimore’s Promise, a city-wide team of public, business, higher education, nonprofit, community, and philanthropic leaders. Young people and community members are an integral part of this system, influencing funding decisions, shaping organizational policy, and acting as grantmakers.

Learning and leading with national changemakers

Baltimore’s Promise led three sessions during the Convening. Here, three of our Youth Grantmakers join staff to discuss participatory grantmaking and the importance of keeping young people in the discussion.

The award ceremony was part of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network Convening, where Baltimore’s Promise staff, community partners, and youth grantmakers spent two days learning and engaging with more than 600 network members.

Sessions fell under the umbrellas of collaborative action, investment and sustainability, shared community vision, and evidence-based decision-making. Baltimore’s Promise led three sessions, each taking its own approach to collaboration.

For example, “Public Systems Partners Improving Youth Career Outcomes” discussed how separate community entities can work together toward a common purpose. The session included a conversation with systems partners Donnice E. Brown, Assistant Director, Chief of Youth Services, Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, and Kumasi Vines, Director, Career Readiness at Baltimore City Schools.

The “Equity and Best Practices in Participatory Grantmaking” panel handed the mic over to the youth grantmakers, Charity Fisher, J’Naya Harris, and Aissata “Assi” Sy​, who discussed the importance of including youth voices in decision-making.

"Anywhere you guys are going to discuss young people, bring your young people so they can share their experiences,” said Assi. “We are living in a different world. Our experiences can help other young people and we need to be there to share them."

They also emphasized that these opportunities need to be accessible to youth through wraparound services, from providing transportation and food during meetings to making mental health support available.

A network for change

Baltimore’s Promise staff take a moment for a photo during the Convening’s welcome reception at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Baltimore’s Promise is one of nearly 70 communities across 30 states and Washington, D.C., who are members of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. Together, the network has a clear purpose: to advance equitable outcomes so every child has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

“StriveTogether shows up consistently as partners to Baltimore in so many ways, and we are stronger because of them. We are smarter. We are more efficient, more nimble, and, most importantly, we are beginning to see the results move for young people in our community,” said Julia.

The network works and evolves together in the drive to help young people reach a path to economic mobility. In fact, Jennifer Blatz, president and CEO of StriveTogether, announced during the convening’s opening remarks a new goal for the network: to put four million more young people on paths to economic mobility by 2030.

It’s a big goal, but Julia reflected on approaching tasks through the lens of “failing forward,” a key factor in the Nancy Zimpher Courage in Leadership Award.

“Failure is such a scary thing for all of us,” she said. “But we operate in and around systems of failure all the time and we push through, we innovate, we test, we do, we try, we learn. That means we’re not always going to get it perfect, but we are going to do it with intention and purpose—to get to the result, unapologetically.”