Better Together Central Oregon

Cradle to Career Framework The experiences children and youth have along their educational journey strongly influence their ability to thrive as adults. The Cradle to Career framework is a vision for improving education and social outcomes for all Central Oregon youth beginning at birth and continuing through post-secondary training to ensure they have the skills, mindset and resources they need to enter into a meaningful career. Our Theory of Action includes nine shared outcomes that are critical to students thriving and four strategies that our region has collectively identified to positively shift the course for young people along this continuum. Collective Impact Approach Children and youth in Central Oregon need strong and aligned systems in order to thrive, and we know schools can’t do it alone. Better Together is a partnership made up of over 300 stakeholders from six school districts, two higher education institutions, and multiple early learning organizations, non-profits, businesses, and government agencies. Better Together convenes and facilitates these cross-sector, regional partners to close gaps and increase success in critical student outcomes. This is our work: Create a shared agenda and shared vision for student success Identify and grow existing programs and systems that are working for our students Research and implement new, evidence-based strategies to serve students and families Create the capacity and transparency needed for all schools and organizations to use data at every turn Support professional learning opportunities to ensure a community-wide equity and growth mindset when it comes to serving our students Advocate and build public will to support systems that we know increase student success Partner with families to ensure we meet them where they are at in meaningful ways Leverage and build on existing resources to maximize our collective, positive impact Our partners are already doing incredible work to serve students and families. Better Together’s role is to bring these stakeholders together to work alongside each other to build stronger, aligned systems. In this way, we reduce duplication, close gaps in supports, leverage resources, and fundamentally alter the status quo of how we support young people in Central Oregon.