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The city of Birmingham on Thursday simultaneously launched its new Birmingham Cradle-to-Career Coalition and unveiled the roadmap it will use to improve educational outcomes for the city’s children.
At a press conference at the Harbert Center, Mayor Randall Woodfin announced that the new coalition will be headed up by philanthropic strategist Zhaundra Jones.
“Birmingham has all the pieces,” Woodfin said. “No one can tell me different. But our directive in this moment requires us to connect them. It requires radical collaboration because we have to remember that the road to success for all of our children does not start when they actually walk across the stage on their graduation day. That road is paved at birth.”
The coalition’s work will be guided by four initiatives:
- Early childhood as foundation (readiness for the K-12 journey): increasing childcare to serve more children under the age of 3 and improving the quality of childcare.
- Child and youth enrichment (student well-being & youth safety): providing access to high-quality afterschool care.
- Supportive learning for school success (shared accountability to academic outcomes): closing the third grade reading gap and tripling the Birmingham City School system’s eighth grade math proficiency rate.
- Paths to thriving adulthood (post-secondary, workforce and asset-building): increasing access to jobs, internships and post-secondary education for young adults up to age 24.
These initiatives will initially begin in the Woodlawn-Kingston, Smithfield-North and South Titusville areas.
The work will be guided by the Birmingham Children and Youth Commission report and roadmap released Thursday. According to Woodfin, more than 75 voices were included in drafting the report’s findings. Woodfin and Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Mark Sullivan headed the commission. Members of the commission included elected officials, students, nonprofit leaders and higher education partners.
The commission, along with national partner Harlem Children’s Zone, produced the report in 90 days.
“Today, we’re really excited to release that work to our community, to our parents, to our families,” Woodfin said. “This collective cares about one single thing: giving our children every single tool they need to succeed in this city that they call home.”
Conversations with stakeholders found that Birmingham already has a strong base of organizations aimed at helping children, but they don’t work in tandem. Data must be shared among the organizations and school systems to create a clear picture of academic failure or success.
He called the report the city’s North Star. He called on the community as a whole to get behind the plan.
“The children who need us today cannot wait for adults to get their act together,” Woodfin said. “It’s not fair to them.”
Jones, senior adviser for the Cradle-to-Career Coalition and Birmingham native, said the group will look at three things: who is serving the city’s children, where the connections and gaps are and what needs to change for children to move from early childhood to young adulthood seamlessly.
“What would you want for your kids?” she asked the audience. “That’s what we want to create for all kids.”
City could model the future of education
Dr. Geoffrey Canada, president of national partner Harlem Children’s Zone, said Birmingham is in a unique position to model the future for education in the country.
“Our kids enter kindergarten and first grade already behind,” he said. “What if none of them were behind? What if everybody came in there on grade level? Then you would know who to hold accountable.”
He said the plan has real leadership and resources to support children from pre-K to post-secondary education.
“We have an opportunity to show this country what has to happen for all of its children,” Canada said. “Why not have this be the place that leads this country forward and is able to chart a new course that the rest of America follows? This could be what America needs more than anything.”
The coalition will begin by talking to city educators and bringing like-minded organizations together in an attempt at “radical collaboration.”
“To Birmingham’s children and young people, I want you to hear this clearly: We will be as ambitious about your future as we ask you to be,” Jones said.
Parent of five Matisha Taylor told the audience that the report lowers the barriers for fellow parents seeking resources for their children’s education. She said she’s seen firsthand what happens when the city invests in children’s education. Her oldest daughter was valedictorian of her graduating class from A.H. Parker High School and a Birmingham Promise recipient. Her other school-aged children are also enrolled in enrichment programs.
“As a parent, one of the hardest things is finding out where to go for help,” she said. “Sometimes, we don’t know where to go or who to look to or how to connect to what our children need next. This roadmap brings people, programs, resources and the community together to better understand the path that’s in front of their children.”
