A Letter From the President and CEO
April 28, 2007
America’s Promise Alliance began with a challenge made during the 1997 President’s Summit for America’s Future – to make children and youth a national priority. Our Alliance was founded by General Colin Powell to bring together partners from every sector across the country, focused on a commitment to the well-being of young people.
Over the past decade our Alliance has grown from a few partners in 1997 to more than 120 partners today, and we are currently the nation’s largest multi-sector partner Alliance. Our Alliance partners have brought about real progress for children through the power of the Five Promises – now considered the “gold standard” for measuring the well-being of young people.
Since the Summit, more than two million young people have formal mentors in their lives, three million enjoy safe places that offer constructive use of time and four million more young people now have health insurance. But all of us recognize there is still much work left to do.
Last November the Alliance released the groundbreaking study, Every Child, Every Promise, and we reported that more than two-thirds of our young people (10 million 6-17 year olds) do not experience enough of the Five Promises to sway the odds of success in their favor. Only 20 percent now experience zero or only one Promise and are headed for an uncertain future.
The good news, however, is that we know what we need to do to reverse this tide. We know the Five Promises can make a meaningful difference in a child’s life. Our Alliance has responded by setting an ambitious goal – to deliver more of the Five Promises to those most at risk and improve the outcome for 15 million young people over the next five years, with increased high school completion rates being our long-term priority.
To accomplish this goal, our Alliance partners have formed an unprecedented collaboration around three National Action Strategies:
All Kids Covered : As a step towards assurance of health insurance coverage for all young people, this initiative will see that 6 million eligible children are enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or Medicaid.
Where the Kids Are : Beginning with schools as hubs, we will deliver more of the Five Promises to the most disadvantaged youth through school and community-based programs – to reach 11 million youth in Title 1 schools, 6.5 million in after-school programs and 500,000 in foster care.
Ready for the Real World : We will engage every middle-school student – 11.7 million young people – in meaningful opportunities for service and career exploration.
Along with our National Action Strategies, America’s Promise continues its day-to-day work through our important initiatives – 100 Best Communities for Young People, Regional Best Practice Forums and Katrina’s Kids.
First Focus, our new bipartisan advocacy organization, is a crucially important part of out our mission with its continued commitment to make children and their families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.
Every day at America’s Promise, we apply the Triple AAA philosophy – Awareness, Advocacy and Action – as our staff and our Alliance partners understand that each one of us has an important job to significantly improve the odds for youth in this country.
As we begin the next chapter of America’s Promise Alliance, we celebrate our successes, our strengths and our perseverance to continue the call to action which began 10 years ago – to make children and youth a national priority.
I would like to thank all those who have made our Alliance possible – our founders, our Alliance partners, our Board of Directors and Trustees, our youth partnership team and of course, our committed staff. Going forward, I hope you will join us to fulfill the promise of America’s future – ensuring that all young people have the Five Promises they need to succeed.
Marguerite W. Kondracke
President & CEO
America’s Promise Alliance