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It takes a community.
Dr. Anita Perez Ferguson joins us today to discuss the value of private-public sectors joining together in collaboration to assure equal access and success for our children’s education regardless of income and cultural roots. She is the Executive Director of a local collaborative called THRIVE.
Santa Barbara, California, is considered an international vacation destination, and, demographically, is know for its ultra-wealthy residents including celebrities. Santa Barbara is also a great philanthropic community recognizing that there are also people living in poverty in this coastal community. This is often the case with well-recognized and beautiful communities around the world.
Research throughout the United States shows an alarming achievement gap in the education system related to the low success rates—and graduation rates—of children from low-income. In Santa Barbara, it is often Latino families. Research also demonstrates that this gap is readily apparent on the first day of school and results in a downward spiral. Programs like “No Child Left Behind” have made efforts, if unfortunate in its overall success, to correct this issue.
The correlations are as stunning as they are simple. Children are often not prepared to vigorously engage in kindergarten and quickly fall behind. They often do not learn to read by the third or fourth grade. Those who do not learn to read by fourth grade have astronomically high school dropout rates. Students who drop out of high school are far more vulnerable to gang recruitment and incarceration. These facts provide a bleak picture for these underserved children, while also revealing an equally uncertain future for us all.
To protect the collective economic future of the county, Santa Barbara initiated THRIVE, a project focused on increasing knowledge and attention to prepare and ready the next generation of Santa Barbara County residents for productive lives. This public–private collaborative is modeled after Geoffrey Canada’s cradle-to-career New York Harlem Children’s Zone.
Because the collaborative involves local businesses, schools, government agencies, nonprofits and families, sustainability and strength is built in. No one organization tackles the issues. Instead, organizations equipped to deal with specific challenges work together to form a web of services designed to capture and help each child.
cradle to career
THRIVE is a part of a national network called STRIVE. Local organizations like THRIVE in Santa Barbara exist across the USA. More can be created with the energy and dedication of the community to make a difference in their own children’s future and the economic well-being of the whole community. Education is a lifelong experience that begins well before a child ever sets foot in a classroom and continues long past a cap and gown commencement.
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