City Forward Collective

City Forward Collective is a new effort to move Milwaukee forward by eliminating educational inequities and ensuring every child has access to a great school. The organization was launched in summer 2019 when two high-impact school support organizations - PAVE and Schools That Can Milwaukee - came together to create a new organizational model that prioritizes family and community organizing to increase access to quality schools. The City Forward Collective strategy was directly informed by an independent steering committee representing communities from across Milwaukee. The group met for nine months to identify how the new organization could best work to improve education outcomes for the city. The strategy includes: · Family and community organizing: Engaging in sustained organizing of families and communities to build a collective of city residents who understand and advocate for high-quality schools across Milwaukee · Community-informed policy: Identifying and advocating for policies that eliminate educational inequities and ensure high-quality schools get the resources they need to thrive · Diverse governance: Greatly increasing the number of black, brown and other diverse leaders actively engaged in efforts to improve Milwaukee schools – especially in service on the governance boards of schools and education support organizations · Effective and representative talent: Ensuring strong pipelines for teachers and school leaders, with an explicit focus on new strategies to increase the number of black, brown and other diverse teachers and leaders and build cultural competence among our city’s educators · Quality schools: Establishing an investment fund that will aggregate and strategically invest philanthropic dollars and liaise with national philanthropies to expand and replicate existing quality schools, support proven leaders as they incubate education support organizations or new schools, and provide targeted support to improve promising schools