Community Voices,        Community Solutions

Too often, solutions and services intended to meet community needs are created and implemented without their participation and ideas. 

Evanston Cradle to Career aims to "flip" this equation so that all of our work directly meets the specific needs of communities and neighborhoods in Evanston.

By creating more real opportunities for members of the community who stand to benefit most from our work to actively participate in our process, ideally leading the visionary work, we collaborate to design solutions that work for them and meet their needs. 

Great ideas, no boardroom required

Prioritizing ideas and input directly from the people who we hope our work will benefit directly means meeting them where they are, literally: nights, weekends, with childcare, with food, with transportation, at the high school. We commit to  doing whatever it takes to make sure our community leaders have the support and resources they need to collaborate with us. Our strategies for active community participation, particularly by our Evanston communities of color, evolve dynamically to meet the needs of these groups so that we can make sure every voice is heard.

Our Advocates for Action, Youth Advocates, and the Community Investment they have already undertaken in Evanston are three of our proudest and most important areas of work.  And they are only the beginning.