Our Community Goal: Helping Portland children get ready to thrive by Kindergarten

(View a video message on the Community Goal by Mark Holloway here: Personal Message for Partners)

Elizabeth. Robert. Maya. One of these kids is failing kindergarten in Portland. Among their peers, 68% won’t read proficiently by fourth grade and over 40% won’t make it to graduation. It’s no wonder with what they’re facing: one in five young children lives in poverty, 40% of young kids have a mental, learning or physical challenge, and more than half of Oregon kids attend no formal preschool.

As Portland’s Social Venture Partners, we can’t take this anymore. We believe it is our responsibility as a community to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive. For ten years, we have been harnessing and leveraging the best of our Partners—resources, brain power, passion and connections—to alleviate the struggles of our kids and youth. Over the next ten years, we’re going to catch them early before the challenges become barriers. Our 2021 goal is to ensure every child in Portland is ready to thrive by kindergarten with positive parenting, books in hands and early intervention of obstacles.

SVPP has the opportunity to right the course of children most at risk of failing and recover our investment in education. The energy for change in Oregon is building. Our knack for leveraging collective action and transforming potential into results will help us catalyze the best of Portland into a successful start for kids. We must have your continued Partner support of money—mighty or meaningful—time and brainpower to ensure we have the right resources at the right time to bring Portland together and finance a change now before the next crisis puts Robert, Maya and Elizabeth even farther behind.

This is only the beginning: asking for your commitment. We’ll announce this goal and commitment publicly at our Annual Partners Meeting, SPARK FARM, on May 11th. I hope you will join us for that great annual event. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be planning, building our Partnership and asking the community for the opportunity to lead this collective effort. I invite you to be involved in the ways outlined below, by writing or calling anytime with moral support or feedback, and/or offering your support in a way that might be unique to your resources, connections or skills. We need you and the support of many others in the community to launch this effort and see it through to success.

Information and background on how we arrived at this 2021 Community Goal:

• Brief History of SVPP
  
• SVPP Partner Interest Survey 1 (November 2010)
• SVPP Partner Survey 2: BHAG Finalists (December 2010)
• Environmental Scan (January 2011)
• Summary of Governor Kitzhaber's Early Childhood Plan (February 2011)
  
• Key take-aways from Portland community leaders (February 2011)

Three Ways to be involved in next steps:

1. Hear more details on the plan and offer your feedback at our Open Forum for Partners on SVPP’s 2021 Community Goal – April 26, 5-6:30pm, SVPP Headquarters, 221 NW Second Avenue, Portland.
   
2. Offer your service for the SVPP Board of Directors to help lead and guide this visionary goal. Learn more here: SVPP Board Roles, Responsibilities and Expectations. Let us know of your interest by April 8th for this years ballot.
3. Invite a friend to share this vision – tell them about SVPP and how we’re making change in the community, then let me know who they are and how I can support your outreach.