Marguerite W. Kondracke, President and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance, Speaks at first-ever White House Conference on Helping America’s Youth
October 27, 2005
The America's Promise Alliance - A Reflection of the American Community
One of America’s greatest strengths is our sense of community. In a very real sense, the America’s Promise Alliance that I represent IS a community.
We were founded in 1997 by all five living presidents at an historic summit on youth in Philadelphia. We’re a community of practitioners and policymakers, mayors and governors, business partners and faith-based groups, volunteers and young people themselves.
And the Alliance is an idea that works and one you can replicate in your hometown or state.
The America’s Promise Alliance includes the United Way of America, , Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Corporation for National and Community Service, Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, Communities in Schools, MENTOR, the Points of Light Foundation, Youth Service America, and also the National Governors’ Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and many more dedicated partners, including our very active Youth Partnership Team.
All of us in the Alliance share one common goal – to see that every child can realize the promise of America.
A Mission and a Framework: The Five Promises
We have a simple mission, which is also a framework for our action. We call it the "Five Promises," our the five fundamental resources that every child needs.
We know that our children are our future. To safeguard our future as well as theirs, every child must be able to realize his or her God-given potential. To that end, the America's Promise Alliance is working together to see that all children receive these five promises:
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caring adults, actively involved in their lives;
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safe places to learn and play;
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a healthy start;
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an effective education that builds marketable skills; and
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opportunities to help others, to become engaged citizens.
Research now proves that young people with all five promises are five to ten times more likely to succeed, to stay in school, to not engage in risky behaviors.
And there is a return on our investment. Putting just one at-risk young person on the right path returns an average of $2 million to the community.
Replicating the Alliance Locally
We encourage every state and community to create their own Alliance, and many already have.
In West Virginia, Governor Manchin is restructuring children's services in state government around the simple five-promise framework that unites our Alliance. In Florida, Governor Bush has made mentoring a central theme, the starting point for the Five Promises as he seeks to engage both the public and private sectors on behalf of young people. In Charlotte, N.C., 30 youth-serving agencies share a 10,000 square-foot facility for maximum coordination and effectiveness.
In over 200 communities that I am aware of, there is a community-based alliance focused on the well-being of children and involving both the public and private, as well as the non-profit, sectors.
Collaboration is essential if we are to improve the odds for our 90 million children and youth, especially the 15 million who are disadvantaged. Together, we can do so much more than any of us can do alone. Our muscle is stronger and our voice is louder.
An Alliance can help coordinate efforts for young people, can see that unmet needs are identified and eliminate duplication so that finite resources can go further. And, just as we're doing today, collaboration makes it possible to replicate successes by sharing information and "best practices."
The key to an effective Alliance is cross-sector collaboration, working together to meet common, measurable goals for our youth.
All of us recognize that none of us can keep America's Promise alone. Government can't, the private sector can't, schools and communities can't, non-profits can't. All of us must do it together.
Recognizing Best Communities for Young People
Next week, our Alliance will honor 100 Best Communities for Young People, winners of a new nationwide competition to recognize those communities working together to make their hometown a great place to grow up.
Over 1,000 communities participated, and the application process itself became a catalyst for local examination, convening, assessing, and improving.
The stories from the "100 Best" are on our website (www.americaspromise.org). They bear witness to the power of partnerships from across all sectors of a community to keep America's Promise. In 100 different ways, each of the winning hometowns teaches us what a caring community can mean to their young people.
Keeping the Promise to "Katrina's Kids"
And now let me briefly turn to another Alliance initiative - "Katrina's Kids."
Hurricane Katrina (and Rita) dramatically reminded us how important community is. Katrina has shown us in inspiring ways what happens when groups and communities do come together to help each other in times of need.
But Katrina also gave us a glimpse of how too many American children and youth are living without the necessities, much less the opportunities, needed to become successful adults.
As we celebrate communities creating great places to grow up, our Alliance has also been working for the children who now need new places to grow up.
The need for a sustained focus on the children caught in Katrina's path has become achingly clear.
The storm displaced up to half a million young people. They are scattered across this country. Their support structure - their "promises" - what resources they did have, have literally been washed away. They're in unfamiliar settings, going to new schools. They've been separated from many of the caring adults in their lives.
We are all grateful that our First Lady has been working to make all disadvantaged youth a national priority long before Katrina struck.
Now, as the waters recede, all Americans can see clearly that we have urgent work to do.
Working with the USA Freedom Corps and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the America's Promise Alliance has launched a special initiative called "Katrina's Kids." It's a coordinated effort to help keep the Five Promises to the children displaced by Katrina, to see that they have:
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mentors;
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after-school or day care;
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health care checkups and immunizations;
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tutors and support in a new school; and
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for older youth, a chance to become engaged citizens by helping others.
Most of all, we hope "Katrina's Kids" will once again believe in the promise of America.
Here's an example of what that means. Mia is a kindergartner who was looking forward to starting school in New Orleans when the hurricane ravaged her home. She and her family were evacuated to a shelter in Houston. Her family already had challenges, and now Mia is in a new city, a new school, and without a neighborhood or home.
Surrounded by unfamiliar faces, Mia found her first week at her new school extremely difficult. Imagine for a moment what's it's like for any child on the very first day of school, and then add the trauma of all Mia had been through.
Fortunately, Mia is in a fine school - the KIPP Academy in Houston- and she is being helped by a psychologist and caseworker from Communities in Schools, one of our Alliance partners. She will have the five fundamentals all children need. She can see the promise of America.
Many of the Alliance's "100 Best Communities" have become involved with Katrina's Kids. Providence, Rhode Island, for example, became home to seventeen members of the Acker family from Pearlington, Mississippi, after Katrina destroyed everything they had. They ranged from 18 months to 70 years old, including seven children under the age of six. The mayor's office helped coordinate needed services.
The Acker children now have safe places to be, and the older ones have mentors and tutors to help the adjustment in school. A city employee even organized a barbecue in her backyard so the family could experience a neighborhood spirit. The community has adopted this displaced family, with a special focus on the needs of the kids.
And in that same spirit, that's what our Alliance hopes to encourage for all of "Katrina's Kids."
A Challenge to Keep America's Promise
To fulfill the promise of America for "Katrina's Kids," we urgently need everyone's help. We are looking for:
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400,00 mentors;
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500,000 health care checkups;
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after-school programs for 100,000;
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support and perhaps tutoring for 300,000 in new schools;
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150,000 volunteer opportunities for older youth.
Can you help? Do you know of others who can help keep the promise of America for "Katrina's Kids"?
And even as we mobilize to help those children impacted by this devastating storm, we know that there are millions more who also need our help. Every town can have their version of our Alliance, and it can start with just one dedicated person or group.
What we seek to do today for Katrina's Kids is what we must also do just as urgently EVERY day for all of America's kids.
Far too many of our nation's youth do not have the essential nurturing, the advantages, the blessings we want for every child.
In a recent survey among youth, over two-thirds said one or more of the "five promises" are missing in their lives. Unlike "Katrina's Kids," they may have a roof over their heads, but not enough safe places to go. They may have a familiar school, but they're not getting the skills the world will demand. And every child we surveyed said they wanted more caring adults in their lives.
And we discovered a "dream gap." While nearly all said they believe in the American dream, over 40% said they do not believe that dream is possible for them. The older many get, the more pessimistic they become. We must change that.
I'm glad we have come together today to focus on community.
As an American community, we must urgently rally around these young people just as we are rallying around Katrina's Kids. And we must sustain a sense of urgency until the American dream is not just a hope but a realistic expectation for every child.
Together we CAN keep the promise of America.