STRIVE COMMUNITY FORUM ON EDUCATION
Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 8AM, at the Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University.

Strive drives the success of our children, from cradle to career. Founded in 2006, Strive is a unique partnership spanning all sectors of Greater Cincinnati. Together, we’re working to help each child in our urban core succeed from birth through some form of college into a meaningful career. Strive unites common providers around shared issues, goals, measurements and results, and then actively supports and strengthens strategies that work. Strive is focused on home, school and community: the building blocks for successful students, productive citizens and thriving cities.

Strive and The Community Building Institute have partnered to implement the community engagement portion of the Strive initiative. There has been much work done in the Cincinnati region over the past several years on creating an agenda for change. Efforts like the Strive Roadmap, Agenda 360, GO Cincinnati, place matters, the CPS Strategic Plan, the Civic Index, and others have engaged hundreds of residents in discussion about how to move the region forward in positive ways. But this forum will be more than a review of previous work. It is the culmination of a community engagement process in which members at various levels of the community shared their thoughts on the work of Strive and the direction of Education in our community. The Strive Community Forum on Education will be an opportunity to discuss the importance of education in initiatives that seek to improve the quality of life in our area. Instead of hearing from people about what is happening, most of the time will be spent offering you the chance to provide your thoughts on what we need to do to address the three critical themes drawn from the Striving Together report card:

• Increase the Pace of Change?
There is a great deal of success for us to build on: 35 of 53 student outcomes from birth through college are on the rise. Now we need to find ways to build on these successes to help more student succeed faster.

• Increase Rigor in the Classroom?
Students scores are improving to meet state standards. We can be one of the first communities to aim even higher by ensuring students are not only meeting these benchmarks, but are fully prepared for college or career training.

• Increase Enrollment, Retention, & Graduation from College and Career Training?
In these tough economic times, we need to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. This will require education beyond high school. Increasing the number of graduates is a key indicator of our ability to compete in the 21st Century.

Cost: FREE
To register, contact Nancy Hackett at 513-745-3264 or hackettn@xavier.edu