Annual Emphasis
fresno area strive
Based on the experiences and resources of Strive Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky (see www.strivetogether.org), Fresno Area Strive (FAS) is developing a network of partners who care about the success of children in the Fresno metropolitan area. The effort is led by the Fresno Compact, CSU Fresno as the university anchor, the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute, with active participation of the educational institutions, business representatives and other organizations in the community.
The primary purpose of the FAS partnership is to strengthen educational and support systems for all children in the area to improve academic success and better prepare them for jobs and higher education. Fresno Area Strive seeks to unite common providers around shared issues, goals, measurements and results, and then actively support and strengthen strategies that are successful. FAS intends to use a data-driven process to focus on community-wide needs, establish common strategies for success, and monitor progress.
Using Cincinnati’s Roadmap to Success as a framework, Fresno Area Strive is beginning to engage in dialogue with educational stakeholders to address challenges, establish goals, milestones and indicators related to the continuum of educational/academic services from birth to career. Based on input from each of the area’s public school districts, the first focus will be on the Kindergarten entrance competencies. The participating public K-12 school systems will also identify common indicators from Kindergarten through high schools, and the higher education institutions will focus on relevant factors for success in post-secondary education. FAS will also engage business, workforce development, career education, child care, government and non-government providers in dialogue about career preparation in the area.
First introduced to key Fresno-area stakeholders in January 2010, FAS is initiating organizational efforts. For further information, please contact Dr. Tom Crow, Fresno Compact's Executive Director, at tcrow@csufresno.edu.