With the fantastic change of weather last month came some of our crowning achievements. Our community impact goal to help children and youth achieve their potential was brought to the forefront during the Graduation Pathway Summit we hosted along with the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County Schools. Nearly 400 interested and vested business and civic leaders attended, determined to place a stake in the ground to continue improving the graduation rate in Hillsborough County Schools.
Not graduating from high school is bad for the child and bad for the community. Every dropout earns $300,000 less over his or her lifetime than a high school graduate. They are incarcerated more and their medical costs are higher.
At the Summit, businesses vowed to get involved using a well-known United Way vehicle – a pledge form – through which they made commitments individually or committed their companies to help in the five strategic areas:
- Mentoring/Tutoring
- Service Learning
- Parent Involvement
- Out-of-School Time
- School and Work Readiness
The shared goal is to increase the graduation rate to 90 percent by 2019. With this much community interest, I’m confident we’ll get the job done.
If you’re interested in making a difference in this vital community effort, click here and get involved.
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November 3, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Joyce Pritchett
This was one of the best summits that I have ever attended and certainly drove home the point that educational efforts in this country must improve relationship building and that the entire community must come together to remove barriers to education. Many thanks to United Way for this opportunity.