Tuesday’s launch of the ALL IN! Coalition brought community-wide attention to getting and keeping all Hartford high school students in the region’s talent pipeline.   The coalition is working to get youth not just into, but all the way through college and post-secondary trainings and into the workforce.  These successes will propel Hartford youth into livelihoods that can sustain them, their children and families … and the Greater Hartford economy, too.  The vehicle for this is a coalition and new compact establishing the collective commitment to make it so.

Achieve Hartford!’s commitment to staff the ALL IN! Coalition – of colleges, schools, public agencies, industry associations, and philanthropy – is based on our commitment to cultivating shared responsibility for improving student outcomes, matched by the commitment of partners around the table to more effectively work together.

“No city is so well positioned to build a pipeline of talented urban young professionals than Hartford, given all of the university and industry connections our high schools already enjoy and all of the investments being made in our youth,” Achieve Hartford! Executive Director Paul Diego Holzer said.  “Unless our metro area wakes up, its best workforce preparedness, citizen participation, and literacy skill-building efforts will slowly die on the vine, along with the economic future for our region.  We have to do better, and we have to ensure there are no more holes in our talent pipeline.”

The Tuesday press conference featured regional cooperation proponent and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin; CT State University Journalism Student Joshua Rosario; CT Business and Industry Association Education & Workforce Partnership Executive Director Andrea Comer, and Lincoln Financial Group Program Officer at the Lincoln Financial Foundation, Marlene Ferreira.  The video with their commentary is here.

With many more imminent, the signers of the ALL IN! Compact Tuesday included:

The Office of the Mayor of Hartford

Hartford Public Schools

The Hartford Consortium for Higher Education

Hartford Promise

Connecticut Business & Industry Association

Lincoln Financial Foundation

Achieve Hartford!

The Bottom Line.  In order to ensure that ALL Hartford students are prepared for high school and beyond, we all need to be ALL IN!  This means we need to change the ways we operate:  collect, share and look at data; share resources; fund programs; engage business in education; advise students on opportunities; and so much more, all related to the Coalition’s goal of aligning efforts so more students vault from post-secondary education into high-demand occupations.

Be on the lookout for more information regarding an upcoming open house with ALL IN! Coalition members to discuss this work and how to become a member.