On Friday, June 5th, after navigating a few speed bumps, four pallets of foods and drinks filled with healthy snack items, meal sides, coffee k-cups, drink mixes, protein bars, and candy were donated to the YMCA to distribute to families!

The Higher Expectations team mourns the loss of the precious lives that have been taken too soon as we’ve collectively failed to address racism in our systems and structures.

As an organization committed to eliminating barriers for our community, we understand that in order to create true change in our system we must listen to and be led by those most impacted by racist structures. We are committed to doing this work.

In the spring of 2019, the City of Racine was selected as one of nine cities to participate in the What Works Cities (WWC) Economic Mobility initiative, a new program designed for cities to increase their residents’ economic mobility prospects and to share how cities and local communities can help reverse the national trend of declining economic mobility.

We want to talk to more families to get a better idea on what matters most to Racine residents when it comes to child care and show decision makers just how many families could be impacted by new, or improved, child care policies.

Last week, we gathered a small group of our partners to work through a case study of a family living in Racine and discuss how to work more collaboratively to support whole families.

As a part of our Talent Hub work to reach the goal of increasing post-secondary credential attainment rates to 60% of adults in our region and close equity gaps for African American, Hispanic, and low-income populations, our partnership brought experts from the Charles A. Dana Center to facilitate a day-long Math Symposium.

Southeastern Wisconsin higher education, business and community leaders came together last week at We Energies to formally launch an unprecedented collaborative called the Higher Education Regional Alliance (HERA).

In 2019, we collaborated with Racine Unified to bring a data fellow from Education Pioneers, a national education leadership development program, into our work. Our Data Fellow, Lauren Marinoff, closes her year working with us this week so we wanted to take the time to reflect on the great work she has accomplished this year.

Yesterday, we gathered along with 18 colleges and universities across our region to celebrate the launch of the Higher Education Regional Alliance (HERA). HERA, which was first announced in 2018, represents more than 150,000 students across southeastern Wisconsin who are key to driving the economy.

Modine Manufacturing Company, a diversified global leader in thermal management technology and solutions, announced a Modine Foundation contribution of $200,000 over five years to Higher Expectations for Racine County.

More than 100 young learners attended the event and practiced matching letters with their letter sounds, reading picture books, creating letters with play-dough, coloring, and other fun early learning games at the Racine Public Library with the Author and Illustrator of Alexis and Anthony Go To Kindergarten.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities initiative is a great opportunity to use Racine's collaborative efforts to enhance economic mobility for Racine residents. Higher Expectations will be using our data capacity to help strengthen Racine's 5.09 HSED program and increase the number of residents with high school equivalency diplomas.