Vision

All Stamford youth succeed in education, career and life.

Mission

To collectively align community resources to ensure equity and excellence in education, for every child, from cradle to career.

Stamford Cradle to Career (SC2C) is a Collective Impact partnership that works to achieve our goals through solid and committed cross-sector collaboration. We are guided by the nationally recognized StriveTogether Framework for creating a community-wide partnership. The framework is a roadmap to change, and a new way for community stakeholders to work together.

To learn more about StriveTogether, visit www.strivetogether.org. To learn more about how SC2C is using the StriveTogether framework, go to (SC2C page on StriveTogether). 

United Way of Coastal and Western Connecticut serves as the backbone entity for Stamford Cradle to Career providing management and fiscal support for the partnership.

Our Core Values

• Stewardship: We will lead and follow as stewards of the City of Stamford, caring responsibly for our community assets. We will work together in new ways to achieve the greatest, long-term benefit for the community as a whole
• Open Engagement and Partnership: We will welcome all stakeholders seeking to make a positive contribution to our collective goals. We will empower local stakeholders to bring others into the movement. We recognize the importance of engaging youth as part of the solution and pledge our commitment to involve youth in this movement. We are willing to cross political, social, ethnic and economic boundaries to achieve community outcomes. We will extend ourselves to create an inclusive, cohesive community through partnership and collaboration.
• Commitment to Outcomes: We understand this work is long-term and we are committed to staying involved. We are willing to take the responsibility for tasks and achieving specific outcomes and commit to measuring our progress and adjusting course as necessary.
• Holistic Approach:  We believe that anything is possible for Stamford children and families. We envision success without limitations by creating a specific, attainable strategy for achieving that vision.
• Data-Driven Decision Making:  To the greatest extent possible, we will base decisions and action plans on objective data, thereby avoiding distortion of issues by personal feelings or agendas. At the same time, we seek to get to the heart of the matter and recognize that facts without context can be misleading. We commit to advocating for what works.
• Releasing Resources: We value the empowerment of all community stakeholders to honestly and forthrightly share all knowledge, experiences and insights relative to our work. We take responsibility for ensuring our truth is current and not historical. We all share the responsibility for maintaining the truth-telling standard.
• Inclusiveness: We respect all stakeholders and recognize there are diverse viewpoints. Positional power will not determine a strategy or preferred outcome, merit will. Viewpoints from diverse constituencies will be proactively sought to ensure the best possible outcomes for Stamford children and families, cradle to career.
• Commitment to Resolving Conflict: We understand that conflict is inevitable and is sometimes required in order to achieve the best outcomes. Healthy conflict involves valuing every individual regardless of his or her stance on a specific issue. We pledge an unwavering commitment to working through conflict in a positive manner despite its severity.
• Asset-Based Approach: We are focused on using a strength-based, asset-oriented approach to improving outcomes for Stamford children and families, cradle to career. We believe positive change occurs when we appreciate, value and invest in what is best for our families and community.
• Transparency and Objectivity: We agree to promote open and frequent communication and access to information regarding our work. We empower stakeholders to share information openly. We commit to constantly improving communication for all audiences. We agree to disclose any personal or professional conflict of interest that may affect our objectivity before engaging in work that will impact our efforts to improve outcomes, cradle to career. We seek to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.