Texas Statewide Collective Impact Convening
  

​Representatives of Texas communities interested in “collective impact” in education gathered in Austin in November. The occasion was the third annual Texas Statewide Collective Impact Convening.

The staff of All Kids Alliance was joined by Kimberly Klepcyk, project manager of the Five Star Regional Educational Alliance anchored by Lone Star College – Kingwood, for this one-day event.
 
Jeff Edmonson, managing director of the StriveTogether Network provided the keynote address which coupled the power of collective impact with the rigor of StriveTogether’s “Theory of Action.”  Jeff was joined by leaders from Phoenix and Memphis which have developed strong cradle-to-career partnerships.  This year’s meeting also featured four partnerships in Texas that have gained membership in the StriveTogether Network by virtue of achieving all of the benchmarks in the start-up phase of this work (i.e., all the benchmarks in the “Exploring Gateway” of the StriveTogether Theory of Action).  Those partnerships are Commit! (Dallas), E3 Alliance (Austin), P16+ Council of Greater Bexar County (San Antonio), and RGV Focus (Rio Grande Valley).
 
A variety of presentations and workshops dealt with rigor in collective impact work, data collection and utilization, policy and advocacy in the state of Texas, sustainability and donor engagement, and the implications of sections of House Bill 5 for our work.
 
Educate Texas was the lead organizer of the day with major support from the Data Quality Campaign (a non-profit based in Washington, DC) and the E3 Alliance (Austin).
 

The primary goal for All Kids Alliance is to help regional partnerships around Greater Houston qualify for membership in the StriveTogether Network.  Achieving that status would also give them a presenting role in the next Texas Statewide Collective Impact Convening.