Multiple Pathways to Graduation: A Site Tour for Funders (Tour Part I: Philadelphia)

The Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) and Grantmakers in Education (GFE) are partnering to host the Multiple Pathways to Graduation Site Tour – your opportunity to learn about some of the most innovative programs developed by school districts to keep youth on track to high school graduation.

The Multiple Pathways to Graduation Site Tour provides a first-hand exploration of successful change models at a citywide level in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon, while also sharing lessons learned from other communities across the country. It is designed for grantmakers who want to deepen their understanding of the Multiple Pathways to Graduation (MPG) model, which supports a cross-systems approach to raising high school graduation rates and advancing post-secondary options for young adults. The MPG model builds bridges across public systems – Education, Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, Health and Human Services, etc. – to provide unique graduation “pathways” for youth who are at risk of dropping out of high school, are thinking about dropping out, or have dropped out and need to reconnect to an educational program.

The Tour features:

• Networking and peer exchange opportunities for local, regional, and national grantmakers
• A behind-the-scenes look at inter-agency planning in communities and the impact it has on graduation rates
• Personalized interaction with local advocates and other key players from MPG programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon
• A first-hand opportunity to experience the impact smart grantmaking can have on the educational outcomes of today’s youth.

The Multiple Pathways to Graduation Site Tour consists of 1.5-day site visits in Philadelphia and Portland, scheduled for November of 2010 and the spring of 2011, respectively. Each visit includes a combination of demonstration sites, roundtable talks, and facilitated dialogues.

Additional Programming

In addition to the site visits, YTFG and GFE are hosting two complimentary web seminars to help the philanthropic community explore ways to support Multiple Pathways to Graduation programs across the country.  Tour participants are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the web seminars, as well.

As participants in both the site visits and web seminars, Tour participants can enhance their education grantmaking by combining the experiential learning of the hands-on visits with the technical information shared in the online dialogue.  See details below for information on the web seminars.

If you are a funder and would like more information, please email connectedby25@ytfg.org.