EdRedesign Fellowship for Cradle-to-Career Partnership Leaders

Children and families in communities across the country experience complex, multi-generational, and substantial disparities in education, health, well-being, income, and intergenerational upward mobility. Solutions to address the long-term impacts of racism, poverty, and disinvestment require residents and organizations from all sectors to come together toward shared goals.

Place-based partnerships combine forces across multiple sectors (government, businesses, nonprofits, philanthropies, and community, youth, and faith-based agencies and organizations across health, education, social services, arts, community development, housing, and other fields) and elevate the voices and lived experience of residents to solve complex problems in geographically defined places. By aligning opportunities and supports, these partnerships work to meet local needs. They build on individual and community assets to create cradle-to-career pathways that allow more young people to reach their full potential. However, there are limited training programs that upskill leaders of the backbone or intermediary organizations for these partnerships with the knowledge and tools to facilitate this work. We are changing that.

The EdRedesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has launched a first-of-its-kind, competitive, tuition-free 18-month Fellowship program for new and aspiring leaders of cradle-to-career place-based partnerships. This Fellowship allows Fellows to join a network of inspiring change-makers, sharpen their cross-sector skills, and apply new tools, connections, and approaches to improve measurable outcomes for children and families in their communities!

The Fellowship will equip Fellows to: 

Leading across sectors to change places is some of the most challenging work there is. Through my experience with the Purpose Built Communities Network, I’ve seen how impactful it can be when done well. I’m excited that the Harvard EdRedesign Lab is committed to helping more leaders do this important work. – Ben Lewis, Vice President of Innovation and Learning, Purpose Built Communities

Meet our inaugural cohort of 22 fellows! 

We have selected 22 fellows to join our inaugural Fellowship program cohort. This exemplary group includes Executive Directors (EDs) who are relatively new to leading a place-based partnership backbone or intermediary organization and other senior-level leaders of organizations committed to leading cradle-to-career, place-based, cross-sector work. The inaugural cohort includes an impressive array of leaders from diverse geographic and organizational experiences, including leaders working in urban, suburban, and rural contexts and from the neighborhood to the regional level. The cohort includes leaders from a diverse range of networks and national models, including:

Promise Neighborhoods, Full Service Community Schools, Communities in Schools, Purpose Built Communities, StriveTogether, Blue Meridian Partners Place Matters, Partners for Rural Impact , and William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone. 

The diversity of the cohort’s models adds a rich mosaic of perspectives and expertise, enhancing collective efforts to drive progress for children and young people across the country.   

The Fellowship is grounded in real-world applications and was created in partnership with national field leaders, including Partners for Rural Impact, Purpose Built Communities, StriveTogether, and William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone.  

If you have any questions about the Fellowship, please contact Denisse Arias, Director of The EdRedesign Fellowship for Cradle-to-Career Partnership Leaders, at Denisse_Arias@gse.harvard.edu. 

We thank our funders for their support that has made this program possible — a $2.5 million implementation grant from Ballmer Group; additional support from Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean’s Impact Fund and The Annie E. Casey Foundation; planning grants from Ballmer Group, Barr Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Schwartz Family Foundation; and general operating support from The Linda G. Hammett Ory & Andrew Ory Charitable Trust  and the Schwartz Family Foundation.