| |  | brown county cradle-to-career newsletter | | |
collective impact
partnership updates
| | Policy & Partnerships for a Stronger Brown County: Conversations with State Leaders | | |
Achieve Brown County has been holding meetings with elected leaders to introduce them to our Collective Impact Partnership and discuss collective challenges in our community around childcare access and affordability and early literacy outcomes. Recently, we have held meetings with State Representative Benjamin Franklin, State Senator Jamie Wall, and State Representative Amaad Rivera-Wagner. We appreciate the willingness of elected leaders to learn about our work and will continue to convene more meetings like these.
Read more about these discussions and their impact in our latest blog post!
Read Blog Post here
| | Achieve Brown County’s Fundraising Transition: Building a Sustainable Future | |
Achieve Brown County was founded in 2014 and has been funded through three Capital Fundraising Campaigns in 2014, 2017, and 2021. Each campaign raised approximately $1.5 million, thanks to the generosity of about 50 unique donors. This funding model has been a powerful testament to the belief in our mission as we established, strengthened, and grew our organization. However, as we enter our 11th year, our financial sustainability is emerging as a challenge.
That’s why our staff and board of directors are committed to transitioning from capital fundraising to an annual fundraising model. In 2024, we took a major step in this direction by hiring a dedicated fundraising team member. While this transition has brought successes, it has also presented challenges—some months have been strong, while others have revealed unpredictable gaps. Over the last three quarters, we have not met our fundraising goals.
Why does this matter? Because without sustainable funding, our ability to drive collective impact is at risk. Data becomes less accessible, systems become harder to change, and the work that unites organizations for real, lasting change becomes siloed. But we know 2025 is not the year to step back—it’s the year to build forward. Every child in our community deserves a future shaped by collaboration and support.
Next week, we’ll be sharing a dedicated newsletter with more details about our budget and funding needs for 2025. In the meantime, you can take action today—click the buttons below to support our work.
| | Local Advocacy, State-wide Impact: The Wisconsin Partnership | | Achieve Brown County is proud to be part of the Wisconsin Partnership, a coalition of StriveTogether Network members working across Brown, Kenosha, and Racine Counties, as well as the City of Milwaukee. With a shared focus on early childhood education, including kindergarten readiness and early literacy, we are committed to transforming systems and ensuring all young people have a pathway to economic mobility. Through data-driven strategies and policy advocacy, we aim to put 10,000 more young people on the path to success by 2030. More to come! | |
Celebrating Partnership: Syble Hopp School
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Last month, Achieve Brown County was honored to be recognized at the Syble Hopp Employer Appreciation event. We are grateful for our partnership and the opportunity to work alongside their students.
As Special Education Teacher Sam Gallegos shared:
"Our students at Syble Hopp love volunteering at Achieve Brown County. The real-world experience they gain—applying job skills, teamwork, and independence—is invaluable. After Achieve’s monthly meetings, our students helped clean up, organize supplies, and (most importantly) enjoyed riding the elevator! Opportunities like this help our students build confidence and prepare for future employment. Thank you, Achieve!"
We appreciate the dedication of Syble Hopp students and encourage other businesses to recognize the value and talent that all individuals bring to the workforce.
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Updates & Opportunities:
Get Involved with Our Teams
| Achieve Brown County is announcing a new transition as we continue our work to improve literacy in Brown County. Todd Sutton, Director of Continuous Improvement, has stepped away from ABC. Todd has been an incredible leader in guiding our teams, and we are grateful for his dedication. While we will miss his contributions, we are excited to introduce new facilitators and opportunities for partners to engage in our work! | | Meet Your New Team Facilitators & Join the Conversation! | | |
Reading for the Future Strategy Team:
Sarah Beckman, our Executive Director, will now serve as your facilitator. This team plays a key role in shaping ABC’s literacy strategies—if you’re passionate about systems-level impact, consider joining us!
Reading Begins at Birth Team (formerly Every Child is Ready to Read):
This team focuses on early childhood literacy and ensuring families have the tools they need to support young learners. New facilitator to be announced!
Business Pledge Team:
We are thrilled to welcome Ashley Bethke, our Director of Partnership Advancement, as the new facilitator! Ashley has been involved with ABC since its founding and brings experience in education, business, and community engagement. If you want to help mobilize the business community to support literacy, now is a great time to join this team—our first meeting will be in late March or early April.
Get Lit(eracy) Team:
Kaelyn Ahola, ABC’s Communications Manager, will now lead this team. Kaelyn is passionate about storytelling and community engagement. This team will work on strategic messaging and raising awareness about literacy challenges. If you have a background in communications and marketing, lets chat so see if you are a fit! The first meeting will be in late March or early April.
While our teams transition, Daisie Mathias remains our Reading for the Future Project Manager, ensuring continuity across all Action Team meetings and initiatives.
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Child Care: Key to a Better Future
Written by: by Judy Nagel, Upward Mobility Signals Team
with guests: Sarah Inman, Paula Breese, Lynn Coriano
Upward mobility is driven by policy – which can catalyze or sabotage. In the U.S., due to our policies, it takes five generations to move from low income to the middle class. How is that working here in Northeast Wisconsin?
Read Here
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Brains, businesses and buy in: Why Wisconsin must invest in child care
Written by: Sachin Shivaram and Ruth Schmidt
"Conversations with working parents often reveal a stark reality: Our child care system is broken."
Read Opinion Article
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Introduction to Volunteering with Achieve Brown County
April 9, 9:30-10:30 a.m. | April 9, 2024, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Interested in becoming a volunteer and/or partner with the Achieve Brown County Collective Impact Partnership? Join us to learn about Achieve Brown County and where you can make the biggest impact on systems in our community! Session are virtual.
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Find Collective Impact & Other Trainings
The Training Hub Powered by StriveTogether provides easy-to-access, high-quality virtual training, grounded in proven approaches and tested by leaders across the country. The Training Hub builds leaders' capabilities to work across sectors, change systems and achieve equitable outcomes.
Training Hub is free and accessible to all.
| | | | | We are excited to celebrate Ashley Bethke's promotion to Director of Partnership Advancement as well as her one year work anniversary with Achieve Brown County. Thank you for all you do, Ashley, in support of changing systems so every young person can thrive. | | | | We want to send well-wishes to Todd Sutton as he transitions to a new role outside of Achieve Brown County. Thank you, Todd, for helping to strengthen partner networks and take action. | | Achieve Brown County is currently on a hiring freeze. Our recent Community Mobilizer role will not be filled at this time. Thank you to all who applied. | | |
Thank you for subscribing to Achieve Brown County's quarterly Cradle-to Career newsletter. In this newsletter you will find Achieve Brown County agency updates, StriveTogether and Network Partner news, local spotlights and successes, and youth outcome data for Brown County. Have thoughts on topics we should include in future newsletters? Let us know by responding to this email or reaching out to info@achievebrowncounty.org. |
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Phone: 920.593.1050
Address: 441 S. Jackson Street, Suite 201,
Green Bay, WI 54301
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