About Generation Next
Who We Are:
Why Was Generation Next Created?
Generation Next was founded to unify cross-sector leaders around shared goals. To that end, our collective impact approach uses the nationally recognized StriveTogether model, with our partners agreeing on common goals, analyzing data to track progress, and directing resources toward what works best for kids.
Who We Are: A coalition of civic, business and education leaders from across Minneapolis and Saint Paul dedicated to closing achievement and opportunity gaps. We use rigorous data analysis and community engagement to identify what works and replicate the most promising practices.
What Sets Us Apart: Generation Next impacts over 75,000 students through the direct engagement with both Superintendents from Minneapolis Public Schools and Saint Paul Public Schools. The only cradle-to-career backbone organization addressing systemic disparities in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Generation Next convenes a coalition of partners to create collective impact to close the opportunity and achievement gaps facing students of color and lower-income students. Generation Next was founded to unify cross-sector leaders around shared goals. To that end, our collective impact approach uses the nationally recognized StriveTogether model, with our partners agreeing on common goals, analyzing data to track progress, and directing resources toward what works best for kids.
Our Mission:
Our mission is to harness the community’s knowledge, expertise, and action to ensure that every child can thrive.
We envision a future in which every child has the academic, social, and emotional skills to thrive in a globally-fluent world.
What We Do:
Generation Next works with schools and school districts, community-based and advocacy organizations, philanthropic organizations, city and county governments, and higher education organizations to support students from cradle to career. Using the three strategic levers of funding, policy, and practice, Generation Next implements a collective impact model to increase achievement for all students. We work to ensure that resources are maximized toward effective and equitable educational strategies, that advocacy for changes in public policy enables and sustains positive improvement of educational outcomes, and that effective educational practices are implemented, supported, and scaled.
Our Guiding Principles:
As a Leadership Council, we will:
- Prioritize inclusion in our processes and create practices, policies and funding priorities that lead to equitable outcomes. We seek to eliminate racial and economic disparities in student outcomes while accelerating achievement for all.
- Draw on a wide range of evidence including lived experience, local expertise, and metrics when making decisions about and recommendations on policy, practice, and funding.
- Engage both “grasstops” and “grassroots” to produce meaningful and sustainable change. We will work to expand conditions for community voices to have influence over decisions.
- Make social determinants a necessary part of the education discussion.
- Lead uncomfortable, bold and unapologetic discussions of complex issues that impact children’s lives.
- Bring a sense of urgency to our work.
- Hold ourselves accountable to our community stakeholders for the success of our efforts and relentlessly measure outcomes.
Our Goals:
Since our founding in 2012, Generation Next and our partners have made measurable impact for Twin Cities kids. The seeds for success in school and in life are planted early — before kindergarten — and they extend to training or education beyond high school.
Generation Next uses six key benchmarks to plot critical points along a student’s journey, from kindergarten to early career.