THRIVE Carpinteria is working toward an ambitious goal of ensuring that every child in Carpinteria is ready for kindergarten and is successful academically beyond high school and into a college or career of his or her choice.

Since spring 2012, THRIVE Carpinteria has been developing a student success pathway that defines what matters most to college and career readiness from cradle to career. Now, THRIVE Carpinteria is taking a bold step forward.

On Wednesday, Jan. 30, more than 100 educators, businesses, nonprofits, community agencies, government officials, faith-based organizations and philanthropists will participate in the first day of a two-day THRIVE Carpinteria Design Institute at Lion’s Park in Carpinteria.

The goal of the Design Institute is to develop a collaborative action plan that outlines how the community will work together to increase college and career readiness based on a proven framework developed by national network called Strive.

Strive Managing Director Jeff Edmondson and his team will lead Design Institute participants in this effort.

Strive is nationally-recognized for helping communities make dramatic improvements in outcomes for children in areas such as kindergarten readiness, standardized testing and college retention. The work of Strive has been featured in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Stanford Social Innovation Review, TIME Magazine, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Huffington Post.

THRIVE Carpinteria is honored to be the first of the five community collaboratives in THRIVE Santa Barbara County to work with Strive to build a concrete and coordinated approach to supporting every child’s success, every step of the way cradle to career. The THRIVE Carpinteria Design Institute will help guide similar efforts in the four additional THRIVE sites in Santa Barbara’s Westside, Isla Vista, Santa Maria and Guadalupe.

As members of the national Strive Cradle to Career Network, the work of THRIVE community collaboratives will serve as a model for supporting student success in other communities across the country.

Click here for more information about THRIVE Carpinteria.

— Sally Kingston is the director of College Bound Programs & Instruction for the Carpinteria Unified School District.