Finding Common Purpose

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Finding Common Purpose is advancing a new social contract to improve lives and close disparities from cradle to end of life.

Central to advancing a new social contract: Community dashboards that report on progress in the 21st Century.

What is a Community Dashboard?
A northstar that aligns local residents and stakeholders from government, school districts, nonprofit service providers, foundations, and businesses around life outcomes to reduce disparities. Community dashboards are used to track and analyze data to inform policy and resource decisions, identify service gaps, monitor progress, and provide alignment, transparency and accountability.

What Does Finding Common Purpose Do?
Narrative Change: Create a new public narrative that community dashboards are a northstar to measure progress in the 21st century.

Research and Tools: Produce best-practice reports, case studies, tools, and other publications to advance the development and use of community dashboards.

Connect and Support: Facilitate peer connections and build a cadre of technical support providers to develop and implement community dashboards.

Where There is Common Purpose
Hundreds of local initiatives are building a new social contract; facilitating the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to work with residents to meet basic needs and reduce disparities from cradle to end of life.

That’s Finding Common Purpose.

Arrow down icon The Cradle to
End of Life Continuum
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Prenatal to Kindergarten

From a healthy birth to entering kindergarten ready to learn is a critical stage for getting on a pathway to lifelong success. Local initiatives across the country are building the formal early childhood system our nation lacks, one that can ensure a strong handoff to the formal education system.
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Kindergarten to Middle School

Education from kindergarten through middle school—especially math and reading proficiency—are the building blocks of creating academic preparedness for high school and beyond. Initiatives across the country are bringing together schools and nonprofit service providers to ensure students are ready as they move along the pathway to high school.
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High School to Post-Secondary Education/Training

Education and training from high school and beyond is about more than “schooling.” It’s preparation for finding and keeping a good-paying job. Initiatives across the country are building career pathways for young adults, bringing together high schools, two-and four-year colleges, and employers to help prepare them to enter the workforce.
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Entering Workforce to Achieving Stability

The early job years should be stable, providing at least enough to meet basic needs as they allow for beginning to build a long-term financial foundation. Local initiatives are putting systems in place that help people make that kind of progress as they create their futures.
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Building Assets to Financial Security

Income—not employment—is the key indicator of individual and societal health. A combination of benefits and wages should allow individuals and families not only to meet basic needs, but also provide for some leisure and allow for accumulating enough savings so aging is a new life opportunity, not a struggle.
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Healthy Aging to End of Life

As we get older and eventually leave the workforce, new challenges to remaining healthy and secure arise that call for more formalized ways to provide support. Age-friendly communities are emerging and creating the infrastructure needed to support people as they enter this final stage of life.
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TO LEARN MORE, DOWNLOAD, READ, OR LISTEN

About Finding Common Purpose List of Cross Sector Place Based Initiatives Guide to Developing a Community Dashboard Read Op-Ed in The Hill on Community Dashboards Community Dashboard Development Tool