The Center for Community Solutions will work to increase school readiness and high school graduation rates through targeted research, analysis, advocacy, communications, and coalition building. The first phase of this initiative will focus on increasing access to high-quality early care and education through the statewide groundWork initiative.

Community Solutions has a long history of promoting youth development. Additionally, groundWork has been a successful advocacy initiative of Community Solutions since 2004, building a statewide coalition of more than 4,000 people and organizations and significantly expanding early childhood education, health, and mental health issues services across Ohio.

As part of this initiative, Community Solutions will:

• Create a detailed analysis flowing from youth-related priority indicators adopted by the Board in 2010;
• Prepare an environmental scan of major challenges facing youth in Northeast Ohio;
• Include data on the recent work in this field by Community Solutions, including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District project, Summit 2010 goals and comprehensive strategy on juvenile justice, and Cuyahoga County Comprehensive Strategy on Juvenile Justice;
• Prepare an audit of current efforts to improve high school graduation rates in the 16-county region, and analyze advocacy, research, and collaboration needs that Community Solutions is best suited to address; and
• Use the data above to create a long-term plan for the 16-county region.