Our Foundation’s strategy is based on a key premise: To make life better for children and families living in poverty, we need to improve the systems that surround and support them.

Families with young children need a robust environment that includes everything from quality early learning, affordable health care and safe housing to good nutrition options, reliable transportation and ample jobs for parents. Unfortunately, these support systems don’t work the same for all children and families. Some neighborhoods have all they need for children to be born healthy, grow up strong and succeed in school and life, while others don’t.

Systems change is not the easy path to take. But it’s the right one. It’s how we make sure that needs are addressed comprehensively, that solutions can be sustained over time, and that all children, no matter where they live, have what they need to thrive.

As an operating foundation, we are well-suited for the challenge of systems work. We are able to go beyond the role of funder to serve as convener and collaborator, bringing together the right ideas, the right stakeholders and the right resources to drive change within and across systems.

In this 2016/2017 Year in Review, we’ll share four stories that bring our systems work to life, show the progress we have made over the past 12 months and explain how this work can lead to lasting change for the children, families and communities we serve.

We invite you to read the report now.