This is a guest post from Karen Ortiz, vice president of the Helios Education Foundation in Phoenix, Ariz.. This is the first of what we hope will be many submissions by the 124 communities working with us in the Grade-Level Reading Network.

What’s the state of Arizona doing in the All-America City contest? The short answer is: We listened when the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading called for pulling together resources toward a common goal. Foundations across Arizona decided a unified, statewide effort to improve early literacy would produce more impact than campaign in individual cities.

For years we have approached key policy and social issues by funding various initiatives, which has contributed to the development of many valuable programs but at the same time added to the fragmented approach.  Recognizing this, three funders—Helios Education Foundation, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, and the Arizona Community Foundation—agreed to approach the grade-level reading opportunity using a systems approach versus
the submission of multiple applications by individual cities.

To achieve this goal, the three funders reached out to four United Way organizations in the state: Valley of the Sun United Way, United Way of Tucson
and Southern Arizona, United Way of Northern Arizona, and the United Way of Yuma County. Collectively the United Way organizations agreed to coordinate the development of the plans from each of their communities, so that we could identify common themes, share best practices, and align indicators and outcomes to address the issues of school readiness, summer learning loss, and chronic absenteeism across the four communities.

The three funders, along with new philanthropic partners, intend to fund selected projects and strategies from the Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP) that share the most common goals and outcomes among the four communities. The work within this campaign will also link to a broader Early Childhood Education system conversation being facilitated by the BUILD Initiative.

Helios Education Foundation, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, and the Arizona Community Foundation understand the urgency around grade-level
reading and we are working to improve the quality of the early learning environment by strategically collaborating with local and state partners to help bring resources that will create professional development opportunities for the teachers of children aged birth to 8.