Creating Collaborative Communities

Every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school.

The America's Promise Alliance (APA) Dropout Prevention Initiative aims to reduce this staggering statistic and the stakes could not be any higher. As the world shifts to a knowledge-based economy, the need for skilled workers grows more rapidly every year, yet more and more Americans are dropping out of high school, leaving them without the skills to compete in the global economy. The implications of this crisis have already begun to penetrate every level of American society.

In an effort to address this problem, APA has brought together its partner organizations to work in tandem in finding solutions to keep kids in school. In 2008, APA launched a series of summits across the country to connect organization like the YMCA, United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and others working on dropout prevention. APA aims to help these organizations design action plans and coordinate their efforts to address the dropout problem.

As part of this effort, APA enlisted iCohere as a strategic partner in merging face-to-face activities with continued online work. Providing collaborative technology and strategy, iCohere built the Online Community Action Forum to allow members to learn from each other, organize their plans, and ultimately meet their goals.

iCohere's work with APA has gone far beyond simply selling a software platform. In addition to comprehensive consulting, iCohere provided a team of experts to offer engaging online facilitation, full end-user support, APA staff training, and ongoing configuration strategies that allow the site to grow as the initiative matures.

Kathy Spangler, Executive Vice President of APA, mentions: “After experiencing the power of iCohere as a conference participant, I was convinced that the platform offered great potential to advance our work. My experiences with the iCohere team have exceeded my expectations — for their knowledge, innovation and collaborative approach to supporting our goals.”

Founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, APA is the nation's largest multi-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth. APA brings together partner organizations from around the country to address and combat problems in America's education system that no one organization can handle alone.