“I mean, let me be honest. So, my family, I’m the first one who’s going to college and I plan on going to college because I want to be the first one in my family to get a degree and make my family proud. And I don’t know, I guess I just have to, like I don’t really talk with anyone about it, and I don’t really know much about it, but I mean I learned a few things from Let’s Get Ready. You know, financial aid and you know, how the school life is.”                                    
--11th Grader, Long Island City High School

When I accepted the Executive Director position for Zone 126, I knew coming in that this assignment would require me to put thirty years of non-profit executive leadership to the test but every time I learn how our work touches the lives of youth like the student quoted above, I know I am exactly where I’m supposed to be.
                         
Astoria and Long Island City’s schools and youth-serving organizations should benefit from changes happening in their neighborhood due to unprecedented gentrification. Even though the work is complex, and the relationships are complicated, we have started the conversation about the future but need to work together to achieve a common goal: get more students graduating high school, into college or the workforce and overtime, out of poverty.
                         
Moving forward, Zone 126 will lead efforts with “all in” school and non-profit partners to:

    1. Effectively frame the importance of community-generated approaches as critical to       ensuring that collective impact efforts can be achieved and sustained over time;

    2. Address the reality that investing in programs or services alone has not led to more       desired outcomes for neighborhood youth;

   3. Realize that being disciplined in using data across similar and cross-sector partners        are better investments for assessing impact.

Preliminary findings for our work at both Renewal Community Schools, (CS 111Q and Long Island City High School) show that we have begun to lay the foundation for growth. We dare to ask schools and community residents “what do you need” and do our best work with partners or our staff to deliver responsibly. Our work is also making it clear that educators and families are craving another voice in their schools and communities—their own and non-profits like Zone 126 are stepping in to fill that void. To paraphrase Pope Francis in his recent Ted Talk, “we can turn enough you’s into us and begin a revolution.