The easiest way to stay connected with educational success activities of Michigan's Children is to sign up for our e-bulletins, including the Graduate Michigan Action Network. the network provides timely information on a variety of topics related to promoting high school graduation in Michigan. Join the Graduate Michigan Network.

These forums help communities bring elected officials and other community leaders to community settings where policymakers can experience first-hand a program and issue facing young people by spending time talking directly with them, and visiting the programs that serve them. these forums have been held in communities Kent, Genesee, Ingham, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Macomb, Muskegon, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties. Read more about YVCPP.

Michigan's Children highlights innovative activity taking place in local communities across Michigan. Community activities are described, and contact information is given so that direct connections can be made between local efforts trying to affect change in their communities. Many of these pieces highlight efforts around youth engagement and educational success. View them all in the Focus on Michigan Communities section of our Library.

Graduation Town is an online electronic learning community dedicated to supporting state, district, building and community efforts to ensure all students graduate high school college and career ready. This is a place to share, ask, advise, collaborate, teach, learn, network, succeed and overcome. Graduation Town is a joint effort between the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals and the Michigan Department of Education. There is a great deal of interest by both parties to make sure that Graduation Town is utilized not only by educators but also by their community partners and others interested improving graduation rates and we need your help to make that a reality. We are working on increasing Michigan's Children's interactions at Graduation Town, and are glad for any suggestions that you might have about it. Please do check out the site and think about how you might be able to contribute content yourself and utilize the information that is there.

In August 2010, Michigan's Children partnered with the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators and others for the Dropout Challenge Summit in Dearborn. This conference ties together the work of communities through the America's Promise Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit in October, 2008 and the work of many of those same communities and others capitalizing on the Superintendent's Dropout Challenge, which was issued in the summer of 2009. More than 450 educators and community partners gathered to learn more about moving research to practice in school reform efforts and left the Summite with concrete plans to leverage research, best practice and partners in future school improvement planning.

Michigan's Children facilitated youth engagement in the Summit as participant interviewers. Young people worked in teams to interview participants, some recording the intervies on flip cameras and other working directly with Detroit Public Television camera crews to capture their conversations. The interviews have been shared with Detroit Public Television, the Michigan Deaprtment of Education and other partners to edit for a multitude of uses. The interviews explored what is currently going on around Michigan related to dropout prevention and recovery and more toward suggestions for change to improve graduation rates around that state. To explore this type of youth involvement in other venues, contact Michele Corey.

Michigan's Children continues to provide leadership to the Dropout Challenge Action Team and keeps partners up-to-date on partnership possibilities through the Graduate Michigan Action Network.

In October 2008, Michigan's Children and over 40 other non-profit organizations, funders, and representatives from public agencies and associations came together at the America's Promise Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit in Lansing.

More than 500 interested parties joined forces to develop solutions and partnerships, marking the first time such a diverse group of stakeholders have joined efforts to address Michigan's dropout crisis.

Community teams and individuals from across that state gathered to learn more about the dropout crisis, why graduating more students from high school is critical for every part of our society and economy, and how we can work together locally to keep students in school.

View all Summit proceedings, including presentations, materials and links, and see all the partners who helped make this summit a success.

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