Strada Impact works to help all students succeed beyond completion of credentials and degrees — especially those who face the greatest barriers. We seek to redefine success to mean these outcomes: securing a good job, doing meaningful work, contributing to the community, and leading a fulfilling life. We conduct research, make grants and impact investments, launch focused initiatives, and broadly share what we’re learning.
Our research provides important insights on what students value about their educational experiences so we can better understand how to help them succeed beyond completion.
We provide charitable grants and invest in nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs who help students succeed through the completion of credentials and degrees and beyond.
We share what we’re learning to elevate promising work and demonstrate how effective education and training can help people obtain good jobs, pursue meaningful work, contribute to their community, and lead a fulfilling life.
We focus on key indicators of student success beyond completion and measure them across our grants and investments, the work of our collaborating organizations, and our research.
We conduct primary research to better understand how to ensure that everyone can succeed in education and training that will lead to good jobs and fulfilling lives. Through interviews, focus groups, and surveys, we learn how past, present, and prospective students experience the various pathways from education to work. We use these insights to inform policies and practices that will improve the quality and value of education and training after high school, and will benefit the students who need it most.
Public Viewpoint is a rapid-response research initiative launched in March 2020 to provide timely insights on key education and workforce issues.
From its onset in early 2020, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has upended life across the world, leading to uncertainty around health, work, finances, education, and a host of other issues.
Dive into our data and learn how Americans feel about education and work, what they value, and how their perceptions have changed over time.
The baccalaureate degree remains the surest path to economic mobility, employment stability, and a host of associated social benefits. This is true for first-generation students, those who struggle to afford education, and especially for students of color.
Our grants and investments support organizations and companies that develop promising opportunities, expand proven solutions, and sustain models that are working. We measure the social impact and returns of all our investments and incorporate what we learn into future investments. This learning includes conducting and sharing research so that the most promising practices and organizations receive more attention and support from additional funders.
$25 million grant from Strada Education Network taps the collective experience and insights of HBCU leaders to scale experiential learning and leadership development within the college experience
Grant competition seeks to connect learning with employment for first-generation students, those who struggle to afford education, and students of color.
College student Terrell Worrell reflects on his experience as a member of the first class of Strada-Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars.
Long before COVID-19, America’s most vulnerable students were struggling to access not only education and skills training, but the social connections that open doors to great careers. Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder and CEO of Braven, says the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities has also laid bare inequities in the education-to-workforce ecosystem.
Given the broad range of our work in grants and investments, research, and program development, we engage every day with all aspects of the education and workforce universe. We make the most of our relationships and resources to advance this work by sharing what we’re learning through our newsletter, podcast, and media activities, and by bringing our colleagues and partners together to collaborate and amplify our collective efforts to improve education and work.
We know a college degree is required for many jobs in the United States. Yet nearly two-thirds of Americans never earn a degree. Google’s Lisa Gevelber, chief marketing officer for the corporation’s Americas region, says short-term credential programs could be the key to improving career opportunities for more people — and they might even create a more equitable labor market in the process.
Long before JFF’s Michael Collins became an education-workforce policy expert, he was a Black kid living in Hartford, Connecticut, bussed to school in the white suburbs.
Strada Interim CEO Tom Dawson shared a story Wednesday that crystalizes how much the realm of education philanthropy has changed — and how quickly that change happened.
As a young mother with two small children, Natasha Santiago-Body struggled to juggle parenthood, a job, and her studies. Her own mother could identify: She had been just 16 when Santiago-Body was born and often left her children in their grandmother’s care so she could earn a degree to become a registered nurse and, later, to return to school to add computer and project management skills to her resume.
While specific programs, policies, activities, and initiatives have their own dimensions that merit examination and understanding, we employ a common framework to evaluate success, prioritizing the key indicators of persistence, completion, economic outcomes, and personal and community benefits.
Economist Beth Akers insists she’s not a college debt crisis denier. College is expensive — more than double the cost today compared to the 1980s.
In her early 20s, Kiabeth Santos was well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming a nurse. She wanted to work in health care, and she loves working with people. But then life — as it often does — got in the way.
What can employers do to prepare today’s workers for the jobs of tomorrow? Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health and a former leader in the California Community College system, talks about how employers, labor unions, and educators can work together to help workers learn what they need to get better jobs.
Underemployment’s Long-Term Effects on the Careers of College Grads