Milwaukee Succeeds was among three education initiatives nationwide to be honored with a national award for its work toward improving educational outcomes.

The Milwaukee educational partnership received the Cradle to Career Catalyst Award at the fourth annual StriveTogether Cradle-to-Career Convening, held Sept. 25 – 27 in Dallas. The other honorees were Bridging Richmond, an educational initiative in Richmond, Va. founded in 2009, and Mission: Graduate, a cradle-to-career effort in central New Mexico that began this year. More than 450 educators, elected officials, community leaders, business leaders and others attended the conference. Last year’s conference was in Milwaukee.

“This year’s recipients demonstrate the power of organizations and communities working together with a goal of helping every child to succeed from cradle to career,” said Nancy L. Zimpher, who chairs StriveTogether’s national advisory board and is chancellor of the State University of New York, in a press release. “Their excellence provides an example that we all appreciate and hope to continue each year.”

According to Strive, the award is given to individuals and organizations that helped ignite or develop partnerships that build the momentum of Strive’s work nationally; are actively engaged as thought partners to help shape the growing movement to develop civic infrastructure and have collective impact; and provided critical seed funding to take projects to scale that can benefit the cradle-to-career movement as a whole.

“Milwaukee Succeeds has built a vibrant and broad-based community partnership that is working to improve the odds for Milwaukee children,” said Mike Soika, director of Milwaukee Succeeds. “We are proud of the work we have done over the past two years, particularly in engaging hundreds of individuals and organizations in our community to work toward a set of common goals that will improve the lives of our kids. We appreciate the national recognition that comes with this award.”