
Local communities gain capacity to improve economic outcomes as they complete Advance Together program
Five years ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas launched Advance Together, an innovative approach to helping local communities reduce barriers to economic opportunity. Selected community partnerships that are working to improve education and employment outcomes receive training, coaching and funding from philanthropic partners to strengthen their efforts.
Last summer, the pilot round of the multiyear program concluded. All participants have attracted new investment and made progress on their goals, sometimes in unexpected ways—from overcoming a rivalry between neighboring cities to developing a policy solution with ramifications across Texas.
The Advance Together initiative supports the Federal Reserve’s mission to ensure the benefits of a strong economy are available to everyone. As part of our responsibilities, Reserve Banks work with community partners to help expand access to economic opportunity. One focus for the Dallas Fed is connecting more people with quality jobs and education.
Advance Together aims to accelerate collaborative work across the public, nonprofit and business sectors that helps the Fed meet its mandated goal of maximum employment.
The results from our pilot demonstrate the success of the model and lay the groundwork for the next round, which begins this year.
Pilot participants 2021–24
Advance Together emphasizes shared learning to strengthen collaborative efforts.
Four community partnerships in Texas participated in the pilot round of Advance Together: Big Country Manufacturing Alliance (Abilene), Deep East Texas College and Career Alliance (Jasper), Education Partnership of the Permian Basin (Midland–Odessa) and Travis County 2-Gen Coalition (Austin). Each team is working toward long-term goals that require many years of sustained, collaborative effort.
During the initiative’s three-year implementation phase (2021–23), the teams leveraged flexible grant funds and technical assistance to deepen their cross-sector partnerships, test and refine strategies for their work, and dig deeper into data.
In the first half of 2024, they completed a final, six-month sustainability phase. This provided the teams with an opportunity to review, renew and recalibrate their efforts to prepare for the next three to five years of work.
Growth in funding, engagement and impact
Over the course of the pilot, all partnerships demonstrated significant growth and gained momentum:
- Additional, ongoing investment. By early 2024, the teams had attracted over $8.2 million in direct investment from capital providers based on their progress and successful proof of concept. This figure represents nearly seven times the original grant investment in these communities from Advance Together.
- Programmatic progress. To amplify their impact, all teams increased the number of students or adult workers served by their programs and enhanced their offerings. Examples of program enhancements include additional dual-credit courses, work-based learning opportunities, wraparound services for participants, and coursework based on educator and employer input.
- Major new engagement by anchor institutions and CEOs . Executives from universities, community colleges and hospitals stepped into critical roles within the collaborative efforts. Their involvement signifies greater opportunity for making system-level changes and sustainable investment in shared, community-wide goals. The teams also deepened relationships among public, private and nonprofit partners in their regions to better inform decision-making and address structural pain points in workforce or education systems.
- Refinement of goals and effective use of data. All teams developed SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) and clear strategies for making measurable progress in collaboration with their partners. They also worked on developing shared measures, data collection systems and goals tied to relevant local data.
Site-level progress on diverse goals
The four teams in the pilot represent diverse regions in Texas. Their community aspirations and journeys toward their goals are likewise multifaceted and unique. This diversity of experience helps extend the impact of Advance Together by providing a variety of models for other communities to draw on.
Following are highlights of each group’s progress during the 2021–24 program period.
Big Country Manufacturing Alliance advanced its goal to increase regional employment in middle-skill, high-wage manufacturing careers in West Central Texas by 10 percent by 2030.
Students explore careers at a World of Work expo with Big Country Manufacturing Alliance employers.
- Increased regional employment in targeted manufacturing careers by 6.5 percent over the course of the Advance Together program.
- Built a coalition of local employers, K–12 school districts and other community partners to increase awareness of manufacturing jobs and develop a regional career pipeline.
- Tested on-the-job internships for high school students and on-site trainings for career and technical education teachers across 19 school districts.
- Developed a solution to a major policy challenge that prevented high school students from participating in apprenticeships at manufacturing facilities (relating to insurance coverage for minors). Texas higher education agencies have expressed interest in sharing this model across the state.
Deep East Texas College and Career Alliance moved forward on its goal to increase college and career learning opportunities for over 7,000 local students. The coalition of six public school districts and two higher education institutions helps students complete dual-credit, certification and other courses so graduates can move into living-wage jobs and stable careers.
Dual-credit students graduate from the Deep East Texas College and Career Alliance fire academy.
- Expanded program offerings in five school districts to include welding, commercial driver’s license and certified nursing assistant programs, and established a fire academy. Training opportunities are aligned with local industry needs and viable career paths.
- Increased the number of students enrolled in dual-credit classes by 40 percent over the Advance Together program period.
- Increased the number of students taking and passing the Texas Success Initiative Assessment, which helps determine readiness for college-level coursework. For students who did not pass initially, teachers and counselors were equipped with customized test preparation and college-readiness resources to support them in learning the necessary content, passing the assessment later and successfully transitioning into college-level coursework while still in high school.
Education Partnership of the Permian Basin advanced its goal to improve education outcomes for all students in the region from cradle to career, with a focus on improving kindergarten readiness and increasing college attendance and career entry.
Students engage in lessons from an industry-aligned curriculum developed by the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin.
- Brokered a historic reconciliation between two rival cities—Midland and Odessa—to develop a regionwide plan for career pathways in energy and other high-growth industries.
- Engaged partners to develop a high school energy pathway curriculum that allows students to earn industry-recognized credentials and postsecondary credit aligned with the Permian Basin labor market. Work is underway for all districts in the region to adopt the pathway in 2025.
- Conducted a child care landscape analysis to understand needs and opportunities to expand high-quality child care offerings in the region. The team is sharing its findings with employers and public officials to generate momentum for creating solutions.
Travis County 2-Gen Coalition progressed on its goal to strengthen an ecosystem of programs and services that support intergenerational economic opportunity for families with low incomes.
The Travis County 2-Gen Coalition is exploring avenues to sustain a successful program for parents working toward college degrees.
- Revamped processes and coalition membership to incorporate parent voices and deeper representation of practitioners. Two work groups met regularly to develop strategies for addressing systemic barriers that may prevent parenting students from pursuing or completing education and job-placement pathways.
- Led a successful pilot program for parenting students, ages 18-29, at Austin Community College (ACC) to help them accelerate their postsecondary education and move into living-wage employment. The program provided a monthly stipend, wraparound support services and academic counseling. Parents in the program passed an average of 8.3 credit hours per semester, compared with 5.9 credit hours for the general ACC student population. At the end of two years, 38 percent of participants had earned a degree or certificate, and another 38 percent were continuing their studies. The coalition is exploring avenues to sustain the program.
- Developed a 2024–27 strategic plan upon wrapping up its first five-year plan. To ensure that action steps reflected the needs and aspirations of parents and caregivers, the coalition organized focus groups through partners to gather parent feedback and community input.
Increased momentum for collaborative efforts
Feedback from the pilot teams identified multiple positive impacts from participating in Advance Together. Participants said the initiative’s learning cohort structure was invaluable, allowing them to network across the state and learn from other collaborative efforts.
One team shared how they are leveraging the core principles and learnings from Advance Together to enhance more efforts to build career pipelines across their region. While their initial work focused on one industry, they said, they are now confident in structuring new collaborative efforts to strengthen public, private and nonprofit partnerships in service of other in-demand industries.
All teams agreed that the flexibility of Advance Together grant funds had a significant impact on their operations and growth, in contrast to grants that come with restrictions or only support current programming. Participants said the flexibility demonstrated a high level of trust in local communities and provided teams with the chance to invest in their staffing capacity, convening power and other resources based on their needs.
Moving forward together
As the Dallas Fed prepares to welcome a second Advance Together cohort, we’re excited to see our pilot teams continue forward on their respective journeys.
We’ll also be bringing them back for select learning opportunities with our round-two teams. Coordinating a collective impact initiative, our pilot participants said, can sometimes feel like working in isolation. By including them, we aim to build a broader Advance Together network of collaborative leaders to help sustain every community’s efforts into the future.
New and veteran teams will continue learning from one another, sharing ideas and solutions and providing support, as they all work to improve education and employment outcomes across Texas.
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