A week ago or so I had the privilege of hearing Alama Powell speak at the ASCD conference in New Orleans.
She leads the America’s Promise Alliance, which is built on the research-supported premise that 5 things in kids lives make the difference between successful transition to adulthood, and various forms of failure. Those 5 things are:
- Caring adults
- Safe places
- A healthy start
- Effective education
- Opportunities to help others
She listed some startling statistics:
- there are 7000 kids dropping out of school each day in the US
- there are 9 million kids without health insurance
- kids who lack 3 of the 5 promises have twice the poverty rate and 8 times the incarceration rate versus kids who have all 5
She was a great speaker, and is a passionate woman – it was very enjoyable to hear her. She also happens to be the wife of Colin Powell