ImpactTulsa

September is National Literacy Month, and here at ImpactTulsa we know that a love of reading starts early and stays with you.

This month, our team is sharing the books that shaped them, from childhood favorites to recent reads that have stuck with them. Because literacy is personal, and the people doing this work bring their whole selves to it.

What is a book that stuck with you? Drop it in the comments 📚

A child's journey from birth to a career is not one moment. It is hundreds of them.

ImpactTulsa's Cradle to Career Dashboard tracks the milestones that matter most along that journey, from kindergarten readiness all the way through employment. Each data point tells part of the story of whether Tulsa's young people are on a path to economic mobility.

The dashboard covers: Kindergarten Readiness and Enrollment, Reading and Math, Attendance, High School Graduation, FAFSA completion, College Enrollment and Completion, and Employment.

Because when we can see where young people are thriving and where they are falling behind, we can do something about it.

Explore the Cradle to Career Dashboard at ImpactTulsa.org

ImpactTulsa's Student Evictions Alert System, built in partnership with Tulsa Public Schools, identifies families facing eviction before housing instability derails a child's education. Families are connected to legal aid, benefits enrollment, and wraparound support through the resource hub at East Central Middle School, made possible through the work of Tulsa Responds , YWCA Tulsa, and Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation

None of this happens without the community investors who made it possible. Thank you to Tulsa Area United Way , the Coretz Family Foundation, and the Zarrow Family Foundations for believing this work was worth building.

Tulsa's model has caught the attention of cities across the country. Through Enterprise Community Partners, ImpactTulsa is now helping communities in Rochester, Dayton, Dallas, Grand Rapids, and Memphis develop their own student-centered eviction strategies.

Read the full story in The 74: https://www.the74million.org/article/evicted-students-miss-class-and-fall-behind-tulsa-schools-want-to-change-that/

Six years ago, ImpactTulsa started matching eviction court filings against student addresses. What surfaced changed how an entire district responds to housing instability.

ImpactTulsa, a member of the StriveTogether Network, found that the property owners filing the most evictions were clustered in the same neighborhoods as the schools with the highest chronic absenteeism. Between 2020 and 2023, the organization identified filings affecting roughly 4,400 Tulsa Public Schools students. A year later, close to three-fourths of those students were still chronically absent.

That finding became infrastructure. When a student's address shows up on the eviction docket, the district can now reach out to that family with legal aid and rental assistance before a forced move turns into a lost school year. At East Central Middle School, parents can walk into an office by the front door and talk to a navigator and an attorney about rent, food, a hotspot — whatever's most urgent that week. About 40 teachers learned how to help parents document the payments, repair requests and messages that shape an eviction case.

Seven other communities connected to the StriveTogether Network spent 9 months last year studying this model, from Rochester to Dallas to Dayton. What started as ImpactTulsa scraping a court docket is becoming a blueprint in cities throughout the country.

Read the full article from The 74, then be sure to follow ImpactTulsa to keep up with their work.

https://hubs.li/Q04xSM-J0

If you want to stay connected to the work happening across Tulsa for children, youth, and families, our monthly newsletter is the place to be.

Each edition brings together updates from across the ImpactTulsa network, partner highlights, and stories of progress you will not want to miss. Sign up today so you never miss what is happening in Tulsa.

Subscribe today: https://bit.ly/41PqB7S

September is Attendance Awareness Month, and there is no better time to celebrate the community partners making sure Tulsa students have a safe path to school every single day.

The Walking School Bus is back for another year. Across Tulsa, community partners are showing up to walk alongside students, making sure they arrive safely, consistently, and ready to learn. Chronic absenteeism does not happen in isolation, and neither does the solution.

Thank you to every partner, volunteer, and neighbor who is part of making this work.

📸: Met Cares, South Tulsa Community House

Where does the money go? Who lives where? And which children are facing the greatest barriers?

These are the questions behind ImpactTulsa's Community Investments and Conditions Dashboard, the first of three sections in our updated data hub.

This section brings together a Fiscal Map of community investments, Tulsa Regional Demographics, a Child Equity Index, and a Partner Map, giving partners, policymakers, and community members a clear picture of the landscape our children are growing up in.

Understanding conditions is the first step toward changing them.

Explore this section at ImpactTulsa.org.

School is almost here for Tulsa families.

Union Public Schools - Tulsa, OK and Jenks Public Schools students are already in classrooms, and Tulsa Public Schools Pre-K kicks off Friday, August 21. If your child turns four by September 1 and is not yet enrolled in Pre-K, do not wait another day.

Free Pre-K is available across Tulsa's school districts. The process is simple and the spot is waiting.

Get enrolled now at prekTulsa.com.