Great Expectations

We have great expectations for what we can do together.

Thank you! This community has stepped up once again to support kids. Together, we can help local youth succeed from cradle to career.

Great Expectations has great impact.

Your investment will create life-changing opportunities like these:

• $65 provides one student school supplies for a fresh start back to school
• $100 helps a child participate in one season of community soccer
• $335 provides a child one week of quality child care through the Caring for Kids program
• $490 provides a child a semester of piano lessons
• $975 staffs and supplies one Neighborhood Program site for one month where youth build relationships with caring adults and access opportunities

Listen to individual stories & experiences:

• Caring for Kids Fundraising Breakfast
• MN Early Learning Stories
• MN students of color lead movement for equity in schools
• Minnesota Public Radio’s “Counter Stories” podcast, episode 5 — 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Tom Rademacher discusses with the panel views on the education gap in Minnesota
• In Focus: Equity in Education — an MPR News community event hosted by Angela Davis

Read the research:

• Impacts of the pandemic on students’ learning, McKinsey study

Join your voice with others in support of local kids!

Engage your family, friends, book club or faith community

Host a virtual or in-person conversation and screening:

• No Small Matter
• Growing up Poor in America
• Monique W. Morris’ TED Talk

Contact elected officials and let them know why this matters to you!

To do so, check out these partner advocacy plans:

• Ignite Afterschool
• Justice in Education
• Think Small

Practice being a brave bystander

• Tips on how to be a brave bystander — Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, Direct

About the Great Expectations Initiative

The Great Expectations Initiative is our community’s collaborative response to educational inequities.

Anchored by Interfaith Outreach and the Orono and Wayzata School Districts, Great Expectations helps ensure that every child in our community has access to educational opportunities—from cradle to career.

We do so by aligning and coordinating partners around common goals, facilitating communication and collaboration, and leveraging community resources to change conditions in order to ensure equitable access to educational opportunities.

For nearly a decade, Great Expectations has helped strengthen the entire “ecosystem of support”—families, teachers, schools, community members and organizations—that is needed to bring about true, systemic changes and educational equity for all kids and families in our community.

We have great expectations for what we can do together.

And Great Expectations has great impact.