Our Mission & Solutions
“The median household income for white residents, at $149,734, is over three times higher than the median income of Black residents, which is $49,652. White households have higher median incomes than all other races in the District, but the disparity between white and Black households is the most disproportionate.”
DC Racial Equity Profile for Economic Outcomes, Council Office of Racial Equity
“The best available information indicates that the majority of D.C.’s alumni do not complete a postsecondary degree, and that those who stay in the city as young adults earn about half the income of their peers who moved to the city.”
Measuring Early Career Outcomes in DC, DC Policy Center
Young people of color in our city face unique barriers to identifying, accessing, and succeeding on the postsecondary pathway that's right for them. Despite the District's wealth of education, workforce, and career opportunities, access to economic mobility remains deeply inequitable.
The professionals supporting learners face challenges, too. Educators, advisors, career navigators, and workforce practitioners often lack the relationships, shared knowledge, and coordinated resources needed to help young people successfully navigate the full range of postsecondary pathways available in DC.
Our Mission: Invest in the educators, advisors, and career navigators who guide learners on their postsecondary journeys—improving postsecondary outcomes and ultimately closing the racial wealth gap in DC.
We believe practitioners achieve the greatest impact when they have strong relationships, shared knowledge, and coordinated support. That's why we invest in the people guiding learners every day while strengthening the broader systems around them.
The Collaborative serves as a connector and coordinator across DC's postsecondary ecosystem, convening and equipping a cross-sector coalition of educators, advisors, career navigators, workforce professionals, nonprofit leaders, higher education institutions, employers, philanthropy, government, and research partners. Together, we strengthen advising, foster collaboration, align strategy, and build a more connected ecosystem that expands opportunity and improves early career outcomes for DC learners.
How We Strengthen the Ecosystem
Collaboration & Community-Building
DC educators and service providers are disconnected from other professionals in the postsecondary landscape. We need consistent conversation across the ecosystem, especially between learner-facing practitioners, program and school leaders, and city decision-makers.
High-Quality Learning & Skills Training
Postsecondary success professionals want high quality professional development and community-building opportunities for a rapidly changing world. They need the tools to be empowered to advise learners across multiple career and college pathway options - and in responsive ways for those who need the most support.
Shifting the Postsecondary Advising Paradigm
The single postsecondary pathway mentality has dominated advising for years, but it is not serving young people. Youth and residents need equitable access to a diversity of high-quality pathways. These include associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, apprenticeships, workforce training, and more.
Our Solutions
So, how does the Collaborative align data, strategy, and action?
Learn Together
From roundtables to leader convenings to small professional learning communities, our programs bring the postsecondary ecosystem into the same room - to learn together, align on what’s working, and act in coordination.
Stay Connected
This is how the ecosystem stays coordinated. Our newsletter and blog pool resources, amplify what’s working, and celebrate the people moving this work forward. Have an opportunity to share? Add it to our next newsletter!
Build Alignment
We bring our community together through the DC Postsecondary Success Summit, our flagship convening; the Practitioner Forum, launching this November for direct service providers; and the Winter Awards Breakfast, celebrating excellence across the field.