About Every Child | Every Promise
What is Every Child | Every Promise?
Every Child | Every Promise is an umbrella organization (but not a service provider) that connects people to resources and assists service providers in delivering the Five Promises to youth. We are a catalyst that facilitates collaboration among youth serving agencies. Collaboration helps eliminate duplication of services, promotes more efficient use of limited funds and builds a more effective delivery system.
Founded in 2004, Every Child | Every Promise was formerly known as Mississippi Valley Promise. Based on a model presented by the America's Promise Alliance, and in partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, Mississippi Valley Promise brought the concept of every child, every promise to Dubuque County. In the fall of 2008, the organization officially changed the name to Every Child | Every Promise to reflect this work and provide consistency with the initiative. The mission of the organization has not changed.
In 2007 and 2008, Dubuque was named one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" as a result of a comprehensive, national application submitted by Every Child | Every Promise to the America's Promise Alliance. The alliance will next award the "100 Best" distinction in 2010, and Every Child | Every Promise expects to bring this honor to our community for the third consecutive time.
About Us
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Goals of Every Child | Every Promise
The mission of Every Child | Every Promise is to engage the entire community in building a real commitment to fulfilling the Five Promises to the children of Dubuque County.
The goals of the process are to:
- Identify and prioritize the needs of youth 0-20 years old
- Identify and link agencies, schools, funders and the community at large to help fill these needs efficiently and effectively
- Create the first ever Dubuque County Youth Master Plan, a comprehensive, strategic document focused on positively impacting the outcomes for children by building on Dubuque's collaborative nature
- Convene Task Teams to specifically address the priorities identified in the Dubuque County Youth Master Plan
- Bring more resources into our community for system change and support of best practice models
- Develop a data system that is accurate and meaningful to be used by all collaborative partners
- Publish a bi-annual Community Growth Chart to keep the community focused, engaged and measuring/monitoring our progress
- Implement an intense marketing and public relations campaign to communicate needs and opportunities to the community
- Advocate for positive public policy changes in children's services and funding
A Process
Every Child | Every Promise is a Dubuque, Iowa countywide engagement and education process for all citizens. It is fashioned after the America's Promise Alliance, a national model for community involvement for children. Every Child | Every Promise seeks to engage every Dubuque County citizen in building a culture in which all families are supported and every child receives every promise.
What is America’s Promise?
America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth is a national organization which forges multi-sector partnerships in communities across the U.S. It grew out of the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future in 1997. At that gathering, 
Presidents Clinton, Bush, Carter and Ford, with Nancy Reagan representing President Reagan, challenged America to make children and youth a national priority. Retired General Colin Powell was the founding chairman of the alliance.
America’s Promise uses the Five Promises framework to shape their efforts and improve the odds for youth:
Children who receive at least four of the Five Promises are much more likely than those who experience only one or zero Promises to succeed academically, socially and civically. They are more likely to avoid violence, contribute to their communities and achieve high grades in school.
Receiving at least four of the Five Promises also appears to mitigate gaps across racial and economic boundaries.
To experience the full power of the Promises, young people must experience these critical supports throughout their lives - in their families, at schools and out in their communities.
Every Child | Every Promise Timeline
1999
- General Colin Powell visits Iowa and inspires community leaders to embrace the ideals of the Five Promises
2000 - 2004
- Grassroots efforts to bring the America’s Promises concept to Dubuque continued
- Nancy Van Milligen, President of The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, and a Steering Committee lead the effort
- The Dubuque Envision 2010 identifies that the community needs more awareness of children’s issues and the gaps in children/family services
- A Faith Summit is held with 30 congregations to introduce the concept of the Five Promises
2005
- Mississippi Valley Promise receives its designation as a 501(c)3 non-profit agency
- The first Board of Directors is convened and begins regular meetings
- Community conversations are held with non-profit agencies, civic organizations, youth and business leaders regarding the Five Promises
2006
- Mississippi Valley Promise partners with The Vernon Research Group, The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, Dubuque County Empowerment and the City of Dubuque to compile a quantitative Community Needs Assessment. This assessment identifies several issues affecting our children as reported by parents and service providers.
- Mississippi Valley Promise and the city of Dubuque are named a “Community of Promise” by the State of Iowa
2007
- Mississippi Valley Promise publishes the Community Tool Kit designed to increase awareness of the Five Promises and initiate community conversations
- YAPPERS youth-to-youth dialogues are conducted in Dubuque, Holy Family and Western Dubuque middle and high schools to gain input from youth
- Agencies serving youth and families are asked to commit to becoming Organizations of Promise. Several agencies make the commitment
- A community-wide committee sponsored by Mississippi Valley Promise and The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque works on a Community Growth Chart that will demonstrate how well the community delivers the Five Promises to our youth
- The Mississippi Valley Promise board begins fundraising efforts to ensure sustainability of the organization
- Dubuque is named one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” by the America’s Promise Alliance
2008
- In March, the Every Child | Every Promise committee unveils the Community Growth Chart and elicits community-wide emotional response to the status of children
- In May, Mississippi Valley Promise hires the first full-time Executive Director
- In October, Mississippi Valley Promise officially changes its name to Every Child | Every Promise
- In November, Every Child | Every Promise begins the process of building the first ever Dubuque County Youth Master Plan, a comprehensive document that will unite the county in working together for one common goal – the delivery of the Five Promises to Dubuque’s children
- Dubuque is again named one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” by the America’s Promise Alliance
2009
- Every Child | Every Promise will complete, publish and distribute the Dubuque County Youth Master Plan
- Task Teams will be formed based on the highest priorities in the Youth Master Plan
- These Task Teams will develop specific action plans to impact the outcomes for children in these priority areas
- Every Child | Every Promise will facilitate a county-wide effort to define, gather and measure meaningful data on the gaps, needs and successes of children’s services
- Quarterly progress on Task Team and agency work will be available to the community via the website with newsletters and reports
- Every Child | Every Promise will begin the application to be named a “100 Best Community for Young People” for the third consecutive time – to be announced in 2010
Every Child | Every Promise Newsletters
Contact Us
For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation:
Every Child | Every Promise
700 Locust Street
Suite 195
Dubuque, IA 52001563-583-6893