Building a Cradle-Through-College Continuum

Poverty's grip cannot be broken by treating individual symptoms piecemeal. The antidote to poverty is a holistic approach – education, healthcare, housing and jobs that pay a living wage – begun as early in a child's life as possible.

Efforts to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty also must be place-based: even individual families receiving wraparound services will be hard-pressed to break poverty's grip if they live in a community riddled by crime, addiction and unemployment. Cornerstone's approach addresses both of these issues.

Cornerstone Children's Initiative (CCI) is building a quality cradle-through-college continuum of education and support services as part of a holistic revitalization for the children and families in Charlotte, N.C.

Inspired by the stories of Atlanta's East Lake and Harlem Children's Zone, community leaders Cammie Hauptfuhrer, Liz Simmons and Dionne Nelson envisioned a similar future for Charlotte and founded CCI. CCI is now collaborating with Charlotte Housing Authority and Thompson Child and Family Focus to construct the first piece of the education continuum. Cornerstone will enroll up to 30 families in a five-year, early childhood education pilot.

There is a compelling moral argument against allowing children to grow up in poverty, but there's an equally compelling economic one. If we intervene early and construct a seamless continuum through college graduation, our community will flourish, spending less on crime prevention, welfare and social services, emergency health care, and expensive remedial education efforts.