The Mission
Thread harnesses the power of relationships to create a new social fabric of diverse individuals deeply engaged with young people facing the most significant opportunity and achievement gaps. Our community is committed to ending social isolation and building a more equitable culture in which everyone thrives.
The Challenge: A Disconnected Community
Baltimore neighborhoods are dramatically different than they were 60 years ago. The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Civil Rights Act of1968, and Baltimore’s loss of manufacturing jobs have caused neighborhoods that were once racially segregated but socioeconomically diverse to become polarized by both race and class. This disconnectedness has resulted in increased crime and poor educational and economic outcomes.
As pockets of concentrated poverty developed and deepened, it became increasingly difficult for families to find the support they needed to meet the needs of their youth, resulting in students’ increased susceptibility to scholastic apathy, chronic absenteeism and ultimately a failure to graduate high school. During the 2011-2012 school year, 41.3% of Baltimore’s high school students were chronically absent (Connolly and Alok Kommajesula, 2014) and the five-year high school graduation rate was 71.7% (Baltimore City Public Schools, 2013). As dropouts are estimated to earn $260,000 less than graduates over the course of their lives (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007) and a male dropout is over three times more likely than a graduate to have committed a crime that has led to his incarceration (Dillon, Sam, 2009), this dropout rate affects not only the student, but the entire Baltimore community as well.
A large percentage – and a richly diverse group – of Baltimore’s residents move to the city to attend or work at one of its prestigious colleges or universities. When these students and faculty fail to build strong relationships, both personally and professionally, in Baltimore, they leave and return to their permanent homes after receiving their degrees or finishing their tenures or residencies, draining Baltimore of valuable professional, financial, and intellectual resources. In addition, despite the geographic proximity of Baltimore City high schools and local universities, very few students have any concept of the lives being led by their counterparts just a few blocks away. The minimal interaction between these disconnected groups represents a missed opportunity to create a racially and socioeconomically diverse community and, thereby, reduce crime and improve educational and economic outcomes.
Baltimore’s employers are experiencing one of their greatest hiring demand periods in a tight labor market, and many of these jobs will require at least an associate degree. One-third of Baltimore’s residents, however, have not received a high school diploma. This combination of low-level education attainment for Baltimore residents, transient university student and faculty populations, and the increasing demand for mid- to high-skilled workers is poised to create talent shortage in coming years.
The Solution: Creating Connection
Thread weaves a new social fabric by connecting students, university and community-based volunteers, and collaborators. By radically and permanently reconfiguring the social support structure of all involved, Thread breaks the cycle of crime, poor educational and economic outcomes and replaces it with a new cycle of educational attainment, service and social well-being.
9th grade students at risk of failing to graduate high school are identified based on their academic performance (bottom 25% of their class) and an abundance of challenges outside the classroom. Each Thread student is matched with a group of up to four volunteers who represent a diverse cross section of Baltimore City, an extended family that does whatever it takes to provide their young person and family with completely customized support. This might include packing lunches, providing rides to school, tutoring, connecting students and their families to existing community resources, and coordinating clothing, furniture, or appliance donations. Thread commits to our young people for ten years, the remainder of high school and six years thereafter.
Thread volunteers form deep, enduring, and emotionally sustaining relationships with students, volunteers, and collaborators and grow personally and professionally from being part of the Thread community. As they get to know their student counterparts at nearby high schools, Thread volunteers quickly come to experience the Thread Value that “everybody has something to teach and everybody has something to learn.” In addition, Thread volunteers are trained and mentored as they learn the Thread Core Competencies and form relationships, not only with students, but also with collaborators throughout Baltimore, acquiring leadership skills and creating strong ties to the larger Baltimore community.
Thread collaborators make up the external component of the fabric of diverse human capital that drives Thread’s success by providing pro bono services to students, volunteers, and the organization. Rather than formulating new education, social, and community programs, Thread connects collaborators to both students and volunteers, thereby improving student outcomes and facilitating relationships between Baltimore’s businesses and organizations and a talented pool of university- and community-based volunteers, ultimately creating a leadership pipeline to support a growing Baltimore economy.
The Success
As a result of the strong, enduring, and trusting relationships formed in Thread, our community defies the odds.
67%
of students who have been in Thread graduate high school
100%
of students remain enrolled in Thread for 10 years, no matter what
57%
of student alumni have completed a 4 or 2 year degree or certificate program
My experience with Thread has been a revelation of endless opportunity that has helped me realize my own potential. Thread brings people together that normally wouldn’t know one another and uses the different perspectives, experiences and knowledge to learn from each other and cultivate better and more well rounded individuals
– Thread Student Alumnus
Thread allows for leaders across distinct organizations to link together and gain perspective from one another. The opportunities that Thread provides to lead other volunteers and develop intricate partnerships within the Baltimore community are unparalleled. Volunteering for Thread has led to an incredible career opportunity for me. … I am grateful for the wonderful people I have met within our organization and am excited about staying in Baltimore for the term and driving change.
– Thread Volunteer
The reason that I’m so inspired by Thread is that I know what it feels like to experience a sense of loss that is so profound that you feel like you’re all alone. But I also know what it feels like to have a sense of a family that’s rebuilt that’s so strong that your heart is completely overwhelmed with joy. People always talk about people being “Products of their environments” And I remember going to visit [the other] Wes…and asking him “Do you think that we’re products of our environments?” And he looked back at me and he said “I think we’re products of our expectations.” And I thought to myself “he is absolutely right.” The beauty of Thread and the beauty of this program and the beauty of you is that you define that. And the thing that I ask of you is that you define that, not just for yourselves, but you define that for others.
– Wes Moore, Thread Collaborator
