2023-2025 Strategic Plan

2023-2025 Strategic Plan

Detroit represents one of the most high-opportunity student populations in the country. Shifting the narrative to emphasize that college offers a viable path toward economic mobility is imperative. Detroit College Access Network is uniquely positioned to fuel a "college is for me" mantra. Over the next three years, DCAN will leverage partnerships, research, and community to empower a college-going culture in Detroit so our region achieves the state's 60 by 30 goal.

Should you have any questions about the strategic plan contact our Executive Director, Cyekeia Lee at clee@detroitcan.org.

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YEAR 1: Partnerships & Infrastructure

DCAN will prioritize strengthening its internal structure and operations through staffing assessments, refining leadership team roles & composition, and formalizing new and existing partnerships.

Laying a solid foundation, enhancing transparency and establishing accountability.

DCAN will prioritize strengthening its internal structure and operations to sustain the work planned for years two and three of the strategy. We will maximize this year or groundwork to identify past successes and listen to our students' experiences while expanding relationships with core community-based partners.

OUR KEY COMMITMENTS

1

ESTABLISH NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH HIGHER ED INSTITUTIONS

A relationship allows DCAN to leverage research data and existing knowledge to {teach} colleges how to attract Detroit students and Detroit students how to access the institution.

4

REVAMP LEADERSHIP TEAM ROLES & COMPOSITION

Include representatives from board of education, recent college grads, and youth-focused nonprofits on Leadership Team. Adopt committee structure & refine/clarify roles.

2

DIVERSIFY FUNDING SOURCES
Establish goals for activating government, corporate, and individual donors alongside new foundation partners locally and nationally with commitments in Detroit.

5

DEEPEN COMMUNITY & SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS

Emphasis placed on middle schools, nonprofit/extracurricular programs, and charter schools. Additional opportunities to be revealed through research in year 2. May leverage a "quick-win" strategy to achieve this goal.

3

EXPAND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OFFERINGS

Partner with an institution to develop premium course content & experiential learning opportunities for counselors.

YEAR 1 MILESTONES

1

SOLIDIFY PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS WITH MOUs
We will establish formal agreements with all university, school, and community partners outlining mutual performance expectations and data-sharing commitments.

4

ESTABLISH CHAMPIONS AT MICHIGAN'S 15 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

We will build a more active presence at state colleges and leverage university budgetary and staffing resources to close gaps within local campaign efforts.

2

ADD POLICY INFLUENCERS TO DCAN'S TEAM
Policy-level advocacy will be supported by increasing the presence of state and local board of education members on our Leadership Team.

5

COLLABORATE STRATEGICALLY WITH NONPROFIT

Low-income tax preparer organizations and youth programs promoting college reflect core relationships that will be established

3

PILOT EARNED REVENUE MODEL

Includes testing sustainability models by incorporating fee-for-service offerings and other enterprising efforts to deepen DCAN's brand awareness & reach.

6

DEVELOP ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOOL

We'll leverage new and existing partners to co-design and publish premium certifications & curriculum and tailored staff trainings that address barriers for Detroit students

YEAR 1 KPIs INCLUDE

Introduce partnerships with middle schools & community-based organizations including

10 middle schools, 10 community programs

by Q3

Diversify funding base to include government, corporate and individual donors to

Increase annual commitments by 20%

by December

Establish a significant student presence on student presence on the leadership team such that at least

25% reflects Detroit students

by December

YEAR 2: Collecting Data & Engagement

Research & student voice must drive the recommendations DCAN publicizes, now and in the future. Relationships with existing data gathering organizations including the Detroit Chamber of Commerce will provide a consistent source of this.

Driving collective impact through collaborative processes and shared language.

We will seek to solidify relationships with existing data gathering organizations including the Institute for College Success, U of M Youth Policy Lab to establish and achieve our regional collective impact goals.

OUR KEY COMMITMENTS

1

IDENTIFY PLAYERS IN THE COLLEGE-ACCESS SPACE

Glean lessons learned, successful strategies, and funding sources from existing assets.

4

STRENGTHEN DCAN'S EVALUATION PRACTICE

A core tenant of the organization's future must be to prioritize impact evaluation & data-informed responses. Building a practice of evaluation establishes the procedures & muscle memory necessary to foster accountability & transparency.

2

CATALOG COLLEGE ACCESS BARRIERS

An early highlight of data collection efforts will be understanding the nuance of circumstances that prevent Detroit students from going to college.

5

CENTER STUDENT VOICE IN DECISION-MAKING

Recent college grads and high school juniors & seniors as well as members of their village having representation on the leadership team and/or subcommittees established in Year 1.

3

SERVE AS A CONVENER OF COLLEGE-ACCESS PROS

Leverage DCAN influence & partnerships to create space for roundtables serving academic officers, funders, policy makers, etc. in Detroit.

YEAR 2 MILESTONES

1

ESTABLISH A SCORECARD

To drive transparency and monitor progress, we will develop and publish a scorecard and corresponding impact map that will better assist our network with tracking our collective impact. The scorecard will include evaluation metrics suggested by partners to ensure mutual needs are being met.

3

DOCUMENT DETROIT COLLEGE ACCESS BARRIERSIn partnership with local partners and with awareness of national efforts, DCAN will lead efforts to develop an open database of Detroit student barriers to college access.

2

CREATE A COLLEGE ACCESS ROUNDTABLE

DCAN will utilize its brand awareness to promote convenings of the local college access professionals, advocates, institutions, and programs that currently have no dedicated space to connect and share.

4

PUBLISH A PARTICIPATORY ASSET MAP

Once partnerships are in place, we will establish processes to allow members of DCAN's expanded network the ability to share information about the college access assets on their radar.

YEAR 3: Communications & Reporting

The culmination of years 1 and 2, DCAN's activities in year 3 will prioritize uplifting key findings and publishing actionable content to demystify college access for Detroit students and their village.

Driving collective impact through collaborative processes and shared language.

We will seek to solidify relationships with existing data gathering organizations including the Institute for College Success, U of M Youth Policy Lab to establish and achieve our regional collective impact goals.

OUR KEY COMMITMENTS

1

LEVERAGE DATA FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT
Utilize research findings to establish tools that assist collaboration and shared impact assessment among Detroit-area organizations working in the college-access ecosystem.

4

DEVELOP & PUBLISH ROADMAPS TO COLLEGE
Organized by end-user and reflecting pathways for pathways that address a variety of backgrounds (teen parents, housing insecure, disconnected youth, differently-abled, etc.). Outsource publication efforts to partnerships.

2

ACTIVATE ADVOCACY FOR POLICY CHANGE

Once barriers, etc. are known, DCAN can leverage the research to advocate for systems-level change.

5

INCENTIVIZE PARTNERS TO ADOPT RECOMMENDATIONS

Establish recognition programs tailored to organizations' type to drive adoption of best-practices concluded from research.

3

ESTABLISH A CITY-WIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Leverage relationships to push marketing campaigns that uplift student voice and highlight the "college is for me" messaging.

YEAR 3 MILESTONES

1

DESIGN, ADOPT, FUND & PUBLISH

In collaboration with Detroit Promise and Detroit Drives Degrees, establish a year-long, city-wide media campaign promoting college access by sharing our findings from year 2 research and student surveys.

3

POLICY ADVOCACY

DCAN plans to combine the research, funding, toolkits, and partners to support national agendas toward policy change impacting Detroit students such as the True Cost of College Act.

2

PROMOTE TOOLS THAT HELP STUDENTS & THEIR VILLAGE NAVIGATE COLLEGE

DCAN's tailored college access roadmaps will be informed by data, center student voice and lived experience, and reflect the varied pathways students take to get to postsecondary institutions. Dynamic, web-based visual aids and tools will be used which allow for easy, mass distribution and tracking end-user analytics to record engagement rates.

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1

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2

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3

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