Youth Today: Building an Alliance Building

By Karen Pittman, May 1999

It’s May — an important time for America’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth. Its second Report to the Nation is due. Questions abound as the organization enters its third year, especially since it repealed its own sunset law in order to keep the doors open past 2000. Is there real promise to America’s Promise? Can it forge a real alliance for youth?

America’s Promise called a meeting of more than 30 national nonprofit CEOs in late February. Retired Gen. Colin Powell spoke. Polite conversation followed. Then the questions began: Will AP do more to seek counsel from the nonprofits? Can Powell, now the AP chairman, talk more about the totality and less about specific organizations? How can more nonprofits benefit from his touch? Powell left. Tougher questions followed. I facilitated the afternoon discussion. Here’s the story I told:

Once upon a time there was a group of national youth- and family-serving nonprofits that recognized the need to work together to increase public will. They housed their collaboration in the rented first floor of a non-descript, two story building. The following events unfolded:

1996: The Presidents’ Summit on America’s Future emerged from Philadelphia charged with generating commitments to improve resources for children and youth. The nonprofits from that rented building were surprised, but made commitments. The Summit Chiefs didn’t really understand the youth-serving nonprofits, but recognized them as representing the delivery infrastructure.

1997: America’s Promise was born. It bought the collaboration’s building and took over the second floor. It built an entrance leading directly into its offices, put up a red roof with five gables (representing AP’s five “fundamental resources”) and a 30-foot sign with a red wagon and a picture of the General. Inside it set up phone banks to generate commitments, handle the media and help communities. The national nonprofits were amazed. Some were uncomfortable with the way messages and commitments were being shaped. But all were impressed with the traffic. And a handful — those who had been noticed by the General — had benefited tidily.

1998: Concern mounted. One-by-one, the nonprofits saw the need for a meeting. They had met the General or the AP staff in the parking lot, but not really talked. They looked for the inside staircase to the second floor and made a discovery: there was none. Upstairs the America’s Promise staff was struggling with how to link commitments to communities, realizing that at least a part of the solution was literally below them. They, too, noticed the design flaw. They proposed a meeting.

It happened in February. The stairway issue surfaced quickly. Of course there should be stairs, everyone said. But what kind? Utility stairs? A grand front stairwell? And what expectations come with access? Does AP plan to come down to inspire? Inform? Involve? Deploy? Do the national nonprofits expect AP to disseminate information about their capacities and needs? Get Powell to adopt their messages? Land new commitments?

And what about Powell? He is in the penthouse suite under the red roof. Are there stairs to his offices? No one expects America’s Promise to “deliver” the General; he is committed to the cause, not legally bound to the organization. But can the General’s crusade be influenced? How often does the second floor staff ascend with information and advice from below? How often does the General’s staff come down seeking it?

These are important times not only for America’s Promise. The national youth-serving nonprofits are at a crossroads as well. Their questions were heard, but not answered. The nonprofits should not wait for America’s Promise to call the contractor. They should be framing in offices, moving in staff, expanding their ranks to include a broader array of organizations — advocates, youth-led networks, educators — and thinking about what they want to offer and what they want to request at the next meeting.

America’s Promise is in forging alliances. That’s the pledge of America’s Promise to its 154 Communities of Promise as well. I think AP is ready. We have to help.

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Pittman, K. (1999, May). "Building an Alliance Building." Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment. A version of this article appears in Youth Today.

Karen Pittman is executive director of the Forum for Youth Investment.