Our Champions

The McConnell Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to help build better communities through philanthropy. The McConnell Foundation has long been committed to increasing opportunities for children and youth of Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity counties. North State Together was established in 2016 as a regional collective partnership funded by a $2.5 million dollar grant awarded by The McConnell Foundation.   As a result of the progress that has been made in the region, North State Together was awarded an 8 year multi million dollar grant renewal in 2020 by The McConnell Foundation . The North State Together backbone team and county collaborative network partners would like to thank The McConnell Foundation for investing long-term in our region through the North State Together collective impact cradle to career model to increase educational outcomes to ultimately improve the overall health and vitality of our communities.

SCAILE’s mission is to create a place where policy, practice, inquiry and applied research are integrated to foster innovation in educational attainment and the reduction of equity gaps with a spotlight on the changing dynamics of rural communities.

StriveTogether partners with communities to ensure every child has every chance to succeed because race, ethnicity, poverty and circumstance should not determine opportunity or outcome. In 2021, North State Together was accepted as the newest StriveTogether network member after completing an extensive assessment of our civic infrastructure development and demonstrating clear evidence that our region is aligning resources around effective solutions.  As StriveTogether members, we will begin to measure our progress against a continuum of quality benchmarks, known as the StriveTogether Theory of Action™. This proven framework has six designations — Exploring, Emerging, Sustaining, Systems Change, Proof Point and Systems Transformation — that indicate progress toward aligning resources around better and more equitable outcomes for youth. We are proud to be an Emerging member of the StriveTogether network. 

North State Together is proud to be a designated a Talent Hub. The Talent Hub designation signifies that our regional cross-sector partnership has met rigorous standards for creating environments that attract, retain, and cultivate talent, particularly among today’s students many of whom are the first in their families to go to college, and from low-income households. Bestowed by CivicLab, the Talent Hub designation is the only designation of its kind, is independently enforced, and serves as both an aspirational target for other communities to aim and a platform from which partnerships designated as Talent Hubs can build. We work collaboratively to enhance educational options and boost economic development by re-engaging adults who have left the formal education system. Expanding programs such as ACE, BOLD, STEP UP and the Siskiyou County Adult Ed Diploma, North State Together supports adults who seek credentials or career opportunities. North State Together builds off successful partnerships with local businesses, tribal communities and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act partners to help adults explore careers through a regional career portal and a virtual job-shadowing program.

S. H. Cowell Foundation is a grantmaking organization that invests in communities, who are committed to achieving lasting, positive change for children and families living in poverty.  We are grateful for S.H. Cowell Foundation’s commitment to support training, coaching, and capacity-building for staff and our five county leadership teams in the North State Together network. 

North State Together is an Alliance member of Complete College America, a bold national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing equity gaps by working with states, systems, institutions, and partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies that improve student success.

KIXE PBS provides programming and educational outreach to the 10 most northeastern counties in California and is proud to champion the work of North State Together to increase educational outcomes in our region.

North State Planning and Development Collective is the Lead Agency responsible for planning, research, and development tasks spearheaded by California State University, Chico and the university’s 12-county service region.  North State Planning and Development Collective (NSPDC) is proposing to serve as a Convener for the North State’s 10-County CERF region, which consists of Butte, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama and Trinity counties. As Convener, the NSPDC is tasked with organizing an inclusive group of regional stakeholders, submitting the CERF Solicitation for Proposal, and implementing the planning grant in the region. NSPDC will work closely North State together to collectively develop a regional planning strategy that complements and supports the important work already being done in the North State. Together, North State Planning & Development Collective and North State Together will work to ensure that our far northern California counties receive the support they need to build a better future for all. 

In 2017, Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC) announced the establishment of their Northern California Hub which supports rural education in far northern California. North State Together, along with California State University, Chico, anchors the hub which serves far northern California communities in the following ways:

• The hub is a vehicle for organizing and sharing the “transformational” work being done in the region by the Chico State-North State Together partnership.
• RSC connects the far northern California hub to other regional hubs through a small and lean national operations office with a strong emphasis on social marketing.
• Through the hub, RSC and the Chico State-North State Together partnership work together to create, fund, and share innovative work and activity.

Through place-based partnerships, PRI implements programs, supports local leaders, shifts state and local policy, and increases funding to move population-level outcomes in rural places.

PRI builds rural capacity & infrastructure to strengthen leaders, organizations, and schools in under-resourced rural communities by supporting the development of civic infrastructure and increasing access to proven practices through trainings and technical assistance.

Working with partners across the country, PRI accelerates equitable systems change by advancing a national rural agenda, increasing public and private funding for rural places, and expanding research on what works in rural America