We're Now Achieve Twin Cities!
Dear friends of Achieve:
Today is a historic day for our organization, as we announce our new name – Achieve Twin Cities – introduce our new logo and launch a brand new website that captures this exciting new chapter in our 20th anniversary year.
After 20 years as AchieveMpls, we are transitioning to Achieve Twin Cities to celebrate the official expansion of our career and college readiness work into Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS). Our new name also recognizes our strong commitment to serving students in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul, as well as our partnerships with other Twin Cities metro employers and organizations.
Our first 20 years
AchieveMpls was founded in 2002 through the merger of Youth Trust and the Minneapolis Public Schools Foundation. For two decades, we have directed Career & College Centers in Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) high schools and served as the district’s nonprofit foundation. We also partner with the City of Minneapolis for the Step Up Youth Employment Program, which serves hundreds of Minneapolis youth each year, and direct Achieve College Internships for postsecondary students.
Saint Paul Public Schools partnership
Our work in Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) began with a small pilot program in 2019, when SPPS leaders invited Achieve to partner with them on Career Pathway Centers in four high schools. We were selected because of our extensive experience in MPS high schools and our alignment with the “SPPS Achieves” strategic plan’s commitment to developing career and college pathways for all students.
Following this successful pilot, we are now officially expanding our presence in SPPS, with all eight SPPS comprehensive high schools soon to be staffed by a full-time Achieve coordinator. In this collaboration, we are building on the solid groundwork laid by SPPS, partnering with district and school leadership to build a strong and integrated system of support to ensure that all students have full access to career and college opportunities.
Expanding to serve more students
We believe Achieve Twin Cities will be exponentially stronger through its presence in both major cities, with our increased capacity to provide equity-focused career and college readiness support for thousands of additional students. With our presence in SPPS high schools, we will be serving an additional 9,200 students, for a total of 18,000 students who have access to our services in SPPS and MPS public schools.
This expansion is particularly critical with our region’s wide disparities in postsecondary and career access impacting students of color and low income students, as well as the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as young people face new challenges as they plan for the future.
Our strong commitment to Minneapolis Public Schools
Our 20-year partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools remains as strong as ever. This year we have added additional staff to our MPS career and college readiness centers and expanded to serve more students through the new MPS Online School, as well as smaller high schools under the MPS contract alternatives umbrella. Achieve continues to serve as the MPS nonprofit foundation, managing and administering MPS funds and partnering with the MPS fundraising team to secure major grants for district priorities.
Our new logo and website
Our new Achieve Twin Cities logo retains the “Achieve” from our former logo, as well as our signature red. It adds blue and orange semi-circles that signify our primary work in two cities. The blue recognizes the beloved lakes and rivers of our Twin Cities, and also represents stability and inspiration. The orange signifies a new horizon for our organization, along with enthusiasm and creativity as we move forward into this new time in our organization's history.
We are very proud of our new website, which launches today. The site was redesigned to better communicate our mission and vision, capture the spirit of our work, share stories and engage with our students, volunteers, employers and donors. Thanks to all of our partners and team members who provided helpful feedback and ideas during this creative process.
Looking ahead with gratitude
As we look ahead to our next 20 years, we are thrilled to deepen and expand our work in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and continue to grow vital new partnerships in both cities to better support our young people, our community's future leaders.
We can’t do this work without the thousands of dedicated individuals and organizations who continue to provide the resources, connections and expertise Achieve needs to stay strong and vital.
Thank you for your dedicated partnership as we begin this exciting new chapter together.
Danielle Grant
President and CEO