Building a Stronger Breakthrough Twin Cities

Our Commitments and Next Steps

Our Vision

Breakthrough Twin Cities envisions a future where all students have the resources to reach their full potential, where an engaging teacher committed to each student’s success leads every classroom, and where society as a whole realizes the ultimate social and economic benefits of fully investing in its youth (“Our Vision”). Living up to and living out our shared values of community, diversity, equity, inclusion and integrity drives this ambitious vision.

Summer 2020

Breakthrough Twin Cities successfully hosted its first virtual program this summer. Though shorter than our standard summer program, we worked with 253 students, 47 Teaching Fellows, and six Program Interns. The dedication, flexibility and hard work of our students, faculty, and staff drove that success in the face of the current global health pandemic. However, in addition to the coronavirus and our intensive educational program, our students, faculty, and staff grieved and reckoned with the killing of George Floyd, the urgent need and opportunity to address systemic racism head on and its impact on our students, the majority of whom are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). That convergence of factors led to tough conversations and raw emotions that unearthed blind spots, shortcomings, and opportunities for Breakthrough Twin Cities to do better. We are grateful for the feedback we received from our faculty members and their recommendations for improvement.

Breakthrough Twin Cities is committed to Our Vision and our extraordinary opportunity and responsibility to do better every day. As such, we (the staff and Board of Directors of Breakthrough Twin Cities) are intensifying our focus on actively listening to, and learning from, our community and stakeholders so we can identify, monitor and address our opportunities around systemic racism and its impact on the achievement of Our Vision. We believe this will allow us to build a stronger Breakthrough Twin Cities.

Our Mission and Commitments

Breakthrough Twin Cities prepares under-resourced students for college success and cultivates the next generation of educators (“Our Mission”). Our Vision informs Our Mission and commitment to building a stronger organization that is more responsive to the lived experiences of the students, faculty and families we serve. To meet Our Mission, we are actively looking at how we make our environment as diverse, inclusive, and equitable in staffing and leadership composition, policies, and practices. We invite our students, faculty (past and present), and families to collaborate with us as we continue the journey to build a stronger Breakthrough Twin Cities. Please feel free to contact our Board Chair directly at BoardChair@Breakthroughtwincities.org if you are interested in joining us.

Next Steps and Immediate Commitments:

Here are a few of our next steps to honor our commitment to building a stronger Breakthrough Twin Cities. 

1.  We will align our actions with our words. This means listening and engaging in deeper dialogue with our Breakthrough stakeholders to address how we continue to improve our policies and practices.
2.  We will work with the Breakthrough Collaborative and its Race & Equity Advisory Group to ensure that our program and culture are anti-racist and equitable.
3.  We will focus on bringing more leaders of color into Breakthrough Twin Cities.
4.  We will leverage the shared resources of the Collaborative, as well as partnerships with knowledgeable individuals and entities, to help navigate these important issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.

 We will do the work. We will be vigilant and challenge ourselves, individually and collectively, to do better.

 [Board of Directors; Updated 9.10.20]