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As I reflect on my first year as CEO of UP Partnership, I’ve come to appreciate that our greatest progress doesn’t happen because one organization has all the answers. It happens when organizations choose collaboration over competition and shared accountability over individual recognition. Every day, I’ve seen what is possible when partners from across all sectors come together around a common purpose — to create better opportunities for young people in Bexar County.
The challenges facing today’s students are too complex and interconnected to be solved by one organization alone. A young person’s journey from middle school to a meaningful career isn’t shaped by one school, one nonprofit, or one advisor. It is shaped by an entire ecosystem of educators, families, youth-serving organizations, employers, higher education institutions, government, and philanthropy working together.
That belief is at the heart of the Future Ready Bexar County Plan.
Together,100-plus partners across education, higher education, workforce, government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector are working toward a shared North Star: increasing postsecondary enrollment among Bexar County high school graduates to 70% by 2030.
This past year offered several examples of what that looks like in practice.
Together, our seven Future Ready partner school districts increased College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) to 71%, while dual-credit completion rose 3% over the previous year. Since the 2022–23 baseline year, Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Reading has improved 6% and TSI Math has increased 11%. Future Ready partners also unlocked millions of public dollars and strengthened the organizations supporting young people as they pursued college, careers, military service, apprenticeships, and other postsecondary pathways.
For UP Partnership, one of the most significant milestones wasn’t the launch of a new program. It was strengthening the framework that helps partners work together and keep mutual accountability toward shared outcomes.
Through the 2026–2028 Future Ready Institutional Agreement process, organizations across education, youth development, philanthropy, workforce, and government aligned their work around common goals, shared measures, and long-term accountability. The accompanying Future Ready Ecosystem Map makes those connections visible, helping community members better understand how organizations across Bexar County contribute to a shared vision for improving outcomes for children and youth.
That same spirit of collaboration shaped Advise Me 210, a countywide advising ecosystem that brings together school districts, higher education institutions, youth-serving organizations, and community partners to help students navigate life after high school.
Through the new AdviseMe210.org website, students, families, educators, and advisors can access planning tools, milestone checklists, videos, and local resources in one place, making it easier to navigate postsecondary opportunities.
But Advise Me 210 extends beyond a website. During the 2025–26 school year, five advising pilots reached nearly 1,900 students through personalized advising and family engagement. In East Central ISD, advisors conducted more than 860 sessions, and 98% of participating seniors completed a college application.
Supporting young people also means strengthening the organizations that serve them.
Building a stronger ecosystem for young people requires investing not only in programs, but also in the organizations behind them. Over the past year, Future Ready helped align investments that strengthened youth-serving organizations across Bexar County, including:
- Catalyst Exchange: Partnered with UP Partnership through the Network Support Pilot to help ten youth-serving organizations complete 12 organizational improvement projects focused on strategic planning, leadership, financial sustainability, and long-term organizational effectiveness.
- UT San Antonio: Helped organizations strengthen their data collection, evaluation, and continuous improvement practices through the Data Capacity Building Cohort.
- San Antonio Area Foundation: Through the New Opportunities and Horizons cohort, invested in organizational assessments, strategic coaching, implementation support, flexible funding, and leadership development for 16 organizations.
- United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County: Invested nearly $6 million to help organizations expand services supporting math and reading achievement, chronic absenteeism reduction, TSIA readiness, and opportunity youth.
Together, these complementary investments strengthened the organizations that support young people every day, demonstrating how coordinated action can create a stronger, more sustainable system of support across Bexar County.
This year also brought national recognition for the collaborative work happening in Bexar County. The Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance selected Bexar County as one of its newest Accelerator Communities, recognizing the region’s commitment to improving outcomes for Boys and Young Men of Color. The designation, and accompanying investment, builds upon years of partnership across education, community organizations, philanthropy, and employers working together to expand opportunity and remove barriers to success.
Finally, we continued strengthening one of the most important foundations of collective impact: transparency.
The Future Ready Public Investment Tracker provides a clearer picture of how public funding supports children and youth across Bexar County. By establishing a baseline across city, county, state, and federal investments, the tracker helps community leaders identify funding gaps, align future investments, and work toward Future Ready’s goal of unlocking $333 million in public funding for children and youth by 2030.
Since 2023, Future Ready partners have helped unlock $49.1 million in city and state funding. Despite budget deficits, advocacy efforts also contributed to a proposal to sustain services provided by 55 nonprofit organizations, including 22 new agencies and 26 new programs.
Each of these accomplishments is different, but together they tell one story.
Improving outcomes for young people isn’t about adding more disconnected programs. It’s about building stronger systems, investing in stronger organizations, using better data, and creating deeper partnerships that help every young person succeed.
Future Ready Bexar County’s North Star is increasing postsecondary enrollment among Bexar County high school graduates to 70% by 2030. But our goal has always been bigger than a single metric. It’s about ensuring every young person has the relationships, resources, and opportunities to build a successful future.
That work belongs to all of us.
Schools cannot do it alone. Nonprofits cannot do it alone. Employers, higher education institutions, philanthropy, and government cannot do it alone.
But together, we can build a community where every young person can unlock their potential and thrive.
Read more at: http://www.uppartnership.org/one-year-dr-cathy-jones-update
