Question: What is the most effective tool to combat poverty, to ensure better health and economic outcomes and to sustain thriving communities?

Answer: Education. As you may have guessed from your own experience, overwhelming research or the recent release of a report on Maine’s performance on key education measures, what is true for individuals and cities is also true for states: Nothing is more essential for sustainable growth than brainpower.

So we know the answer, and we have the report: What do we do about it? How do we as a community answer that question – each and every day, for each and every child?

Do we wait for somebody else to give us the answers? Do we wait for the state or federal government to do something? Or do we roll up our sleeves and get to work in our own community?

In 2013, Portland Mayor Michael Brennan brought together a dozen cross-sector leaders – from business, philanthropy, education, government and civic institutions – in a groundbreaking partnership to do just that. The founding partners of Portland ConnectED wanted to ensure Portland’s long-term prosperity.

They wanted a Portland where students, families, schools, businesses and community organizations came out of their respective corners, put an end to useless finger-pointing and worked together with a sense of shared possibility and accountability.

They wanted a Portland where learning didn’t just start and end with the school bell, or inside the school walls, but where opportunities for healthy, active learning exist all year long, throughout our community.

And they wanted these opportunities to be accessible not just to some, but to every child, young adult and family in Portland.

Flanked by the founding partners as they announced these shared objectives, the mayor emphasized that no single, silver-bullet intervention would be enough, that a sustained effort toward every educational milestone would be required.

“Portland ConnectED will help connect the dots throughout the critical stages – from early childhood and early-grade literacy to high school graduation and post-secondary completion – to support all Portland children on a pathway to lifelong learning, engaged citizenship and a satisfying and promising career,” he said.

With that, we moved together from talk to action.

Fast-forward two quick years, and here are just a few examples of the progress we’ve made:

• In 2014, we released a comprehensive, local Baseline Report, detailing Portland’s critical indicators and inviting more to join us in putting some early answers into action.

• From an original table of 12, Portland ConnectED has now forged relationships with hundreds of partners across three committees, six working groups, like-minded initiatives and teams of volunteers to minimize duplication and maximize impact.

Together, we are building a system of summer learning opportunities throughout Portland that has already helped over 500 additional children access the healthy meals and active learning needed to get a strong start every September.

• We’ve helped celebrate the post-secondary aspirations of high school seniors on their “College March,” and we’ve supported the students who march to a different drum, as they pursue their own path to college and career credentials.

• We’ve built bridges to success for graduates of Portland Public Schools bound for Southern Maine Community College or the University of Southern Maine, where 50 more students have tested out of developmental courses and entered the first year of college on more solid footing.

• And we’ve helped Portland combine the resources of multiple nationwide networks with countless local contributions – from strategic conversations to free ukulele lessons to $100,000 grants – all to support our children and families.

None of this has been easy. True collaboration is hard work. Our organizational structure is deliberately flat, and our decisions data-driven. This means that every partner has a voice, but it also means that every partner – whether mayor, CEO, parent or Ph.D. – has spent a lot of time listening and has subjected individual theories and preferences to data, consensus and the imperative to achieve real, lasting results.

One of our guiding principles, cited early and often by Mayor Brennan and the founding partners, comes from an African proverb: “If you want to go far, go together.”

We’ve made some great strides, but we still have far to go. So we look forward to working together with a growing number of partners all over Portland, to help ensure that every child in Portland has every opportunity to succeed, from cradle to career.