Sue Carpenter
Dear Master Leader Review Team, I am honored to write a letter of recommendation for Sue Carpenter, Vice President of Success By 6, as she is truly a Master Leader in our community and a dedicated advocate for children. Ms. Carpenter has dedicated over 30 years of her professional experience to improving lives of children and families ranging from being a teacher and center director to conceptualizing and leading a city wide planning and collaboration effort. Since joining Success By 6 almost a decade ago, she has made a large impact on the Austin community. She encourages and challenges her staff, colleagues, stakeholders, and other leaders in the community to continuously improve conditions for children and families. Her efforts include improving quality of early care and education centers, adopting evidence and research based service delivery models, and increasing the numbers of children who have access to high quality services that help them be school ready. Her ultimate goal is that more disadvantaged children have access to high quality services. She envisions a community where our top leaders are investing in early childhood and demanding equitable public policy so that all children are happy, healthy, and ready to learn Ms. Carpenter was instrumental in pulling together, establishing, and leading a large collaborative, community effort focused on developing and implementing a community plan – the School Readiness Action Plan of Austin/Travis County (SRAP). The ultimate goal of the plan is to increase the percentage of children who enter Kindergarten school ready. It is an ambitious plan made possible by a large community coalition made up of community leaders, advocates, parents, service providers and educators, all dedicated to improving life for Austin’s children. The SRAP includes strategies to leverage private and public funding, engage public officials and business leaders and target existing services more strategically. Sue Carpenter has worked with these various stakeholders to continuously align and coordinate the early childhood system in Austin and Travis County. She has challenged the early childhood community to aim higher and looks to other successful communities as models and inspiration. She looks at innovative, collaborative ways to reach the community goals even when these are complicated and challenging She has relentless supported collaborations between Head Start, Pre-K, and local child care centers and last year she pulled together a 10 agency collaborative to apply for over a million dollars of City of Austin funding. This collaborative proposal was funded and Ms. Carpenter is working with this group to align outreach, referrals, service delivery, and data collection across the agencies.
Sue Carpenter
The results of the first iteration of the SRAP (2012-2015) are clear and positive. Since the plan went into effect in 2012: The percentage of children who entered kindergarten “school ready” increased by 5 percent, from 49 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2014. The number of vulnerable families receiving home visiting services in our county nearly tripled, improving health outcomes for the children and dramatically reducing the likelihood of child abuse in these homes. The City of Austin increased their Health and Human Services funding for early childhood by nearly $1 million over the three year period. The Austin Public Library more than doubled the number of bilingual story times in low-income communities as a response to community advocacy. Ms. Carpenter capitalized on this positive momentum over the past year and has lead and worked in collaboration with a large number of stakeholders to update and improve our SRAP and launch our next iteration of the plan (2015-2018). Sue Carpenter’s strong, knowledgeable and dedicated leadership has positively impacted the number of children and families who have access to high quality, research and evidence based services in the Austin community. Further, her continuous focus on transparency and collaboration has built the foundation for a robust and trusted community effort that is based on our common vision, goals, strategies, and measures. She has paved the way for a successful, aligned, and collaborative Austin community that continues to prioritize children’s well-being and school readiness. Best,
Alison Bentley, Ph.D. Senior Program Manager, Success By 6 United Way for Greater Austin Office 512.225.0374
Early Childhood
Sue Carpenter
The results of the first iteration of the SRAP (2012-2015) are clear and positive. Since the plan went into effect in 2012: The percentage of children who entered kindergarten “school ready” increased by 5 percent, from 49 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2014. The number of vulnerable families receiving home visiting services in our county nearly tripled, improving health outcomes for the children and dramatically reducing the likelihood of child abuse in these homes. The City of Austin increased their Health and Human Services funding for early childhood by nearly $1 million over the three year period. The Austin Public Library more than doubled the number of bilingual story times in low-income communities as a response to community advocacy. Ms. Carpenter capitalized on this positive momentum over the past year and has lead and worked in collaboration with a large number of stakeholders to update and improve our SRAP and launch our next iteration of the plan (2015-2018). Sue Carpenter’s strong, knowledgeable and dedicated leadership has positively impacted the number of children and families who have access to high quality, research and evidence based services in the Austin community. Further, her continuous focus on transparency and collaboration has built the foundation for a robust and trusted community effort that is based on our common vision, goals, strategies, and measures. She has paved the way for a successful, aligned, and collaborative Austin community that continues to prioritize children’s well-being and school readiness. Best,
Alison Bentley, Ph.D. Senior Program Manager, Success By 6 United Way for Greater Austin Office 512.225.0374
Early Childhood
