Consider this: 5.6 million US teens and young adults ages 16 to 24 are neither in school nor working. Many of these "disconnected youth" are simply cut off from the education and career paths that could help them live a good life and make positive contributions to our society and our economy.

Nationally, two-thirds of students are not reading on grade level by 4th grade. That proportion rises to four-fifths for children from low-wage families. Our work in the area of early grade literacy will enable us to identify, fuel and replicate best practices in our local schools.

To be financially stable, working families need housing that is affordable. Today, more than 4 million working families spend more than half of their income for rent and/or mortgages, leaving them particularly vulnerable to eviction or foreclosure if their income is interrupted.

Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy.