Project U-Turn

Contents

Collaboration Overview ......................... 1

Collaboration Purpose........................... 2

About the Collaboration......................... 2

Collaboration Structure.......................... 3

Promising Practices............................... 4

Lessons Learned................................... 6

Accomplishments .................................. 7

Resources ............................................. 8

Collaboration Overview

Project U-Turn began in 2004–2005 as a city-wide collaborative 

to address the dropout crisis in Philadelphia. As of 2011, Project 

U-Turn has representatives from over 50 organizations, including 

the school district, city agencies, foundations, youth-serving 

organizations, universities, parents, and young people. By 

identifying and examining the problem, promoting the crisis as a 

system-wide issue rather than an education issue, involving and 

sustaining a diverse array of partners, and working to both 

prevent students from dropping out as well as re-engage those 

who have already dropped out, the collaboration has achieved a 

number of key accomplishments and has been able to grow 

through its best practices and lessons learned.

Project U-Turn’s collaborative structure includes the following:

 A flexible arrangement with no Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) or rules of engagement

 A consistent and sustained collaboration membership

 Regularly scheduled monthly meetings and pre-meetings, as 

necessary

 A workplan developed and updated every two years

 Key priorities that are identified every six months to ensure 

flexibility

 Strategic funding decisions

The collaboration’s promising practices include:

 Being able to support the Philadelphia Youth Network to work 

as an intermediary

 Building relationships and trust

 Providing funds to partners to ensure sustainability

 Linking funds to the workplan and identifying partners to 

pursue or receive funds

 Conducting a needs assessment

 Sharing data
The collaboration learned the following lessons:

 Involve the right people who have decision making capabilities, resources, and a 

collaborative mindset

 Recognize where the collaboration is on a developmental trajectory

 Manage leadership transitions within and outside the partnership by educating new leaders, 

having consistent partners, and embedding its work within the work of different systems

 Be flexible and willing to adapt as needed

Collaboration Purpose

“Project U-Turn is a citywide campaign to understand, focus public attention on and most 

importantly, resolve Philadelphia’s dropout crisis.” Philadelphia Youth Network

Originally, the collaborative was focused on studying and fully understanding the dimensions of 

the dropout crisis. The key questions were:

 Who drops out in Philadelphia?

 When do they drop out?

 Why do they drop out?

 What are some characteristics we can know about them, e.g., how near or far from 

graduation are they, based on high school credits earned? What public systems do they 

populate?

Through their analysis of the dropout problem in Philadelphia, Ruth Curran Neild and Robert 

Balfanz found that during the 2003–2004 school year over 13,000 students became dropouts 

or near dropouts in Philadelphia. More information on the dropout problem in Philadelphia can 

be found in their report, Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of 

Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis, 2000–2005.

Based on that information and additional findings from the report, the collaborative focused on 

developing a plan to reduce and eliminate the dropout issue including drawing attention to the 

dropout crisis and leveraging resources to resolve the issue. 

About the Collaboration

 Project U-Turn recognizes that the dropout issue is something that has an impact on all

systems and is not only a school-focused issue. Because of this, the collaboration situated 

the work within the youth workforce development system where Project U-Turn operates as 

a subcommittee of the local youth council. The committee focuses on all dimensions of the 

dropout issue, including economic implications for the city. Project U-Turn’s programmatic 

initiatives focus both on supporting prevention and in-school interventions to reduce the 

number of youth dropping out of school as well as efforts to support the reengagement of 

youth who are no longer in the school system.

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 The collaboration began in 2004–2005 when Philadelphia was one of five cities selected to 

receive a grant from the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG), a set of regional and 

national funders dedicated to improving educational outcomes for disconnected youth, to 

focus on the dropout crisis.

 The grant from YTFG required a cross-sector collaboration to drive strategic action and 

gain community support for addressing the dropout problem in Philadelphia. Having this 

provision within the initial funding requirements provided the catalyst for the development of 

Project U-Turn.

 The city-wide collaboration is predominately focused on a policy agenda rather than on a 

program, although key partners in the collaborative design and implement programmatic

interventions aligned with the key priorities of Project U-Turn.

 As of 2010, Project U-Turn incorporates over 50 organizations with a core steering 

committee of 22 organizations and agencies including representatives of the school district, 

city agencies, foundations, youth-serving organizations, universities, parents, and young 

people.

 The Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) acts as an intermediary to support the collaboration 

by coordinating and building relationships between all the participating organizations and 

supporting development of the agenda, workplan, and funding efforts.

Collaboration Structure

The collaboration is intentionally structured to provide flexibility for members to act in 

concert or individually on issues as they arise. While there were discussions of developing 

MOUs or rules of engagement early on in the process, the collaboration realized that 

establishing these formal structures would be counterproductive. Because of the diversity of 

organizations involved, the collaboration recognized the need for flexibility in order to allow 

participating members to act both as a united collaboration and as individual organizations 

supporting diverse agendas. This has been critical, especially for advocacy groups that at 

times need to oppose district and city policies. Rather than have a formal structure, PYN acts 

as the intermediary that helps to coordinate with members and link the organizations together.

Key aspects of the Project U-Turn structure include:

Establish Continuity of Involvement and Sustainability

Through a focus on relationships and trust, the collaboration has been able to sustain a core 

group of members with over 50 percent of the original partners continuing to actively 

participate. While in some cases the members of the organizations have changed, the 

organizations at the table have remained relatively consistent. The collaboration has also 

strategically added new organizations that embrace common goals and support the new efforts 

that the collaboration has undertaken.

Hold Monthly Meetings and Pre-meetings

The collaborative meets monthly. Prior to the meetings PYN, as the intermediary, ensures that 

all members of the collaborative are aware and comfortable with what is going to be discussed 

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and understand the realities of collaborations. For example, PYN staff might call a member 

prior to the monthly meetings when the topic to be discussed is something that is politically 

difficult or uncomfortable for that member. PYN staff work with the member to provide 

strategies for addressing the issue. By addressing issues prior to the meeting, it ensures that 

the group meetings run smoothly and that partners are able to have open and honest 

communication.

Develop and continuously update a workplan

Approximately every two years the collaboration works together to update its workplan. The 

workplan is extensive and acts as a wish list and map of what should be done. The plan 

includes objectives and issues for each goal, e.g., which items need funding, if there is funding 

on hand, and who might be involved in that item. The collaboration recognizes that all 

organizations might not be working on all areas of the workplan, and that many of the items in 

the plan do not demand that organizations do additional work outside their scope.

Identify key priorities

Based on the workplan, every six months the collaborative updates its key priorities and 

structures its meetings around its priorities. It recognizes that the priorities laid out in the 

workplan may need to shift based on the current context (e.g., political shifts, opportunities 

available, and challenges). By reviewing priorities regularly, the collaborative is able to adapt 

as needed.

Identify funding gaps

During the development of the workplan, the collaboration links items identified in the plan to 

funding. This allows it to identify which items need additional funding, come to consensus 

about which actions they will pursue, and be more strategic when funding and RFPs become 

available.

Promising Practices

The following are examples of practices that have helped the Project U-Turn work 

collaboratively to alleviate the dropout crisis in Philadelphia.

Have an intermediary and the funds to support it

The ability to fund an intermediary—PYN—has helped to sustain the collaboration and ensure 

good working relationships between partners. Having an intermediary dedicated to the work is 

not cheap—there are costs associated with staff time, meeting costs, and other partner costs.

But an intermediary’s work coordinating and connecting members on all levels, leading 

additional fundraising efforts, and managing the work plan helps to engage all partners, ensure 

that they feel comfortable, and sustain the collaborative. For Project U-Turn, funds associated 

with the intermediary also allow partners to participate in activities (e.g., conferences) as a 

collaborative that they might not have been able to afford without additional support.

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Build relationships and trust

Building relationships and trust have been important priorities throughout the collaboration. As 

the intermediary, PYN focuses on relationship building and management, coaching members 

of the collaboration on how to work together and helping them to have open and honest 

communication within meetings.

Provide funds to partners

Through a close relationship with the William Penn Foundation, a regional foundation that has 

provided major support to the collaboration, Project U-Turn is able to provide small grants to 

organizations to help sustain their participation. For example, the collaboration might provide a 

small grant to a local parent organization to help disseminate information to other parents in 

Philadelphia about Project U-Turn’s efforts.

Link funds to the workplan

Project U-Turn seeks funds to support its collective efforts, as well as those of individual 

organizations. Every two years, the key partners work together to update the Project U-Turn 

workplan. Funding requests are then made based on the objectives and funding needs 

identified in that plan. In addition to providing a clear set of priorities and objectives, the 

workplan acts as a tool that shows all partners what money has been raised, where it will be 

spent and where they still have funding gaps, and the partners responsible for the work. Once 

funds are procured, the funds for that line item go directly to the partners who were identified to 

do the work. Because the decision-making process occurs in advance, all members of the 

collaboration know who will be receiving which funds when they are available, and what the 

expectations are for their work. For some items within the workplan, there may not be a partner 

identified. In these cases, an RFP or a partner may be identified at a later point.

The funds for items within the workplan are raised collectively through the collaboration and 

individually to support Project U-Turn goals. For example, there may be some line items within 

the workplan where the school district is better positioned to pursue funding than the 

collaboration as a whole. In addition, there are many tasks outlined in the workplan that fit within 

the scope of work of a member organization and therefore do not require additional funds.

Conduct a needs assessment

Before the collaboration moved forward, an in-depth analysis of the dropout problem in 

Philadelphia was conducted. This report, Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and 

Characteristics of Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis, 2000–2005 (PDF, 50 pages), by Ruth Curran 

Neild and Robert Balfanz, used the Kids Integrated Data System (KIDS), a set of data that 

merges individual level data from the School District of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia’s 

Department of Public Health, Department of Human Services, and Office of Emergency 

Shelter and Services. By using this comprehensive data set, the collaboration was able not 

only to understand the number of youth who dropped out but also to identify predictors and 

factors related to graduating and dropping out. The collaboration used this report to develop a 

call to action, Turning it Around: A Collective Effort to Understand and Resolve Philadelphia's 

Dropout Crisis (PDF, 26 pages), and purposefully linked the release of the report with a call to 

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action at the beginning of the campaign. This reinforced that the dropout issue was not just 

viewed as a problem, but as a problem that could be addressed by the city through specific 

actions by a variety of stakeholders. 

Create a data dashboard

Annually, Project U-Turn uses data to track the progress of the collaboration’s efforts along five 

dimensions: 1) the current graduation rate, 2) the rate of ninth-grade students on track for ontime graduation, 3) the number of available seats in multiple pathways alternative education, 

4) the number of youth asking to be reconnected, and 5) how many dollars have been 

leveraged for the collaborative. Early on this information was shared publically to raise support, 

but it is now used as a method for internal evaluation. In addition to using data to evaluate the 

collaboration, Project U-Turn looks at whether its message and goals are still relevant within 

the city, and whether organizations and members continue to value the collaboration and 

remain engaged.

Lessons Learned

The following are lessons that Project U-Turn has learned as they collaboratively work to 

alleviate the dropout crisis in Philadelphia.

Involve the right people

Project U-Turn has found that it is important not only to invite the right organizations to the 

table but to invite the right people from those organizations. To do this, they found that it was 

important to do the following:

 Involve those with decision-making capabilities. This means that members are able to 

make decisions at the meeting without needing to receive approval from others within their 

organizations.

 Include people who can bring resources including financial resources, in kind resources, 

and expertise to the collaboration.

 Promote a collaborative mindset among members, so they can see themselves as part of 

something larger than their own body of work. The collaboration found that data can be 

used to drive the work strategically and help members understand what their roles are and 

how the collaboration’s goals and actions relate to their individual organizational goals.

Maintain a developmental trajectory for the partnership

Throughout the course of the collaboration, Project U-Turn has found that it is important to 

recognize where the collaboration is in the developmental process (e.g., laying the foundation, 

strategizing, or operationalizing and implementing), to recognize how that influences which 

partners, and which people should be involved.

Manage leadership transitions within and outside the partnership

During the course of the collaboration it is important to be able to manage transitions in 

leadership. Project U-Turn had to focus its efforts on getting the support of the newly elected 

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mayor and superintendent as well as others in leadership positions. It found that leadership 

changes can dramatically change how partner organizations see themselves connected or not 

connected to work; therefore, it is important to make contingency plans for all shifts in 

leadership. To do this they found it is important to:

 Have consistent partners. Partner with members that are committed to the work, are not 

politically appointed, and are able to weather the transitions.

 Educate leadership. Meet with new leadership before they are elected, participate in the 

hiring process if possible, or meet with them early in their tenure to educate them about

your work. Be aware of their agenda and understand how you might need to reframe your 

work to fit within their agenda.

 Embed your work in systems’ workplans. Find a way to embed your work in systems’ 

workplans and make the collaboration’s goals something that is also their goal. For 

example, Project U-Turn was able to work with the juvenile justice system to illustrate the 

importance of education for youth involved in the system. Over time it has been able to see 

education issues take hold within the juvenile justice system.

Be flexible

One of the overarching lessons that the Project U-Turn collaboration has recognized is that 

while the goal of the collaboration never changes, the strategy used to reach the goal has to 

be fluid. It recognizes the need to be able to take advantage of new opportunities and adapt 

when it faces challenges. Project U-Turn found this need to adapt approaches throughout the 

process is one reason that having a strict MOU structure would not work.

Accomplishments

As of 2011, Project U-Turn had:

 Created nearly 5,000 new slots to allow more students to participate in alternative 

education programs.

 Created the first re-engagement centers in the U.S. The centers provide young people and 

adults with “one stop” access to information and services leading to re-enrollment in a high 

school diploma or GED program. The centers also focus on connecting youth to resources 

such as childcare and employment, and providing support as the youth transition back to 

an educational setting. 

 Leveraged over $100 million through partnerships and grant funding.

 The mayor and superintendent have adopted the goals of the collaboration as key priorities 

within their administration.

 Established an education support center within the Department of Human Services. 

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Resources

Learn more about the Project U-Turn:

 Mobilizing a Cross-sector Collaborative for Systematic Change: Lessons from Project UTurn, Philadelphia’s Campaign to Reduce the Dropout Rate (PDF, 13 pages)

 New Research on the Relationships Between Philadelphians’ Educational Attainment and 

Their Employment, Earnings and Contributions to Government and Society (PDF, 4 pages)

 Project U-Turn@ 2.5: Broadening and Deepening the Work (PDF, 8 pages)

 Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia's Drop-out Crisis, 

2000–2005 (PDF, 50 pages)

 Turning it Around: A Collective Effort to Understand and Resolve Philadelphia's Drop-out 

Crisis (PDF, 26 pages)

 Workplan Years 5 and 6 (PDF, 10 pages)

Learn more about Transition Age Youth by viewing the Youth Topic on 

www.FindYouthInfo.gov. 

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