Common Interests: A Common Group News Brief
New Common Group team members, equity-centered design with America Succeeds, launching a new housing authority in Colorado, healthy digital spaces with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, opportunities now in Colorado, defining narrative change... Let's dive in!
Common Group growth
Taking a moment to celebrate all the wonderful new additions to the Common Group team since our last newsletter. We’re ecstatic to welcome team members Bruce Ly, joining us as Operations Associate, Megan Trenda joining us as Senior Associate; Tara Ramanathan joining us as Senior Manager; Lauren Mobertz joining as Lead Organizational and Team Development; Ayan Ahmed, Kate Ash, and Kyle Gunnels joining the team as Advisors; and Andrew Trueblood joining us as a Senior Advisor. This group represents industry-leading expertise and expanded capabilities across education and economic opportunity — and the best news, we’re still hiring! Check out our hiring page if you or colleagues are looking for an opportunity to create impact at scale.
Equity design in action
Common Group is applying our equity design capability in a deeply thoughtful and innovative program with colleagues at America Succeeds and CompTIA — Durable Skills. Alongside our partners, we are making essential workplace capabilities more transparent and measurable. Check out recent press and insight about this work from Work Shift and HR.com, and, read Jaz Burton’s latest blog to see how Common Group has supported this effort to center equity and truly serve its core audience.
Launching CO’s new middle income housing authority
Common Group was recently selected to spearhead the launch of Colorado’s Middle Income Housing Authority, a special purpose authority of the state that seeks to build more housing for Colorado’s essential workforce. Working closely with the MIHA Board, developers, and communities, the Common Group team successfully launched the solicitation process in just three short months. Bravo to the team of Lizzie Redman, Dipika Mouli, Michelle Nie, and Andrew Trueblood who helped to launch this initiative in double quick time! Developers and communities will have four weeks to submit proposals that achieve the goal of creating more affordable housing for key workers in regions across Colorado.
Activation with JGCC
We were thrilled to be able to partner with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center to support the activation strategy for their Responsible Innovation in Technology work, backed by the Lego Foundation and UNICEF. Congratulations to the Cooney Center team for their wildly successful events at SXSW in March. Stay tuned for an upcoming event series kicking off later this year, and check out JGCC events if you're heading to ASU GSV this year.
Opportunities Now! in Colorado
Forgive the pun, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that we were thrilled to see over 400 applications for Opportunity Now Colorado, a grant program of CO’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade designed to bring together industry and education in service of economic mobility for Coloradans. We are nearing the final stages of the first round of grantmaking - best of luck and warm congratulations to all those who were invited to submit final proposals in response to RFA!
Narrative change
A subject at the heart of our efforts, Common Group partnered with Writ Large to host a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and barriers that exist to generate deep narrative and culture change surrounding educational pathways and employer hiring practices. As we build our “Narrative and Activation” project portfolio and capability, we’re thrilled that so many values-aligned funders joined us for this enriching event. See here for a summary of the conversation, and get in touch if you’re interested in hearing how this work can serve your efforts!
Thanks for tuning in, and wishing you all a happy and impactful spring, wherever you are in the world!