Melinda Hudson

America's Promise Alliance

America's Promise Alliance was founded in 1997 by five U.S. Presidents and General Colin Powell. Over the last 24 years, our Alliance has grown into a community of hundreds of the top youth-supporting non-profits in the country, working together to advance equity, increase opportunity, and improve outcomes for young people in America. Collectively, our member organizations serve millions of young people each year across every state in the country. America's Promise Alliance is an independent entity that exists to serve the youth-supporting field*, to build the community, establish the infrastructure, and secure the resources necessary for collective improvement and action at national scale. Our job is to make collaboration among our member organizations effective, efficient, continuous, informed by communities, and joyful. We believe that if you want to foster coordination and collaboration, you start by building relationships. We believe that if you want to build a field, you first create an authentic community dedicated to helping each other. We believe a sustained and continuous effort to bring the best organizations into deep and trusting working relationships with one another will ultimately translate into more effective and more connected support for young people across the country. *We define the "field" as organizations working in the outcome areas at the intersection of young people's lived experiences: (1) education & youth development, (2) racial & social justice, (3) workforce development & economic mobility, and (4) mental health and wellbeing.