What is Operation Graduation?

United Way's Operation Graduation focuses on preparing
our youth for success in higher education and the world of
work. This initiative helps young people succeed by supporting and enhancing quality programs, like mentoring and supervised extracurricular activities. Operation Graduation engages the entire community – businesses, parents, educators, students and nonprofit agencies – in the process because educational excellence involves more than just schools; education is the
business of every citizen.

Among industrialized nations, American 4th grade students are the best in math and science, our 8th graders are somewhere in the middle and our 12th graders are near the bottom. We need to determine the reasons for this decline and to identify solutions
to stop this downward spiral. We need to prepare our youth to succeed in a global economy.

Our vision for Operation Graduation is for all youth (ages 6-19) in Eastern Fairfield County to complete higher education and
transition to the workforce.

Our Operation Graduation strategies:

1. Build public awareness for the importance of quality
public education and youth programming to eliminate
the educational achievement gap.

2. Implement a system of support services to promote
optimal success for all youth so they graduate college
and work ready.

3. Promote family literacy and positive youth development
through quality, accessible out-of-school programming,
mentoring and tutoring.

The problem:

• 35% of Bridgeport’s class of 2003 dropped out of high school.
• 57% of young people spend two hours or more home alone each school day during the peak hours of violent crime, 3 - 6 P.M.

The solution:
United Way's Operation Graduation focuses on preparing our youth for success in higher education and the world of work.

The results:
United Way works with more than 35 partners to help close the achievement gap between urban students and their suburban counterparts.

• United Way partners provide quality afterschool programs serving more than 10,974 students.
• United Way funds mentoring programs proven to prevent a
  young person's involvement with drugs or risky activities.

Download a copy of the Operation Graduation 2006 Quarterly Investment Report.

Download a copy of the Operation Graduation Brochure.