ANNUAL REPORT

Dear friends & supporters,

At UrbanPromise, we take up to a 20-year leadership journey with our students through childhood, youth, and young adulthood. Ultimately, we hope our students grow into Christ-like leaders, serving as agents of restoration in their families and communities.

During the 2024-2025 academic year (which marked our 12th year of programming), our staff focused on “co-owning” our students’ 20-year leadership journeys. In particular, we zoomed in on the transition points in our students’ journeys – from 5th to 6th grader, 8th to 9th grader, graduating high school senior to college freshman, graduating college student to first-year professional.

These transition points on our students’ 20-year journeys are critical – and precarious. Our different staff position teams have to work together to help our students successfully and healthily move through the transitions and into the next stage of their journey. For example, it requires teamwork and collaboration from our Middle School Coordinators and StreetLeader Directors to ensure our graduating 8th grade students become Junior StreetLeaders in 9th grade. And our StreetLeader Directors and Alumni Directors must intentionally collaborate in order to combat the summer melt and ensure our senior StreetLeaders who graduate high school in May begin their post-secondary pathways in August.

I’m proud to report that, because of our staff members’ faithful and intentional leadership, our students navigated these fraught transitions and achieved at various stages in their journeys during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Our elementary and middle school students grew in their reading abilities. Once again, 100% of our senior StreetLeaders graduated high school on-time and received college acceptance – and everyone launched in their post-secondary pathway this fall. And 81% of our 223 Alumni are still enrolled in or have completed post-secondary education – including three Alumni who are back at UrbanPromise as full-time staff members!

But the truth is that it’s not only our students, their families, and our staff that have embraced this sense of co-ownership of our students’ 20-year journeys. YOU have committed to co-owning our students’ journeys, too! Yes, your generosity, belief, and commitment to our students’ journeys made UrbanPromise possible this past year.

So this annual report is our way of saying “thank you”. Thank you for your consistent belief, your generous investment, and your unwavering prayers. As you explore the stories in the pages ahead, may you be inspired by the powerful evidence of growth and leadership that your partnership made possible. And may you be encouraged by the way our students, StreetLeaders, and Alumni are serving as agents of God’s love, justice, hope, and peace in Charlotte and beyond.

Grace and Peace,

Jimmy McQuilkin

Executive Director