According to the results from the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standardized testing, students in Oklahoma performed below the national average in fourth-grade reading and mathematics and eighth-grade reading and mathematics (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2018b).

In 2018, fewer than one third of eighth-grade students in Oklahoma reached at or above Proficient in mathematics (24%) and reading (28%), and just over a quarter reached at or above Proficient in science (28%). Results from the 2018 Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2018a) for 8th grade mathematics and science show that about one in ten Tulsa students (11%) scored proficient or higher in mathematics (compared to one in five for Oklahoma overall, 20%), while one in four Tulsa students (25%) scored proficient or higher in science (compared to about two of five for Oklahoma overall, 39%).

Half of all STEM jobs are available to workers without a four-year college degree, and these jobs pay $53,000 on average—a wage 10 percent higher than jobs with similar educational requirements. Half of all STEM jobs are in manufacturing, health care, or construction industries. Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations constitute 12 percent of all STEM jobs, one of the largest occupational categories. Other blue-collar or technical jobs in fields such as construction and production also frequently demand STEM knowledge.

THRIVE, Oklahoma is committed to building and strengthening community partnerships that expand access to STEM training and workforce development opportunities for students, veterans, retirees, and all Oklahomans who want to enhance their economic future.

Strategic planning is the art of creating specific business strategies, implementing them, and evaluating the results of executing the plan. It is a concept that focuses on building seamless processes and adding efficiency across the various departments (such as accounting and finance, marketing, operations and human resources) within your organization to accomplish its strategic goals. The term strategic planning is essentially synonymous with strategic management.

Our approach to building this foundation for success, your strategy plan, is THRIVE, Oklahoma Ideation, a framework that first establishes a clear understanding (baseline) of how your organization is currently structured, operates, related processes, strategic relationships, resources and resource partners. Further, we explore the related goals for each of the departments engaged. The model created as a result of this discovery effort informs how we engage partners who best align with your needs.

We believe that your organization’s overall long-term goals and objectives can and should be made possible with the support of local, state and national institutions, and that is where our unique value is clearly realized.

THRIVE, Oklahoma is keenly aware of how to structure and manage partnerships that create value for your organization. Our partners possess the resources and willingness to help guide leadership and make possible the delivery of your services.

We embrace a concept of community that extends well-beyond neighborhoods. Communities are also our schools, organizations, institutions, and industries that are an integral part of how we learn, contribute, and build sustainable futures. THRIVE, Oklahoma’s approach to community capacity development considers both place-based and sector-based frameworks, strengthening our abilities to embrace employment opportunities that require unique capabilities, as well as developing skills for emerging technologies. Our partners offer more than a narrowly defined certification or training, instead they focus on enhancing long-term employment journeys.

Your mental health and well-being are the foundation upon which you build successful careers, children may be raised to reach for their highest goals and communities may prosper.

THRIVE, Oklahoma works with community partners to structure programming that meets the unique needs of all families, the employed/unemployed, veterans, educators, health care workers, nonprofits/for-profits and employers who seek to create and nurture environments that inspire balance. Our community-driven partner programs are designed to bring health and social care closer together, to achieve greater efficiencies in service delivery, identify often untapped resources and improve both health and care outcomes.