The We Refuse to Lose series explores what cradle-to-career initiatives across the country are doing to improve outcomes for students of color and those experiencing poverty. The series profiles five communities—Buffalo, Chattanooga, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley and Tacoma—that are working to close racial gaps for students journeying from early education to careers. A majority of these students come from populations that have been historically oppressed and marginalized through poorly resourced schools, employment, housing and loan discrimination, police violence, a disproportionate criminal justice system and harsh immigration policies.

The Chattanooga profile explores how anchor organizations Chattanooga 2.0, PEF Chattanooga and the Chamber of Commerce have taken bold and important steps to put equity and shared opportunity at the forefront of their work. In her introduction of the profile, Maeghan Jones, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, remains hopeful “because this work does not happen alone. From our grantees whose essential services continue to inspire us, to the Black and brown community leaders who have worked toward equity before it had a name, to partners like Chattanooga 2.0 who have committed to the essential work of changing the systems that hold our most difficult problems in place, I see a brighter Chattanooga ahead.”