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On Thursday, October 15, America Forward will launch its 2016 Presidential campaign engagement effort with the release of Moving America Forward: Innovators Lead the Way to Unlocking America’s Potential. Moving America Forward is a briefing book intended for 2016 Presidential candidates and policymakers at all levels of government who aspire to unlock the potential of all Americans and make our nation, once again, the land of opportunity. The book presents the best ideas and most effective approaches to address the biggest challenges facing our nation, ideas shaped by social innovators that offer a wealth of opportunities for policymakers to scale local results into national impact.

The America Forward Coalition is made up of of more than 70 leading social innovators who share an audacious vision: an America where every child growing up has the opportunity for a successful life and where anyone who falls off a path to opportunity gets a second chance at a better future. These social innovators lead organizations that are making direct impact every day in addressing big problems in their communities, from education to workforce development to poverty alleviation. Coalition members are achieving measurable outcomes in more than 14,500 communities across the country every day, touching the lives of nearly 8 million Americans each year. And they have come together to grow their impact through policy change, bringing innovative ideas to Washington, DC and challenging policymakers to focus on results and impact.

Every four years, America has the opportunity to set a new direction for the nation through the election of a new President. In the lead up to the 2008 election, New Profit launched America Forward with the goal of uniting the social entrepreneur community in a national policy effort that would bring social innovation policy to the forefront. As part of that effort, America Forward supported the creation of the White House Office of Social Innovation and the Social Innovation Fund, a policy idea put forward in the 2008 briefing book. This year, America Forward will engage in the 2016 election to promote innovative policy ideas that align with the America Forward Coalition’s agenda of elevating effective, local solutions to the national level to drive systemic change.

Over the next week on this blog, we will be featuring examples of these effective, local solutions from our Coalition that are designed to address the five challenges of our time laid out in Moving America Forward. The briefing book presents concrete, actionable policy ideas for how the next President can address each of these five challenges:

• Government that Works: We challenge the next President to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of taxpayer dollars, and move government fully into the 21st century by investing in innovation, making data accessible, measuring outcomes, breaking down silos, investing in technology, and leveraging private action.
• Education for the Future: We challenge the next President to secure the future of the nation by helping states, communities, schools, early learning programs, and their nonprofit partners accelerate improvements that can expand opportunity, achievement, and success for all.
• “Market-Able” America: To reclaim our place in the international ranks and prepare the workers we need, we challenge the next President to support more ladders to help students attain a marketable postsecondary credential — and ensure that they are developing the skills they need to succeed in the economy.
• First Jobs: We challenge the next President to mobilize America to open first job opportunities for every young adult to step onto a pathway to a career.
• Second Chances: We challenge the next President to build on-ramps to opportunity for all Americans, giving citizens who have turned their lives around or paid their dues a second chance at a better future.

To learn more about our Moving America Forward efforts, follow @America_Forward, #AFPresidential16, on Twitter and tune in for live updates from the launch event on October 15 at 2pm EST.