History of The Regional Alliance for Youth (RAY)

In March 2005, the Lumpkin Family Foundation began talking with community leaders from across East Central Illinois about the impact of programs and resources for children and youth.  These community leaders unanimously agreed that youth might be better served.  In response to the shared desire to make East Central Illinois a more child-friendly and family-friendly region, an Advisory Team helped the Foundation plan a two-day Summit, entitled Helping Our Children and Youth Reach for the Future.

The Summit, held on March 29 and 30, 2006 attracted seventy-four professionals concerned with youth.  Participants brought to the Summit their experiences in child care, health care, education, economic development, juvenile justice, behavioral health and faith communities.  More importantly, they brought with them a passion for making a difference. 

During a successful two-day Summit, participants learned from each other, strengthened their shared foundation, and began planning for coordinated action.  They targeted “the system” of care and resource for youth, reasoning that improvements in the system would likely have more sustained and long-range impact on youth than would supporting projects within individual organizations. Improvements in the system might go beyond ‘reform’ to ‘transformation’. 

After the summit, a group of participants continued to meet.  They wished to form a regional steering committee to advance the vision for systemic change elaborated during the Summit.  This group solicited nominations to this steering committee and eventually extended invitations to 11 community leaders to the community steering committee designed to improve the opportunities for children in the region to grow up to reach their full potentials.

This group became the board of trustees for what has been christened The Regional Alliance for Youth (RAY).  RAY held its first meeting in January 2007 and began work on its two primary strategies for promoting its vision of East Central Illinois as a region where youth thrive: