When leaders from education, libraries, nonprofits and local government talk about Chattanooga 2.0, they rarely start with its programs.
They talk instead about rooms where people who rarely worked together before now sit at the same table – comparing data, identifying gaps and imagining what might be possible if systems aligned around children rather than institutions.
That convening role, partners say, has become one of Chattanooga 2.0’s most significant contributions over the past decade, helping the community move from isolated efforts to coordinated action in early childhood, literacy, workforce development and youth support.
“Chattanooga 2.0 has brought many of us together,” says Will O’Hearn, executive director of the Chattanooga Public Library. “We’re all experts in our own fields, but we’re also individual mountains within a larger range of literacy. Chattanooga 2.0 looks at that entire range.”
By creating space for cross-sector collaboration, O’Hearn says, the organization has helped shift partners from being “strong, standalone resources” to parts of a connected system designed to support children and families countywide.
From conversations to outcomes
That shift has produced unexpected partnerships – and tangible results.
O’Hearn pointed to a conversation that emerged through the Hamilton County-Chattanooga Children’s Cabinet, a cross-sector body convened by Chattanooga 2.0 and co-chaired by the mayors of Chattanooga and Hamilton County alongside the Hamilton County Schools superintendent.
“(Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority CEO) Charles Frazier was there talking about transportation literacy – and we realized that was a natural opportunity to collaborate,” O’Hearn says. “Working with him, we created a library program where children rode a city bus to a park and read a book together.”
Absent that shared space, he says, the idea would never have materialized.
“We would have stayed in our own lanes,” O’Hearn says. “Chattanooga 2.0 created the space for collaboration and made a larger community impact possible.”
For Dr. Sonia Stewart, deputy superintendent for Hamilton County Schools, the organization’s value lies not only in convening partners but in helping them connect the dots across systems.
“Chattanooga 2.0 does an incredible job of bringing people together,” she says. “The ability to convene excellence in a room is powerful, but what’s even more significant is its ability to connect the dots.”
Stewart describes early conversations that led to the creation of the Chattanooga Future Fund, a countywide effort to provide college and career savings accounts for students, recalling how Chattanooga 2.0 Executive Director Kari Randolph invited partners to help think through the idea at its earliest stages.
“A group of us gathered and began talking about what it would mean to plant seeds of hope for children.”
Stewart says Randolph made clear that the school system’s role would be limited.
“She said, ‘We don’t need the schools to do anything except carry the message. We’ll take care of the rest,’” Stewart says.
The idea grew into a collaboration involving public and philanthropic partners, allowing adults across sectors to deliver a shared message to young children.
“To look 5- and 6-year-olds in the eye and say, ‘I believe in who you could be in 15 years,’” Stewart says. “The school system can’t do that alone.”
Addressing barriers
Chattanooga 2.0’s Children’s Cabinet has also become a forum for confronting challenges that fall outside the traditional scope of education – including youth homelessness.
“As we talked about creating better conditions for kids, we recognized homelessness as a barrier for some of our students,” Stewart says.
That recognition led to a youth homelessness pilot, launched through cross-sector collaboration. In its first nine months, the program housed 57 students.
“We’re already seeing kids come to school more consistently,” Stewart says. “As a school system, we can’t house children – that’s not our role – but we can sit at the table, collaborate with partners and say, ‘Let’s get our kids what they need.’”
Katie Harbison, president and CEO of Chambliss Center for Children, says Chattanooga 2.0 has also changed who’s included in those conversations – particularly when it comes to early childhood.
“Too often, when we talk about the education of children, early childhood isn’t included,” Harbison says. “What’s been powerful is being able to join the conversation around how we help children succeed in the school system – and recognizing that the answer is to start earlier than kindergarten.”
With roughly 80% of brain development occurring before children enter school, Harbison says early childhood must be part of any serious strategy to improve long-term outcomes.
“Chattanooga 2.0 has allowed us to look upstream and ask what we can do to set children up for success, not just in school but throughout their lives,” she says.
Before the organization existed, Harbison continues, there was no regular space for early childhood leaders to collaborate.
“Now we meet, collaborate and learn from one another,” she says. “That’s changed how we talk about children and education and it’s shifted investment toward early childhood in ways we haven’t seen before.”
Decade of collaboration
As Chattanooga 2.0 looks toward its next 10 years, partners say the work has also produced hard-earned lessons about pace, credit and persistence.
Harbison recalled advice from her predecessor, the late Phil Acord.
“He used to tell me, ‘It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit,’” she says. “That’s something I hope we carry forward.”
She emphasized the importance of patience.
“Very few things happen quickly,” Harbison says. “Some of the conversations we started 10 years ago still aren’t fully realized.”
O’Hearn says protecting Chattanooga’s collaborative culture will become increasingly important as the city grows.
“Chattanooga is the 11th most moved-to city in the United States,” he says. “As someone who’s lived in several other places, I believe Chattanooga has a rare and precious culture – one that’s open to trying new things and genuinely willing to collaborate.”
As new residents arrive, he says, intentional integration will matter.
“Each day, we should show up willing to work together, collaborate and try different approaches – some of which will work and some of which won’t,” O’Hearn says. “That spirit is special – and I don’t want to see it change.”
Stewart framed the work as a collective responsibility that extends beyond any single institution.
“At its core, Chattanooga 2.0 reflects a belief that, as a community, we share a collective responsibility to care for our children and to change their futures,” she says. “We don’t place that responsibility on a single sector. We say all of us are responsible.”
Rising stakes
That collaborative approach has drawn national notice.
Chattanooga was recently selected as one of just seven communities nationwide – from 1,743 applicants – for a major initiative led by The Wallace Foundation to strengthen out-of-school-time systems. The effort is expected to bring between $6 million and $10 million in investment during its planning and pilot years in 2026 and 2027, with a focus on career exploration, skill-building and mentorship for youth, particularly those furthest from opportunity.
“That’s an extraordinary data point,” Stewart says. “It means the nation is looking at a small city in southeastern Tennessee and seeing something worth investing in – our culture, our collaboration, our data systems and our leadership.”
The next phase, she says, will center on listening.
“Our first step is to have meaningful conversations in the community with the people who will be most impacted by this work,” Stewart says. “The next year will be a year of listening – of designing alongside our neighbors and our kids for the future they want to see.”
Momentum amid uncertainty
Partners acknowledged that the work ahead will unfold amid real challenges, including significant cuts to child care funding.
“With a $44 million cut to child care taking effect Oct. 1, it can be hard to say, ‘Let’s keep going,’” Harbison says. “But that’s exactly why it matters to remember what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
She stressed the importance of keeping the work bipartisan and focused on outcomes rather than politics.
“Supporting children shouldn’t be political,” Harbison says. “When children do better, the whole community does better, and when families thrive, everyone benefits.”
A decade into the work, partners say that collaboration – not any single program – remains Chattanooga 2.0’s defining proof point. Whether that culture endures might shape the future of children, families and the region itself.