On Thursday, April 10 Karen Pittman joined staff from the Oasis Center to kick off Nashville’s Ready by 21 Quality Counts initiative. The event brought together providers and policy makers from across the youth-serving sector in Nashville and the state and focused on introducing the Ready by 21 Challenge and the four goals of the Quality Counts initiative: building capacity for ongoing program quality assessment and improvement, mapping and strengthening the program landscape; strengthening policy/leadership horsepower, and workforce development. Pittman also met separately with key city and state leaders to identify opportunities and barriers to linking the Quality Counts initiative to existing policy and planning work and to ensure that all providers (e.g. small, large, faith-based and community-based) are engaged.