Ragan Baker, United Way Quad Cities Student Success Director, was recently celebrated at the annual Metrocom NAACP 2025 Freedom Fund Banquet with the Image Award in Education.
Ragan’s work with the United Way Quad Cities United for Schools initiative has created a lasting impact in our community, schools, and students’ lives. Recently, Ragan shared what this award means to her, why United for Schools is important, and what the community can do to continue supporting our next generation.
What does United for Schools mean to you personally? Can you tell me about why it’s so close to your heart?
United for Schools is my heart. It’s my heartbeat. I’ve always been passionate about my community, and I’ve always been in positions where I can impact students, but I could only do that one school at a time. United for Schools has allowed me to touch all areas of the Quad Cities, and that brings me joy. Being in this role allows me to focus more “behind the scenes” on building partnerships to get families and students what they need.
It’s United for Schools, but it’s beyond academics. It’s making sure that families can succeed not only with their students academically, but in life. It’s filling in the gaps. I love that United Way Quad Cities can do that for families.
Was there a specific moment or experience that stood out to you that made you realize how important this program is?
It’s the testimonials that I get from our site coordinators [the United Way Quad Cities employees working directly 1:1 with students in each school]. They’ll share a testimonial from a parent, thanking us for giving them the support they needed, and or thanking us for creating new experiences for their family that they could have never afforded. It’s the simple things. United for Schools is allowing our students to experience what we have in our very own community. It’s really heartbreaking for me to know that kids live in our community and can’t even go to a skating rink, a River Bandits game, or get excited about a Crumbl cookie. Or to know that their parents can’t get them to school because they can’t afford to get new tires to drive them to school safely. It’s the simple things that I think a lot of us take for granted.
Can you talk a little bit more specifically about what United for Schools does for the students and families it serves?
United for Schools is a safe place. It’s a place-based initiative that creates wraparound support for students and families. United for Schools is needed because as grocery and all prices rise, everything else that you need to survive in life seems more unattainable. United for Schools is trying to close that gap, and so do our site coordinators through our partnerships. Site coordinators hear the needs of our families. Then they say “Okay, let me go out and try to find that resource.” We are the village that the family doesn’t have.
Have you noticed any differences in families, the school administration, or our community since starting the United for Schools initiative?
The buildings seem lighter, like we’re lightening the burden. The need is so high across the world. But what I’ve seen at the school level is support. Our site coordinators support students and teachers. They fill the gap where our teachers would love to give every student the attention they need, but they just can’t. The site coordinators allow our teachers to teach and students to get the extra support they need. This initiative allows everyone to share the load. It gets heavy when it feels like it’s always on one person. Through United for Schools, we’re more visible, and people look at United Way QC as a community supporter and partner.
What was your reaction to learning you won the Image Award in Education from the NAACP?
It came as a shock, but these things happen from you being you. This is just who I am. If somebody has a need, and if I can find a way to get them what they need, that’s my heart. It doesn’t feel like a weight to me because, to me, helping people is easy. Receiving the NAACP Image Award was like icing on the cake. It really made me feel like I was being seen.
If you could change any common misrepresentation about our educational system in the Quad Cities, what would you change?
The issues that we face are not completely educational. What I would love to change is how we support our most vulnerable populations. When you change that, then education will change. Students cannot learn if they don’t have a home to go to, if they’re evicted. Parents can’t work if they don’t have a vehicle or transportation systems. Students can’t succeed if they don’t have food. I want to get to the root cause, and I think it’s bigger than education. It’s a lack of resources when it comes to just trying to live.
What did it mean to you to receive the Image award specifically?
It’s in the name – the Image Award. It’s like a reflection of yourself. All your hard work has paid off. It meant the world to see so many people who were part of my village growing up at the banquet, and now I get to be part of that village. It was really warming, and it felt like those individuals helped me to get where I was. That award allows me to give back to my community that gave to me. The Image Award is one more thing that excites me and one more thing that’s going to push me to do more. It meant a lot.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get involved with supporting our educational system, but doesn’t know where to start?
I would first ask them to reflect on their experience growing up in school, whether it was a positive or a negative one. Who would you have loved to have in your corner, and how could you be that for someone else? Ask yourself, “What could I have used back then?”
Getting kids educated is the foundation, and when adults and children have access to education, the better off they will be. When you invest in students, being a positive light for a student is so important.
It’s all the difference. We should have more individuals at school board meetings. We should have more individuals participating and volunteering.
We sometimes let our own experiences affect how we should help someone else who needs us. No one got to where they were alone. You can volunteer at a school event, and it doesn’t require too much, but it makes a difference. You can sit and read with a kid for 30 minutes a week; you’re impacting that kid.
We can’t control the environments our kids go home to, but if you engage with schools and deposit life into the kids, you’re allowing that student to see more than what they see at home. But they can only see that if you’re present. So, simply put, show up, level up. When our kids show up, they level up. They level up their literacy. They level up their academics, they level up socially. And when we show up, it should level up something within us as well.