CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The partisanship divide in Washington subsided earlier this month, though for only a day.

The Sept. 12 "Business Week" headline "What do Marco Rubio and Deval Patrick agree on?" foreshadowed the truce at the Opportunity Nation Summit, held at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after these two men gave passionate speeches at their respective party conventions, Sen. Rubio, R-Fla., and Democratic Gov. Patrick of Massachusetts shared a common fire at the summit.

A national campaign to promote opportunity, social mobility and access to the American dream, Opportunity Nation has sparked interest from leaders across the country and on both sides of the political fence.

The "Chronicle of Philanthropy" called Opportunity Nation one of the10 nonprofits to watch in 2012. Its recent summit brought people with experience creating community change together to discuss how to increase economic, educational and civic opportunities and to release the organization's strategic plan and opportunity index.

I am honored to be part of the Opportunity Nation Leaders and Scholars program. Leaders and scholars -- 130 in all -- represented 43 states and the District of Columbia. Each has an unwavering commitment to expanding economic mobility and proven success as a mobilizer in their communities.

Participants learned about the opportunity index and each other. Our charge is to go into our communities and use the shared plan to increase opportunity. Our shared plan is the result of meetings and listening sessions from a diverse group and has eight facets:

1. Engage employers as part of the solution.

2. Incentivize innovation through an enterprising pathways program.

3. Reauthorize and reform federal policies to improve career and technical education.

4. Pair college planning support for low-income students with asset development.

5. Boost mentoring.

6. Drive community collaboration to reconnect youth, re-engaging high school dropouts and preparing them for the labor force.

7. Increase pathways to secondary education success and postsecondary education success.

8. Invest in current educational, economic and civic programs that have a consistent and proven track record of success.

The group's goal is to improve opportunities, which are measured through an established national index, by at least 10 percent in 10 years in all 50 states. The index helps establish where a community ranks and where it should focus its efforts to increase economic, educational and community resource opportunities.

West Virginia's overall opportunity score was 44.9 out of 100, which ranks us 43rd nationally.

The lone good news for the state economically is its unemployment rate is lower than the national rate. Other statistics, however, show our median household income is well below the national average; our population below the poverty line is well above the national average; and our percentage of households with high-speed Internet is significantly lower than the national average.

In education, West Virginia's on-time high school graduation rate is slightly better than the national average, but the percentage of adults with an associate's degree or higher is very low. Our percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds participating in preschool programs is well below the national average.

In the community health and civic life section of the index, West Virginia scores lower than the national average in civic group memberships, above the national average in youth not in school and not working, and below the national average in volunteerism. The only positive in this category was a significantly lower score of violent crimes per 100,000 in population.

The general tone of the summit was that the zip code you are born in shouldn't determine your life opportunities. The Opportunity Nation plan provides recommendations that we can all employ:

1. Mentor a young adult.

2. Get involved in a young person's life and let him or her know you care.

3. As an employee, mention to your human resource professional the employer toolkit on the Opportunity Nation website.

4. Vote.

There are also recommendations for community leaders and even recommendations for people of different faiths.

The experience was an eye-opener to me. The summit was only a beginning. After spending time with my new colleagues from across the nation, I now have a network of diverse ideas. I am asking all West Virginians to contribute independently or as part of their existing economic, educational and civic organizations. Use some of the recommendations to help boost our score. The end result is increased opportunity ahead.

To learn more about Opportunity Nation, its Shared Plan and recommendations, go to opportunitynation.org.

Scalise, of Charleston, is executive director of the five-county Capital Resource Agency and this year's only Opportunity Leader from West Virginia. He can be reached at  dscal...@crawv.org.