SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER
“Youth are benefitting immensely from Equity Kids.”
Community in Schools of Central Texas (CIS), whose motto is “All In For Kids,” says it’s proud to have Equity Kids serve as one of its school-based partners. Their partner network ensures our students have access to opportunities, relationships & resources that can help them realize their potential and thrive. CIS is the bridge for Equity Kids’ participation in Central Texas schools. Recently, Emily Ledesma, Equity Kids Program Director, sat down with Lindsay Razzaz, Director of Strategic Partnerships, to learn how they choose their partners and what her hopes are for continued collaboration with Equity Kids.
Emily: Are there any specific criteria or requirements for organizations to become partners with CIS? How does CIS determine which organizations to partner with and what are benefits of collaborating with these organizations?
Lindsay: Relationships are at the heart of Communities in Schools (CIS) model, so partnerships are critical! Partners offer a wealth of resources and opportunities for youth in our community. Our work helps to integrate these opportunities into the campus environment, where students can access them directly. Partners provide us with expertise not already on our campuses, allow CIS to serve more students at a greater level of depth, and create an environment where a child can connect with their peers and have more caring adult relationships in an area of life that is important to them.
First and foremost, CIS looks for partners whose core work and mission aligns with the interests and needs of our students, families, and campuses. Once that’s clear, CIS goes through a layered vetting process, receives district approval, and pilots each potential partner program. We look at curriculum, training, and background of the facilitators, their experience working interactively with youth, and demonstrated outcomes. Any partner organization must be trained and equipped to provide services in their area and have a high level of professionalism.
Knowing that all young people are brilliant, dynamic, and resourceful, partners need to also resonate with CIS’ approach of unconditional positive regard for our students. We know their strong voices will change this world, and our job is to support, encourage and help them remove obstacles on their journey.
I’ll also share something that is particularly important to me. Through the CIS program, we are asking youth to grow, to step in to their full potential. In the same vein, I want to see that partners are growth-oriented themselves! It means a lot to have partners who are reflective about their work and impact, continually learning and improving, and value excellence in what they do. Partners of CIS should share the philosophy of mutual learning with students, and have the internal supports needed to continue to evolve and grow themselves (along with the students).
Emily: What factors contribute to a school's decision to express interest in partnering with specific organizations?
Lindsay: Each CIS Program Manager does a thorough needs assessment of their campus community every year! This involves surveys and conversations with teachers, students, families, administrators, nurses, counselors, and others to identify needs for students and the campus community as a whole. They then assess what campus resources are available to meet these needs, and what gaps remain that could be filled by a community resource, like a partner or volunteer program.
The CIS Program Manager for each school gets to know each individual CIS student holistically, including challenges that they’re navigating inside and outside of school, and also, importantly: what lights them up. They learn about a student’s talents and interests, what they care about when they walk into school, and why… and thus, can build a genuine, growth-oriented relationship with each young person. From this knowledge of students and campus stakeholders, PMs request partner services for the upcoming school year. CIS partners closely with families as well, and it is up to the student and family to opt in to any recommended partner program once it is on campus.
Emily: How does CIS measure the impact of its collaborations with other organizations?
Lindsay: As I mentioned, every potential partner is vetted by our Partnership Department and goes through a pilot process, so we can understand the value of the content being offered, observe how youth respond to the opportunity, and determine ways things can be fine-tuned to be more impactful to kids and better suited for the campus environment. Equity Kids did this with us in 2022, and then piloted their very successful elementary-level program with us this year.
Following the pilot process, we check-in at least annually (often a few times per year) to see if all continues to go well. We really want these relationships to be collaborative! We encourage partners to bring in challenges they’re facing or their plans for growth so that we can be thought partners in taking next steps together.
CIS also sends feedback surveys at the end of the year to our staff and to partner teams. We make it a priority to research the extent of youth involvement in a program, record stories and anecdotes, evaluate the level of professionalism and ease of collaboration in our partnership, and also look at utilization: the number of schools and students engaged. In the future, we hope to also use aggregated data to understand the correlation between partner programs and student improvement in their individual targeted goals as well as grades, attendance, and behavior. In addition, some partners, such as Equity Kids, use pre- and post-evaluations themselves.
Emily: How do you envision the growth and development of the partnership with Equity Kids?
Lindsay: We are particularly committed to home grown partner organizations who were born out of a need sensed in our own community. And we’re very proud partners of Equity Kids. Creating spaces where youth can share their own experiences around race, identity, culture, and diversity is so important. This type of conversation can help dissolve the feelings of isolation and otherness, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We want to encourage more connection, understanding and friendship between youth of all backgrounds. And this was such a highly requested program! I believe there were 18 campuses that wanted Equity Kids to be a part of their community. You all received many more requests from schools than your current capacity could support!
Depending on Equity Kids’ vision, we are eager to help you grow, reach more youth, and be engaged on more campuses. CIS of Central Texas serves 6 school districts and I anticipate requests for services from Equity Kids will be high again because all people (including students) crave safe spaces where they can share earnestly, feel truly seen, and understand the experiences of their peers in a deeper way. These are such important conversations to have, everywhere. CIS can write letters of support, help offset mileage costs for expanding into rural areas, and help bridge the initial needs for new sites. I believe in this program, and from everything I hear, it seems that youth are benefitting immensely from Equity Kids. This is a totally unique, reflective and empathy-based space you’re creating in schools. I would’ve loved to have had these conversations when I was a kid!
Current Programming and Activities:
Since last fall, we have been working with two classes at elementary schools in Austin. One is a more rural school made up of 5th grade participants, mostly Hispanic students, who meet weekly and are engaged in a yearlong program. The last few weeks have focused on the Justice portion of the Equity Kids curriculum and include interesting and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about stereotypes and the differences between equity and equality. In one session an African American girl -- the only one in the group-- shared that she felt alienated. The facilitators validated her experience and used it as a tool to create awareness in other kids. It was tough but eye opening and the conversations that developed eventually led to a community building experience within the class.
The second elementary school yearlong Equity Kids class is made up of 5th and 6th grade students who, according to facilitators, are “always asking questions, are super engaged and have recently explored such topics as how to have a conversation with someone different from me.” Recently, surprising the facilitators, one kid showed up who hadn’t been there in a long time and held some kids accountable in a respectful way. Someone said something about girls and sports, and he said, “I don’t like it when you make jokes like that, you can’t, that’s not nice.”
In addition, we have set up a pilot program for younger kids in a third school. 2nd graders are participating in a 15-week curriculum which focuses on age-appropriate crafts and projects related to the themes of Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action. Lots of stories and books are utilized such as “Something Happened in Our Town” and the families and community of this school, which is multicultural and bilingual, tend to already have some initial understanding of the meaning of diversity as a foundation.
These programs grew out of our partnership with Communities in Schools. This relationship is a critical part of the Equity Kids mission to collaborate with community partners on providing safe spaces for kids to converse about their feelings and discoveries around racial justice in their everyday lives.
Speaking of pilot programs, Equity Kids is going to be offering a virtual workshop for 2nd and 3rd graders together with a parent or other adult caregiver. The workshop will run 1-1 ½ hours and will explore the topic of Family – what it means to different people and the many differences and similarities we share with other families. Are you interested in participating or do you know anyone who might be? If so, please contact Sarah@equitykids.org– we are looking at late Spring to host the first group!
Staff Update:
Since our last newsletter, Program Director, Emily Ledesma, as part of professional development and outreach, participated in HopeFest to let prospective parents know about Equity Kids. She also attended and was inspired by the Africa American Youth Harvest Foundation summit which featured professionals of color teaching students about their experiences persevering through the college system and beginning their careers in government, law, healthcare and education. Hearing Martin Luther King III as the keynote speaker, Emily was reminded how Equity Kids is keeping his dad’s (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) “Beloved Community” vision alive.
Staff Spotlight: Haley Ott, Equity Kids Facilitator:
Working in schools, libraries and recreation centers, Haley finds that some of the most impactful lessons she has facilitated recently have been within the “Stereotyping” and “Identity” sections of the Equity Kids curriculum. During these sessions where kids shared with one another the stereotypes and slurs they’d heard about different groups, kids were understandably upset about the use of labels and misunderstandings that classmates had about their group. Haley observed, “Kids don’t often admit to what they’re doing, and even if just “joking”, we need to remind them of the seriousness of the topic, the validity of feelings, and the need to respect each other.” Addressing such topics as stereotypes and bullying based on race or other identities, Equity Kids staff work to equip kids with techniques on how to manage difficult situations. Haley said, “We’re trying to instill confidence, to help them feel they can speak with a teacher and set boundaries with what kind of language and behavior they’re willing, or not willing, to be around.” One Equity Kids session is about agreeing to disagree. Haley explained, “When a line gets crossed, when someone is blatantly being racist or homophobic, we want a kid to be able to say, ‘I don’t want you in my life or to be around you’, ‘I don’t allow this language’; We want them to feel able to go to a teacher and ask to sit across the room. We want to give them the confidence to say this isn’t right. This is just as serious as someone hitting you
Discussions during the “Identity” class particularly resonate with Haley, where kids spend time talking about what it is to be a certain race, class, gender, or sexual orientation or to have, or lack, certain physical abilities. They study examples of discrimination and the intersectionality of these identities and justice. Haley commented, “As a student, I would have loved any kind of education about queer community or even hearing those words in my class. I had to go off and figure it out myself because I didn’t have that kind of information and conversation. Seeing that kids can talk about these identities now will save kids’ lives.”
Haley is excited to partner with fellow facilitators Jenn Campbell and Marcos Olmos at the new Equity Kids sites this year where she’s shared some of her favorite resources in the curriculum including “Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All” by Carolyn Choi and Chelsea Johnson, and “Just Help” by Sonia Sotomayor.
Gold Transparency 2023 Candid
Equity Kids has earned our Gold Seal with @CandidDotOrg! We are excited to share the great work we do for our community at our profile https://www.guidestar.org/profile/85-4259226 and want to be sure you have the progress updates you need to support our work with trust and confidence.
THANK YOUs and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are, as always, overjoyed by the generosity of our individual and group funders, and thank each of you for your past support. Several to mention this time around are Peggy Winkler, whose family foundation contributed $5,000; Don Russell, who creatively donated the balance of what was budgeted for a family social event to Equity Kids; and Ming Liu and Ernest Rodriguez-Naaz, each of whom donated consulting fees and time to the board’s virtual retreat at the end of last year.
And to all of you who contributed to our End of Year campaign for school supplies, here’s a peek into our supply closet where a few of our resources are stored – including jelly beans!!! (Which are used for lessons on race, ethnicity and nationality.)
As we gear up for the potential expansion of our programs in the next school year, we appeal to you to please keep us in mind and to donate generously so we can continue and expandour Equity Kids outreach to schools and community sites. Please consider a monthly contribution to help us on a regular basis if you have that capacity.