Institute for Success Planning
EdRedesign’s new Institute for Success Planning, housed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, supports 12 communities through a process of designing, expanding, or improving systems of personalized, relationship-based support for children and youth by ensuring each child is paired with a Navigator, a caring adult outside of their families.
Learn more about the Institute & Community of Practice
What is Success Planning and why do we need it?
Student Success Planning is a personalized, relationship-based approach for ensuring all students have an adult outside their families who knows them well, and develops a plan for ensuring their needs are met by connecting them to supports and opportunities available in their community. By creating new ways to understand and support each child as an individual with interests and goals, as well as needs for tailored services, all children can thrive.
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought new clarity and urgency to longstanding inequities in opportunities and outcomes for children of different economic and racial backgrounds as well as for those with learning differences or whose first language is not English. At the same time, the crisis offers an unprecedented opportunity to drive transformative change in our educational systems. Across the country, education and community leaders are addressing these challenges by collectively harnessing a personalized, relationship-based approach to expand opportunity for all children.
Success Planning is a framework rather than a single model. Recognizing that different communities have varying needs, capacities, and entry points for implementation. EdRedesign has developed guiding principles and core components of a successful support system.
These components are:
- A Navigator—an adult who forms a positive individual relationship with a child and their family, and develops an understanding of the child’s needs and interests;
- A plan for action and a process for enacting it;
- A coordinated system of supports and opportunities;
- A data platform to capture information and document plans over time -- and in some cases, to refer directly to services.
Our Success Planning framework distills key elements of several models for personalizing supports for children, emphasizing both the importance of healthy developmental relationships between adults and children, as well as integrated, comprehensive supports. Optimally, Success Planning should not be a standalone effort, but part of a broader community-wide strategy to support children that is coordinated by a cross-sector Children’s Cabinet or other entity leading a place-based strategy.
Who should apply?
EdRedesign invites interested communities to submit applications for teams of four people. The lead should be the head — or a designee with the authority to take action — of the organization that will take the lead role in Success Planning. This could be a school district or a community-based organization. Other team members should include community partners, school representatives, and other public sector leaders or public-private partners (e.g. city government, health department, social services, faith-based institutions, universities, etc.), all with sufficient seniority to drive implementation of Success Planning within their communities.
We welcome applications from communities that are just beginning to develop their Success Planning strategy as well as from those who already have one or more components in place. We will have differentiated content to accommodate the different stages of development. Applicants should have existing connections with a defined population of children and youth either through schools or a community-based organization.
What are the benefits to me and my community?
The Success Planning Community of Practice is a cohort-based, year-long undertaking, with the opportunity to extend for an additional year. Participants are expected to commit to full participation in the virtual launch in June, the in-person workshop in July (including attending the full three-day session), and the ongoing virtual Community of Practice. Teams also commit to creating an actionable plan to begin or expand their Success Planning work.
Participating in the Community of Practice will enable participants to create transformational change for children within their communities by creating, expanding, or improving a personalized, relationship-based system of supports for children. Benefits of participation include:
- being part of a professional learning community
- access to resources, tools, and experts
- a structured curriculum covering design and implementation
- networking opportunities
- opportunities for more focused technical assistance
Activities:
Virtual Community of Practice launch: Thurs., June 23, 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET
In-person workshop on the Harvard campus: Mon., July 18 – Wed., July 20
Ongoing virtual Community of Practice: Aug. 2022 – Jun. 2023
What does it cost?
The cost for the in-person workshop and year-long Community of Practice is $1500 per person, plus the cost of travel and lodging. Thanks to the support of our generous funders, the fee will be waived for four team members per community. We will also cover flights and lodging expenses for two team members per community.
What is the application process and when is the Info Session?
In order to apply to the community of practice, please complete the application form by Friday, April 29. Finalists will be invited to take part in a short interview in May, and the cohort will be announced by late May.
You can learn more about the overall community of practice and application process by viewing the recording and slides from our 4/19 information session. While our office hours on April 22 are now full, you can contact michelle_sedaca@gse.harvard.edu if you would like to schedule a 15-minute slot to meet with EdRedesign staff via zoom and ask specific questions. We will do our best to accommodate you.
Check out the key upcoming dates on our calendar.
Community of Practice FAQs
Please view the Success Planning Community of Practice FAQs for answers to many commonly asked questions.
More questions?
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