Talent Development

We develop community leaders and their teams to manage complex, cross-sector initiatives that yield positive outcomes for children at scale.

Through By All Means and our Institute for Success Planning communities of practice, we support the work of mayors, superintendents, and local backbone leaders and community teams in year-long professional development programming.

EdRedesign's New Fellowship

In 2024, we launched the EdRedesign Fellowship for Cradle-to-Career Partnership Leaders, a tuition-free, 18-month visiting Fellowship for senior leaders working in the cradle-to-career place-based field. 

Children and families in communities across the country experience complex, multi-generational, and substantial disparities in education, health, well-being, and income. Solutions to address the long-term impacts of racism, poverty, and disinvestment require residents and organizations from all sectors to come together toward shared goals.   

Place-based partnerships combine forces from multiple sectors and elevate the voices and lived experience of residents to solve complex problems in geographically defined places (neighborhoods, towns, cities, or counties). By aligning opportunities and supports, these partnerships work to meet local needs. They build on individual and community assets to create cradle-to-career pathways that allow more young people to reach their full potential.   

The Fellowship is grounded in real-world applications across a variety of partnership models and was developed by EdRedesign and a working group of national field network leaders — Partners for Rural Impact, Purpose Built Communities, StriveTogether, and William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone. Learn more by visiting the Fellowship's webpage.

Supporting Place-Based Models

We support leaders of place-based partnerships advancing cradle-to-career models that place young people and families on pathways to socioeconomic mobility and racial equity.

We align with key national organizations, exemplary practitioners, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Harvard-based centers and initiatives to foster a national talent development strategy for the place-based partnership field focusing on cradle-to-career solutions. We support a wide range of place-based approaches — from Federal Promise Neighborhoods to regional backbone organizations, Children’s Cabinets, and community schools. We are model-agnostic, supporting communities working with Communities in Schools, Partners for Rural Impact, Purpose Built Communities, StriveTogether, William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children's Zone, and other networks and models.

Convening and Developing Field Leaders, Communities, and Practitioners 

We have a track record of developing talent from the field and convening thought leaders from Harvard and beyond on issues of cross-sector collaboration, personalized approaches to individual supports for children and youth, child and youth development, and youth voice and family engagement.

In 2018, we co-organized the Inaugural Leadership Institute, “Strengthening Community Leadership to Help All Children Thrive.” Twenty community teams from across the U.S. participated in the five-day training. The Institute was led by faculty from Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and MIT as well as practitioners and national leaders. We have hosted annual in-person and virtual convenings with local, regional, and national leaders deeply vested in this work.

In our By All Means and Success Planning communities of practice, we are actively working in partnership with over two dozen communities throughout the U.S. from a diversity of national networks. 

Summer Institute for Neighborhood Leaders

We partner with the William Julius Wilson Institute (WJWI) at Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) to co-organize and host the Summer Institute for Neighborhood Leaders, an annual national convening that aims to support the leaders of neighborhood partnerships advancing cradle-to-career models that place young people and families on pathways to socioeconomic mobility and racial equity. 

WJWI Place-Based Education Leaders Design Fellowship

We are also collaborating with the William Julius Wilson Institute and Chiefs for Change on the inaugural WJWI Place-Based Education Leaders Design Fellowship. The immersive cohort experience will bring district leaders, their cabinets, and community-based organizations together to explore how school districts can catalyze collaboration, coordination, and strategic planning with community-based organizations to create cradle-to-career pipelines in their communities. 

Student Engagement

We engage with students through courses in collaborative action and personalization, research assistant positions, summer internships, and a doctoral fellowship to improve practice and policy design.

At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, we have witnessed a growing focus on the role of cross-sector leadership within the degree programs. Our director Paul Reville has served as Faculty Co-Chair in HGSE's Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) Program, which prepares candidates for system-level, cross-sector leadership positions. Paul and other members of our team teach graduate courses that prepare graduates to work in the collaborative action field. Recent courses include Leading with the Board and Collaborative Action for Children: Redesigning Education for Equity. Visit our Get Involved page to learn more about open applications to join the team and other student opportunities.