On March 14, 2018, leaders from Ashoka, Inspired Teaching, TEACH-NOW and local educators teamed up to launch the DC Changemaker Collaborative and pursue a common mission of fostering changemaking in DC. Over 30 local education professionals came together for the first time as a Collaborative cohort to reimagine a DC education system that empowers all to be positive agents of change in the community. Together with the leadership team, they all share a common belief: when stakeholders from diverse sectors, backgrounds, and roles in the DC education landscape align under one vision, they can expand their influence and ability to spark change in DC.
In order to facilitate collaboration, the leadership team launched the inaugural DC ChangemakerEd Summit on November 4th, 2017. The Summit convened over 120 stakeholders and community members to explore ways to empower every young person in DC to be a changemaker. Through conversations and engaging activities at the Summit, participants vocalized the need for more opportunities to work together and engage with a diverse range of influencers.
The leadership team is proud to launch the DC Changemaker Collaborative, an opportunity for select and diverse cohort of local education professionals to collaborate and engage in professional development throughout the next 10 months. The Collaborative will provide participants with an opportunity for personal growth, purposeful community, and the tools to achieve systemic change in education. Teams emerging from this initiative will receive seed funding to incubate projects that promote changemaking in the city around critical areas such as teacher empowerment, youth voice and agency, and social justice. The Collaborative unites educators, nonprofit professionals, policymakers, and community members from the DC education landscape to implement projects designed to spark systemic change in DC.
Collaborative member Orinthia Harris from the Center for Education Improvement couldn’t have put it better: “It’s going to take all of us to make change, and we need to be aware of ourselves and aware of each other to be successful.”
Inspired Teacher Lisa Bronsan (‘14) also highlighted the significance of finding a cohort of like-minded people in the Collaborative. At the end of the kick-off event, Lisa explained, “It feels good to be in a room full of people committed to the same thing—affecting change in education. It makes me hopeful for the future and feel that we can create a better world.”
The organizations and individuals that make up the leadership team each bring their specific expertise in professional development and influencing systemic change in DC. The leadership team itself is a cross-sectoral collaboration, comprised of professionals from schools, nonprofits, government, and teacher preparation programs. Together with the teams that emerge from the cohort, they seek to be a model of the collaborations DC needs to create systemic transformation in education.
***
About our partners:
Ashoka is is a global nonprofit, based in Rosslyn, VA, that builds and cultivates communities of change leaders who see the world now requires everyone to be a changemaker. Its network includes over 3,300 social entrepreneurs, over 300 schools, over 30 universities, and other partners.
TEACH-NOW is a local Education technology startup that seeks to equip, enable, and empower tomorrow’s teachers for tomorrow’s students in tomorrow’s learning world using a globally accessible, activity-based, collaborative learning model.
The DC Changemaker Collaborative Leadership Team also includes three individuals who serve on this team as a personal commitment to building a city that empowers all to become changemakers. They are current and previous educators who work in local schools and government.