Envisioneers Inc
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Mission Statement
Envisioneers' mission is to combat systemic inequity in education by fostering and cultivating the academic and social-emotional skills of our scholars while exposing them to project-based learning and community mentors. Our vision is for all scholars to realize the opportunities that are available and have the skills to create their vision and engineer their dreams. Envisioneers leverages an Expanded Learning Day model to re-imagine the way students learn in the classroom, after school, and in our Bay Area communities. We inspire our students to grow: with passion, enthusiasm, energy, and positivity.
About This Cause
Envisioneers was formed from the local division of a national nonprofit, Citizen Schools. Envisioneers realizes the necessity for proximate leadership and has the ability to iterate program needs based on the community. In 2021, the leadership of Citizen Schools California decided to “spin off” and formed a new 501C3, Envisioneers. Envisioneers exclusively partners with Bay Area public high-need middle schools and communities, seeking to work with schools that serve low-income populations, demonstrate low baseline academic performance, and lack existing high-quality afterschool and mentoring programs. The Bay Area struggles with formidable income disparities and complex demographics. As a new organization, Envisioneers is focused on serving middle school students across the Bay Area now that we are a proximal organization. We plan on gradually scaling our model over the next 5 years to up to 20 sites. For Fall 2021, we work with 11 middle schools in the Bay Area. Envsioneers’ comprehensive ELT model yields a school day that is 30-40% longer. Envisioneers’ staff are on campus all day Monday through Friday providing capacity and academic support. The after school component is hosted Monday through Friday, beginning immediately after school ends and running until 6pm each day. Our program is targeted to the academic needs of students who are often significantly below grade level in reading and math. Our staff work alongside core content teachers to provide “push-in” and “pull-out” supplemental instruction in small groups, helping all students meet and exceed proficiency standards in literacy and math. Through homework support, skill labs in math and/or literacy, Envisioneers’ staff practice academic skills with students and offer personalized assistance in meeting and exceeding proficiency standards. Staff work with students to set goals and make the connection between effort, grades, and future opportunity. Our program models provide the foundation for healthy and positive youth development. We strive to build a school culture where every student, staff member, parent and caregiver feels valued, welcomed and physically and emotionally safe. With adult mentors and experiential learning, students are grounded in a solid sense of meaning, self-perception, and purpose. In apprenticeships, students build critical 21st-century and human capital dependent Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. Beyond just teaching academics, Envisioneers foster students’ development in their relationships, identity, emotional skills, and overall well-being. In apprenticeships, community and corporate volunteers team with our staff to mentor students. Over ten 90-minute weekly sessions, Envisioneers Mentors (volunteers) introduce a new field, helping students see how what they learn in school applies in the real world. Students choose four apprenticeships annually, with topics ranging from video game programming to marketing, theater, landscape architecture, music production, and law. A trained instructor provides support for each apprenticeship, ensuring that it incorporates engaging hands-on activities, develops a 21st century skill such as collaboration or innovation, and incorporates discussion about the education required for a career in the field. At the end of the apprenticeship, students demonstrate their learning at a community celebration called a WOW! Social emotional learning (SEL) opportunities are directly correlated with our apprenticeships. These inquiry-based learning experiences provide students with long-term role models and supplement academic knowledge with skills like self-efficacy and growth mindset. Envisioneers’s ELT model is offered in conjunction with school districts and has lead agency status in 4 Bay Area districts. The development of deep and meaningful partnerships with school administration and staff are integral to the successful implementation of our program. We collaborate with teachers and school leaders throughout the year to build a common vision, coordinate operations, align staff priorities, and share data about student progress in order to target instruction. Our staff also engages families as partners through regular phone calls, community celebrations, and conversations at pick-up. Envisioneers staff are AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows who work on campus all day. Teaching Fellows are recruited specifically for their interest in youth development and urban education. A regional Program Director supports local recruitment efforts while collecting data to support the continuous improvement of system-wide recruitment and retention practices. All staff participate in culturally-responsive, trauma-informed training to better understand, disrupt, and act upon oppressive systems. As an organization that is striving to bring equal opportunities to our youth, it is vital that our youth see themselves in those future opportunities. Envisioneers and its partner schools develop program goals that meet specific school and community needs, and all program sites implement the same core elements. The theory of change for the program anticipates that the core activities of Envisioneers' program, result in direct outputs of student enrollment and attendance; increased time for academics; and increased exposure to real-world applications of academic skills. Envisioneers will implement a robust monitoring and evaluation infrastructure reflecting our commitment to achieving a significant,measurable, and long-term impact on students' skills, attitudes, and beliefs. Our Core Program Profile captures key implementation best practices, dosage, and short-term student outcomes. Data collected through program observations, surveys, data sharing agreements with our school partners, and performance assessments that evaluate students' mastery of 21st century skills are stored in a secure, online database that supports flexible, on-demand reporting. Staff at each site and on our Regional Leadership team analyze data and partner with external evaluation organizations to inform program improvement and establish impact. Envisioneers will use evaluation results to assess the consistency of program implementation, inform program improvement, improve partnership selection, guide monitoring discussions with partners, and ultimately demonstrate impact to stakeholders. This level of adoption ensures everyone at the organization holds responsibility for outcomes and is invested in using performance data to improve performance and achieve outcome targets through our cumulative work and service to communities. Each semester, campuses deliver an assessment to complement 21st century skill development with a survey designed to measure a core set of social-emotional competencies: self-efficacy, self-management, growth mindset, and social awareness. Of our San Jose students surveyed, 88% responded that they were able to get along with students who were different from themselves and 85 %indicated they were able to advocate for themselves without putting others down. While we believe in-person learning is best, we are looking forward to moving toward a hybrid program when engaging our volunteers during the pandemic. A hybrid program allows us to serve students in counties that are not as accessible to some volunteers.