Serving Communities
Young People’s Leadership Cooperative
In October 2022, EBI launched the Young People's Leadership Cooperative (YPLC). YPLC builds the skills and mindsets central to leadership development, community organizing and social emotional learning. The aim is leadership development, community engagement and career connectedness.
This after-school program is grounded in the three R's of community-responsive education: Relationships, Relevance and Responsibility
In this way, young people lead the way toward building critical consciousness, strengthening their self-concept, and positively impacting their own communities. To accomplish this, young people engage youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) to identify challenges in their community, investigate those challenges and take action to generate greater community well-being.
PCI •
Coming late Fall 2023 Professional Changemakers Initiative
PCI will provide Black and Latinx young people ages 17 to 22 with community-driven, career-connected learning in a chosen focus area. Changemakers in this program will gain a stipended cohort experience that amplifies individual and community well-being through four program components:
Career-connected mentorship
Master class sessions with seasoned community organizers and leaders
9-month paid placement with a social impact organization in a chosen field that contributes to community well-being
Ongoing career development support
With community well-being and development at the core of our work, we offer intensive supports with a focus on schools and other organizations to help build bridges with families and community. Through community asset mapping we facilitate human-centered strategy building to cultivate stronger connections for sustainable impact.
As Ella Baker stated, “Strong people don‘t need strong leaders.” In this light, we work alongside organizational partners to build on their inherent strengths. With an equity-centered and culturally competent lens, we focus on capacity building for organizations in in areas that span the following: Staff and leadership development, Program development, Landscape analysis, Measurement, learning and evaluation, Change management, Curriculum development, and more. We use our VOICE framework to implement our work and drive impact:
Professional-Learning
Vocalize community needs
Offer opportunities for leadership development
Illuminate ecological connections
Collaborate with stakeholders
Evaluate and measure impact
We provide staff development workshops, one-on-one and small group coaching. Focus areas include, but are not limited to: community-responsive education, parent engagement, collective leadership, culturally sustaining pedagogy, social-emotional learning (for young people and adults), as well as building an equitable and inclusive culture with an emphasis on serving vulnerable populations (e.g., young people with disabilities).