Blog

Every month, America Forward is highlighting a few examples of the vital work being done by our Coalition members to support students, families, educators, workers, elected leaders, advocates, and communities across the country. If your organization has resources, an announcement, or a story that you would like to see included, please send it to america_forward@newprofit.org.

Wyman

Throughout the immense challenges of 2020, Wyman continued to focus on their community, maintaining strong, positive relationships with the young people they serve, ensuring their needs were met, and adjusting as needed to best respond to COVID-19. Their recently released 2020 Annual Report highlights this work, their community, the organization’s key outcomes and impacts, and more.

Latinos for Education

The COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and exacerbated long standing inequities that disproportionately impacted – and continue to impact – BIPOC students. As leaders at all levels begin to implement COVID-19 recovery plans, Latinos for Education sent an open letter to state and district education leaders urging them to prioritize Latino students and recommending specific actions to best meet the needs of students most impacted by the challenges of the past year and a half.

Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)

To ensure their community has the tools and information they need, ACTE offers a host of up-to-date resources to best support the career and technical education sector throughout the COVID-19 crisis. They provide guidance on how to best leverage federal relief funds at the local level, online learning tools, public policy information, a guide to planning a virtual conference to adhere to COVID-19 safety precautions, and more.

Transcend

The challenges of the past year and a half, combined with the continued uncertainty about the future of the COVID-19 pandemic, has taken – and continues to take – a significant toll on student mental health. To ensure schools and educators have the tools they need to support their learners’ mental health, Transcend offers a mental health toolkit, complete with resources for advancing social-emotional learning, fostering strong relationships, incorporating physical wellness, creating safe school environments, and more.

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and Enterprise Community Partners (ECP)

CSH and ECP recently worked together as co-intermediaries on a study focused on improving the quality of housing and life outcomes for people experiencing homelessness in Denver, Colorado. The study, titled the Denver Social Impact Bond (SIB) Initiative, was designed using a “pay-for-success” approach, and yielded incredibly promising results, including:

• 86% of participants who received supportive housing remained in their homes in the first year;
• More than three-fourths of participants who received supportive housing (77%) remained stably housed after 3 years;
• 34% of participants had a reduction in police interactions; and
• 40% of participants had a reduction in arrests and spent 38 fewer days in jail (a 30% reduction in jail stays and 27% reduction in jail days) compared to the control group.