Blog

Every week, 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.

Teach for America

As schools across the country return this fall, educators and school leaders are continuing to grapple with a radically changed education landscape. In a new report, Teach for America (TFA) uses data from the spring and summer to help inform best practices for the upcoming school year; the report explores lessons learned from the nationwide switch to distance learning earlier in the year and aims to “shine a light on promising practices that could prove useful as schools continue navigating the uncertainty of remote learning in the months ahead.”

New Leaders

The new school year has been defined by unprecedented challenges and disruptions to learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To support educators and school leaders this year and beyond, New Leaders is offering their Virtual Learning Academy, a free, online program that aims to support “school and system leaders to develop a plan for reopening schools – a plan that prepares leaders for the unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and is responsive to this watershed moment for racial justice across our country.” 

LIFT

LIFT has not stopped working to deliver critical services to their community during the COVID-19 crisis. After learning that what their community needed most was financial support, “LIFT fundraised and distributed more than $1.2 million in emergency relief, exceeding our families’ requests, by giving emergency cash transfers of $1,400 to each of the 790 families in our program.” “Families who are not eligible for support from government stimulus packages, including undocumented parents, received $1,950 each.” LIFT also quickly pivoted to deliver remote services — including a virtual coaching pilot expansion — and worked to ensure that the culture at LIFT remained positive, supportive, and grounded in their key values, despite the stress and uncertainty created by the pandemic.  

iMentor

The students and families iMentor serves are some of those hardest hit by the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. To support their community during this moment of uncertainty and upheaval, iMentor not only launched the Collective Response Fund, raising emergency funding for their students and families, but also redesigned their curriculum for remote learning to ensure safety, and continued working to connect members of their community to provide critical, timely, and relevant resources and employment opportunities.