Model and Strategy
Before COVID-19, less than 30% of Black and Brown students in Oakland were reading on grade level. When the pandemic hit, our response was fierce. We asked: “How do our families get the same educational privilege as white families?
After listening to the concerns and hopes of our families, we created the Hub, centered around 5 components:
- High-quality academic instruction: Research tells us what type of instruction works, and the Hub listens. So it’s no surprise that we push academic outcomes forward.
- Social/emotional enrichment, focusing on the whole child and the whole family.
- Community support: Every Hub family is offered a Family Liaison to coach parents to become leaders in their child’s education.
- Tech training: Simply dropping off a laptop isn't nearly enough, we offer support to navigate technology.
- Economic development, like pathways for adult education and career development.
We make sure families get the best, so they start expecting the best. And it works. With your support, we will keep growing and giving the power and agency back to low-income families to have the biggest voice in their child’s education. This is how we break the cycle of generational poverty.
Impact
We are seeking support to grow from 200 students to 1,000 students in under a year, building on proven demand from families and proven results of our offerings.
Our Summer 2020 Hub ran 5 days a week, for 5 weeks, and offered 75 hours of quality, rigorous instruction. And we delivered real academic gains by implementing the science of reading we were advocating for via our “Literacy” for All campaign: 60% of students in REACH’s literacy programming moved 2 or more levels on the district’s reading assessment; 30% of students moved 3 or more levels. We also offer smaller class sizes and more innovative, culturally responsive curriculum (for example, diving into the Black and Latino experience through national and local partnerships with Reconstruction and Homies Empowerment).
Ultimately, we want to see 80% of Black and Brown students reading on grade level; 80% of students prepared for college and post-secondary life.
The Virtual Family Hub centers our families and tells them: “This is yours, you get to create it.” It changes the narrative from an achievement gap to an opportunity gap; from scarcity of resources to an abundance of privilege. It centers the brilliance of our families and gives them the tools and support they’ve been asking for. And we do it together in community.
We are 100% certain that this approach — putting power in parents’ hands, putting them in the driver's seat of their children’s education, and ultimately disseminating our tools beyond Oakland — can play an active role in breaking the chains of systemic racism and inequity that are plaguing our communities and country.
Leadership
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Lal Jones-Bey
Chief Operations Officer
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Michael De Sousa
Chief Program Officer
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Keta Brown
Director of Special Projects
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Lakisha Young
Co-Founder & CEO