Our Story

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
— Frederick Douglass

Education Equity Project

In 1954, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision. This cornerstone of the civil rights movement established the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education, as well as other services, were not, in fact, equal at all. Yet to this day, according to a 2019 New York Times study, “more than half of the nation’s schoolchildren are in racially concentrated districts, where over 75 percent of students are either white or nonwhite.” In addition, school districts are often segregated by income. This nexus of racial and economic segregation has intensified educational gaps between white students and students of color as well as between rich and poor students. Our goal is to bridge that gap. One student at a time. 

Vision Statement

To eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline in low-income, underserved communities through holistic education aimed at helping students realize their full potential and better preparing them for the society in which they live.

By removing barriers to success, we can help kids find the door that opens to a fulfilling life. We can achieve this by working with family members and community leaders to eliminate financial barriers to resources like food and transportation, and by providing everything from traditional education to emotional and mental wellness, life skills including financial literacy, and a whole host of extracurricular opportunities enjoyed by those with more financial resources.

We also recognize that for many working parents, and particularly single parents, the length of the traditional school day and year are inadequately serving their needs. We envision a longer school day — filled with additional meals and extra-curricular activities — that starts and ends earlier and later than traditional schools. As for the school year, we see a strong need for summer, spring, and winter break programs that augment in-classroom education, ensuring that students are supported year-round.

But this holistic approach to education — which recognizes that all aspects of a child’s growth are interconnected — is in no way meant to replace traditional education. Instead, we seek to integrate the traditional models of math, science, literature, and social studies with social/emotional and cognitive skills as well as physical and mental well-being. Every aspect of the curriculum is designed to teach core life skills like decision making, problem solving, effective communication, time management, creative thinking, goal setting, and financial responsibility taught through the lens of more approachable activities like kitchen science, gardening, playwriting, and hands-on science experiments, to name a few. We also integrate art, music, and mindfulness and movement into as much of our programming as possible.