Elizabeth Barszcz

“Our project builds upon the foundation established by our SEL in Action grant project from last year. Last year we developed authentic relationships with our students and their families through regular and genuine communication and shared experiences. That project was highly successful, and we have seen the positive impact ripple across our school community. Now that the groundwork has been laid, we are ready to move on to the next step, which is to empower families to reach their personalized SEL goals. We will collaborate closely with families and our existing support networks to set individual and family goals, and provide responsive and specific tools and support to help every member of our school community grow. We will use this project to instigate a fundamental shift in how we support families and students; rather than relying on ‘interventions’ for troubled families when their issues become significant, we want to provide proactive support and developmental assistance to every single family. We want to build an atmosphere of collaboration and collective learning in which everyone grows their SEL skills and a tight-knit ecosystem of support touches our entire school community. Our ultimate aim is to move away from a reactive mindset focused on problems, interventions, and stopgap measures, and move to a holistic and aspirational approach that focuses on finding assets, setting goals, and creating networks of support for every family. By documenting our progress and collecting data, we hope that this project can become a model for other educational institutions.”