Whole DC Community Learning Sessions
In the vision of PAVE, parents are partners and leaders with schools and policymakers to develop a diversity of safe, nurturing, and great schools for every child in every ward and community. PAVE Parent Leaders prioritized school-based mental health as a top policy issue since 2018, and their advocacy resulted in historic investments and a widespread focus on policies that supported the whole child. Still, more work needed to be done to ensure the millions of dollars invested in these programs actually worked for kids – especially given the pandemic’s impact on student mental health and wellbeing.
This was the motivation for PAVE to join Whole DC, a consortium of cross-sector and cross-system education partners, including DC Public Schools (DCPS), DC Public Education Fund, Education Forward DC, Porticus, PAVE, Transcend, Turnaround for Children, and the GW Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Together, Whole DC aims to create a whole child-centered DC education system where every child has the resources and support they need to meet their full potential and thrive.
PAVE’s Community Learning Sessions convened key system stakeholders with influence and decision-making power to come together to learn about best practices, identify challenges and solutions, and work to shift goals, policies, and practices around five core components of the whole child model. Our aspiration is that the work we have done on Whole DC will be used as a model for other cities and states across the country as they look to build a system centered in the whole child. Identifying the key players and roles in each specific context and convening those stakeholders is a critical first step, as many session participants noted this was the first time they collaborated with those outside of their agency. We are incredibly proud of the ways leaders at all levels in DC have responded to the recommendations from the Learning Sessions, and hope this report will support DC’s continued investment in all children’s well-being and serve as a catalyst for learning and a roadmap for leaders in other cities and states who are engaging in this work across sectors and/or constituencies.
We are incredibly proud of the ways leaders at all levels in DC have responded to the recommendations from the Learning Sessions, and hope this report will support DC’s continued investment in all children’s well-being and serve as a catalyst for learning and a roadmap for leaders in other cities and states who are engaging in this work across sectors and/or constituencies.
Thank you to our partners who made this work possible. We are so grateful for all you do for kids and families in DC!
- Columbia Heights Educational Campus
- DC Bilingual
- E.L. Haynes
- H.D. Cooke
- Mary’s Center
- SchoolTalk/RestorativeDC
- Thurgood Marshall Academy
- Transcend
