Happy June, educators! In alignment with our current Strategic Action Agenda, we will use this space to deepen our collective understanding on the science of hope. Each edition will share insights from the field, highlight stories that showcase the science of hope across our VBCPS community, and share practical strategies we can use now to fuel our professional and personal growth.
In This Edition:
The Science of Hope: Unleashing your Power
A Personal Hope Practice: Strengthening Agency through Narrative Reframing
Hope Spotlight: Green Run Collegiate's TIDE Coalition
Community Building: Joyful June
Hope Spotlight: Green Run Collegiate's TIDE Coalition
The TIDE Coalition (Togetherness through Inclusion, Diversity and Equity), established by the VBCPS Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at each VB high school is a student-led coalition developed to provide a way for students to lend their voice on matters that directly affect them and advance efforts in schools to support SEL, equity, and student well-being.
This year, Green Run Collegiate’s TIDE Coalition has been a model of the science of hope: goals, pathways and agency. Supported by their Opportunity Champion, Jay Robeson and their Supporting Administrator, Tonia Waters, members of the GRC TIDE Coalition were empowered to set goals and plan the actions to meet those goals in focus areas that mattered to them and the GRC community. The GRC TIDE Coalition students meet twice a month, working directly with school administration and central support staff to identify and implement strategies to increase student sense of belonging in their school, while simultaneously developing their own advocacy skills.
Administrator Tonia Waters describes how GRC’s Coalition started their work this year. “By providing our TIDE Coalition student group with the opportunity to analyze and discuss the school's SEL data, they were able to identify and point out that if students have low self-efficacy, they will have a difficult time developing a sense of belonging. Through this work, our students were driven to develop goals and actions that would help motivate, encourage, and strengthen a sense of self-efficacy and sense of belonging in Green Run Collegiate and throughout the Green Run Campus.”
Three key focus areas emerged where the TIDE Coalition could work with adult stakeholders to increase GRC’s sense of student belonging:
Increasing campus-wide sense of belonging at GRC campus-wide.
Using the Summer Bridge program to foster an increased sense of community at GRC.
Using Scholar Central (an after-school program offered four days a week that provides students with enrichment activities focused on mathematics and literacy) to foster an increased sense of community at GRC.
After identifying these focus areas, students took the lead on meetings with adults in their building and central support staff to develop action items that support the goals and map out 30, 60 and 90-day implementation plans for their action items.
“Although they have only recently begun implementing some of their action items, the positive impact can be seen throughout the campus and within our TIDE Coalition student group,” says Mrs Waters. “We continuously have students asking to join the group and the reaction that students have when receiving encouragement cards during one lunch made by the TIDE Coalition is incredible. These reactions inspire our TIDE Coalition student group even more to continue their work.”
“From creating a website to house club's and organization's information and a student-led tutoring program to improving the recruitment process for GRC and checking in with the student population about mental health, these students have planned, taken action, and changed the course of history at their school,” says Opportunity Champion Jay Roberson. “It has been an honor to witness, but the work is not done. Our students are already working on the schedule, goals, and recruitment for next school year.”
