The Whole System
Based on the idea that behavior is influenced by a variety of factors that work together as a system. For us, those factors are the family and home environment, curricula and policy in education systems, and the community.
Our Services
Our services prepare youth, educators, and parents/caregivers to move 4ward by shifting mindsets, changing behaviors, and recovering from past traumas.
Ready 4 Life Youth
Youth workshops prepare students for adulthood by fostering social, emotional, civic, and financial literacy skills for advancement in life. Programs support the identity development of adolescence during critical stages in their lives providing them with an education that they explore to promote empowerment.
Parents that HELP
In our program, parents are referred to as caregivers, encompassing anyone caring for youth under 24. It equips caregivers with tools to support this generation of youth, address trauma, and create safe environments that encourage dreaming big. The acronym HELP represents health, education, life skills, and protection.
Educators 4 Equity
Educator programs, in partnership with school districts, councils, and equity organizations, boost student engagement by addressing teacher bias, racism, and challenges in curriculum, policy, and culture. Safe spaces are created for educators to tackle obstacles such as power and privilege collaboratively.
Community Organizing
The community comprises advocates and organizations focused on education, racial equity, healing, and social justice. If your company works with schools and if you are a community leader, you are part of the community we support! We offer organizational audits, training, coaching, and strategic planning. We offer free quarterly workshops across NYC.
Ready 4 Life Youth
Our ready for life programs develop social and emotional, civic, and leadership skills, and financial literacy in youth and young adults. We help students prepare for life by providing the tools they'll need to navigate systems constructed by bias, prejudice and/or racism. Students become aware of their identities and issues that matter to them, helping them connect classroom rigor to their experiences and life choices.
Ready 4 Life Youth
Our programs are created for youth and young adults ages 11-24. We provide 45-90 minute workshops, school assemblies, and after-school programs. Our programs consist of 12-16 sessions and can be facilitated during school hours or after school hours.
The middle school and high school programs differ because:
Middle school students focus on identifying and communicating their needs, and expressing their needs and interests through art, and
High school programs emphasize financial literacy and provide stipends to reduce the financial burden on low-income families.
Please find the programs we offer below.
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Middle School programs are for young girls and gender-fluid students and help adolescence to discover their identities and prioritize community issues that matter to them. Middle School students focus on forms of art for expression.
This is a weekly program for 20 weeks. Students have shared bullying concerns, sexual abuse, and difficulties with grief. We have been able to support the school and identify counseling for students in need.
This program practices art as a form of expression.
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High School programs are for all genders and focus on identity development and financial literacy. This program provides High School Juniors and Seniors with stipends and metro cards to reduce the financial strain on families of color.
Students receive stipends and weekly MetroCards. Additionally, students have an opportunity to receive custom suits through one of our partnerships.
The program has improved school attendance and graduation rates. Students also show a greater interest in civic activities and community service.
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In 2020, New York City’s Disconnected Youth Task Force (DYTF) report found that almost 25 percent of youth between the ages of 18-24 are “disconnected,” which means that they are not in school or employed (DYTF, 2021). Almost 80 percent of these young adults are people of color.
This program provides a learning opportunity for young adults ages 16-24 and helps them make financially responsible decisions, and develops roadmaps and life skills through identity development. This program meets young adults at their developmental stage, acknowledges the adversity they have overcome, and prepares them for a life they’ve imagined.
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The bully prevention program informs youth of the impact of bullying and the reasons that individuals begin to bully others. We make connections between bullying and the systemic abuse of power by understanding the ways in which institutions operate in the United States.
This program is unique because it brings together history, power analysis, bullying, and empathy.
Our youth programs are being offered virtually and in-person. Programs can only be offered in person if you are in the New York City Metropolitan area, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, or Georgia.
Educators 4 Equity
The education system has diversified at overwhelming rates, making it nearly impossible for educators to be prepared to support the social and emotional needs of every students. Our educator programs prepare educators to practice critical love in their engagement with youth, and provide coaching to execute equity goals. We offer
Professional learning in the form of 90-minute PDs, lunchtime chats, and recorded workshops.
Affinity group launch, strategic planning, and content curation, and
Equity audits.
Educators 4 Excellence
Our programs are unique because our team members collaborate each quarter to develop a curriculum that targets the individual needs and goals of each partner. Our programs are intentionally designed for YOU. Working with us, you will notice that we:
Offer flexibility to meet your schoolyear and schedule, such as lunchtime chats to increase development hours
Conduct a listening tour to understand the ideologies, experiences, and beliefs about your multi-year trajectory
Provide professional learning opportunities in multiple languages
Are aware of each individual stress threshold, and while we will encourage participants to push themselves, we won’t go too far above the threshold
Build long-lasting relationships and buy-in from every member of the community, because as educators and social workers by trade and at heart, we lead with compassion and social work frameworks to understand the environment’s impact on the individual.
4ward Inclusion specializes in the support and development of the whole family. We define family as any individual that impacts child’s life”. Our partners build the ability to shift, change and recover to improve the lives of families and youth from marginalized populations.
Please see our educator partners below. Educators are individuals that work in the school building, work with children in any capacity or consider themselves mental health professionals.
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Staff professional learning experience follows a hybrid model. To meet the needs of our partners, we offer full and half-day programs and also create shorter workshops to maximize learning opportunities during busy days.
Our topics include culturally responsive pedagogy, critical love theory, anti-oppression principles, antiracism, and anti-white supremacy.
We start with a survey to learn more about your team; their ideologies, education, and motivation.
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When organizations prioritize time for team members to build relationships across teams, productivity is not only enabled, but it creates a sense of urgency for the school or organization’s mission. We understand that once participants build compassion for the experience of marginalized populations, there will be a need for organizational change. We will help your staff members make this shift.
This work focuses on culture and climate and adaptive change across your school, community or town.
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The equity audit begins with our listening tour. It continues with the review of all district materials, such as policies, programs, other audits, staff experiences, and more.
The equity audit may be conducted in 4-6 months for school districts, organizations of independent school audits take between 2-3 months.
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As leaders, your staff expects you to guide them no matter how uncertain the times. We provide weekly coaching to organizational and school leaders. Our coaching prepares leaders to:
1) Practice culturally proficient leadership,
2) Prepare leaders to respond to staff post-pandemic trauma and concern
3) Set equity vision, and develop equity statement and long-term strategy
HEALTH
EDUCATION
LEARN
PROTECT
Youth need HELP from their parents.
In order to create the conditions that youth need to thrive in life, parents have to be able to provide ongoing emotional support at home. Our workshops for parents are meant to:
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Dismantle generational barriers that negatively impact the parent-child relationship
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Establish a shared understanding and community support around social issues by holding quarterly workshops where caregivers have a chance to connect to education and to each other.
Topics include mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety, bullying, violence prevention, and trauma symptoms preventing academic achievement.
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Build compassion and empathy for the experiences of youth today, and to identify opportunities to establish honest and open relationships with their children.
Our workshops create a space for parents to develop relationships with their children that enable critical thinking and independent problem-solving. Parents want their children to be successful. By attending our workshops, parents will be able to communicate without offending and understand without judgement.
Community Organizing
We provide quarterly workshops to the communities that we service to help community members establish and deepen relationships, engage in learning experience, and develop interventions and strategies to reduce harmful practice across instutitions.
Each year, we request data to understand social issues negatively impacting underserved communities that we serve. As a result of our program, community members are empowered to solve social issues on their own and with limited support from our team. They are better equipped to budget and manage funds, and have a pathway to economic mobility. Finally, community participants are more informed and engaged about issues impacting their lives and the root of those issues.
Community Organizing
This year, we will focus our community efforts on the following topics:
Financial empowerment,
Civic Engagement,
Violence Prevention, and
Mental Health.
Our community organizing programs will connect you to education so that you are better informed about issues impacting you, and to each other, in order to increase power and connection within your community.
Please sign up for our mailing list if you would like to complete this year’s survey to inform our workshops for the year.
In education, culture impacts the physical and emotional safety of students, the orderliness of classrooms and even the degree that diversity is embraced and celebrated in schools.
You will be impacted by your students culture, and your students will be impacted by your culture.
Our capacity to support communities includes: parent, staff and community workshops, equity audits, and other professional learning experiences. Our services will be updated at the beginning of 2023.
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To be updated with 4ward Inclusion’s framework.
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The link to the free Violence Prevention Resource will be shared on our website in January. After the first 100 copies, you will be able to purchase the resource for $49.99 on our website.
Workshops are provided in a hybrid platform. We encourage local residents to attend in person, and offer virtual access to sessions when available.