World Savvy
Report date
April 2020
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The buy-in and support from our school partners in Rochester and Faribault has been incredible and key to running the program despite challenges. Originally, World Savvy (WS) and Somali Community Resettlement Services (SCRS) had intended to run blended sessions with students from both schools together; however, we quickly discovered that transportation was a challenge for these communities and would prohibit continuous participation for many Somali youth. Therefore, we switched to running site-based programming, hosted at their schools. The support and coordination by the schools in pivoting to this new plan was instrumental in enabling us to conduct meaningful work with students.
The Steering Committee funded by this grant has been integral to the development of the program. It met initially in January 2019, with many members from a great cross-section of the communities; parents, students, community members, and a few administrators from across both communities. The steering committee offered valuable insight and direction as we solidified planning with SCRS, and with three more meetings throughout the spring, this committee was vital to the formation and success of the project, and we feel strongly that the value of learning directly from these communities prior to implementation cannot be overstated.
The students at Rochester and Faribault have been incredible to work with. Despite adjustments to the programming to account for issues such as transportation, the students have jumped right into their Knowledge to Action projects (World Savvy’s project-based learning tool), and have been working in teams on year-long projects with the general goal of creating more supportive and inclusive communities. Students are engaging in Action Labs centered around building leadership and design thinking skills as well as focused primarily on their Knowledge-to-Action projects. Student project topics include Climate Change Awareness, Bullying and Racism in Schools, Access to Equal Sports Opportunities and Gender Inequity in Sports.
Key lessons learned
Flexibility was key – working in close partnership with SCRS and being willing to adapt as challenges arose were vital for cross-cultural collaboration. Originally, we had envisioned a project where WS would conduct train-the-trainer sessions with SCRS staff who would then run the Knowledge to Action projects with the students. However, it soon became apparent that SCRS staff were stretched and could not run the sessions on their own, so we shifted to World Savvy staff running all action labs with SCRS staff providing support and guidance.
We experienced several challenges to conducting our work as it was originally envisioned in our proposal with SCRS. Transportation between communities was a key barrier to participation, causing us to have to shift our strategy and conduct site-based programming as opposed to programming that brought both communities together on a regular basis. The slow pace of change in schools was another challenge. Despite the collaboration from school administrators in hosting site-based sessions and providing support, engaging a wide team of educators for work beyond the steering committee has proved challenging. Educators and schools are already stretched thin with everything they are expected to provide for students, and engaging them in ongoing programming has proved difficult. We are hopeful that by utilizing student projects, we will be able to engage educators in Rochester and Faribault moving forward, and encourage them to institute some of the solutions students in the program come up with to make their schools and communities more inclusive and equitable.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
While all aspects have been vital, being resourceful in our partnership and being able to shift plans and roles in order to conduct high-quality programming has been most important to making progress in this work. Despite challenges such as transportation barriers, organizational capacity, and limited participation from educators, WS and SCRS have been able to pivot our strategies to still deliver high-quality programming to students, enabling them to understand, analyze, and begin to address issues that are important to them as they relate to equity and inclusion in their schools and communities.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
This may technically fall under “collaboration,” but since it is outside of the collaboration between WS and SCRS, we are going to include it. Structuring our program in such a way that Somali students are able to take the lead in identifying and addressing issues that impact them in their communities has been incredible to see and very productive. Students report that these sessions have been inspiring and helped them develop key skills such as leadership, problem-solving, and creativity: “It is helping us to stand up for ourselves and be a leader” and “It opens up my creative space in my brain without being in the classroom” is just some of the feedback we have received from participating students. We believe that some of the solutions that they will come up with for their communities will result in ongoing improvements to address their key issues, and will contribute overall to increased inclusion in their schools and communities.
Understanding the problem
The ease with which Somali students have identified a range of issues in their schools and communities as they relate to equity and inclusion reinforced that WS and SCRS were spot on in our assessment that these are key issues for them. We have learned more about how these issues reach into so many areas of life – as evidenced by projects being so specific as to include topics like barriers to participation in sports. While we are still in the process of Knowledge to Action projects with students and look forward to learning more about their innovations to address these issues, we’ll feel strongly that Somali student-led solutions to these issues are vital for these communities.
If you could do it all over again...
Knowing beforehand about some of the logistical and capacity pieces that would come up would have been invaluable in developing the structure of the program from the beginning as opposed to adjusting midstream. Although we are proud of our ability to pivot and do great work with students despite these challenges, these will be significant learnings to keep in mind when conducting similar work across communities in the future, and will impact the ways in which we engage partners and develop programs moving forward.
One last thought
Just as many other programs have been impacted by the school closures and social distancing measures put in place due to Covid-19, this has had an impact on this program as well. While programming is currently being put on pause while schools, educators, students, and parents figure out the transition to online teaching and learning – which World Savvy in general is pivoting our programming to assist with – we anticipate looking for ways to re-engage these students and provide ways for them to complete and share their Knowledge to Action projects with authentic audiences in a virtual manner. We are also committed to the aforementioned sharing of these projects with educators and administrators to help inform changes to make their schools and communities more inclusive for Somali students. We look forward to updating you on our problem-solving and no doubt unique approach to completing this program when we submit our final report!