The Empowerment Network

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If you are an organization or an individual seeking to be a part of the empowerment movement, this webpage is just for you!

The Need: Redefining School Reform
There is a cry for school reform that many concerned individuals and groups are working aggressively to identify and implement. And, up to this point, these individuals have focused their attention on strategies related to a school model or an instructional system. What would happen, however, if we would expand our thinking of school reform beyond education and address the real crisis that our students are facing? Instead of students being socialized for schooling, they need to be socialized for production, prosperity, and promotional growth.

A true reform must tap into the psychosocial and economic needs of students. To address this need, students must be empowered to partake in the process of their achievement and therefore, lead in their own development. When instruction is centralized to address the contextual existence of students and students are given the power to use learning to meet their personal needs, students will buy into the learning process and commit to a level of engagement and development that surpasses their peers in other classrooms/schools.

The Network
The NETWORK is comprised of schools (charter, private, and traditional), as well as organizations and post-secondary learning institutions, committed to the psychosocial empowerment of the urban learner.

The Vision
The Vision of the network is to cause a major revolution in the achievement, mindset and quality of life for America’s urban communities… putting urban individuals in positions of global power by training their teenagers for global leadership.

The Mission
The mission for the Network and its schools is to provide a non-traditional program which prepares urban students for college and leadership. Through a unique combination of strong community, individualized learning, differentiated instruction, and an empowerment/accountability format, urban learners (typically marginal and/or at-risk) receive the academic and personal development necessary for global leadership.

Invitation/Call to Action
The work of empowerment and psychosocial development requires roles to be reassigned, outcomes to be redefined and power to be shifted.  This type of change does not come easily.  It is this paradigm shift (in how and why we do schooling) and the dynamic tensions of empowerment that calls for a multilevel approach to reform that is centered on the psychosocial dimensions of the urban learner. The executive, administrative, and leadership dance of empowerment will effectively address and align the business of schooling with the work of real reform… student transformation.

Currently, we are seeking public support and interest for student empowerment. If you are interested in learning more about the empowerment network or interested in learning how to bring an empowerment model to your community, school, or classroom, then contact us. We would love to hear from you.