Tripling Efforts to Support Student Mental Health Post COVID-19, Generation Schools Network, Empowering Education, and Alternative Roadmap Merge to Provide New Programs
Now Offering a Full Spectrum of Programs, Curriculum, and Professional Development to Support K-12 Social Emotional Learning Efforts and Disengaged Student Programs
DENVER, June 15, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Generation Schools Network today announced it is expanding its programs and services to support student and teacher social, emotional and mental health, and reach disengaged learners affected by COVID-19 by merging with two Colorado-based, national nonprofits. Last year, these three organizations reached 120,000+ students in roughly 200 K-12 schools across 30+ states. By merging, a full spectrum of support will be available to holistically embed SEL and programming for disengaged learners. This includes access to a robust K-12 online SEL curriculum, student advisory design, implementation supports, coaching, professional development and impact tracking tools and assessments.
Empowering Education is a leading provider of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs with teacher-led, evidence-based and trauma-informed professional development. Alternative Roadmap is a service provider that helps engage disconnected students with age relatable role models to teach SEL skills in fun, interactive ways to improve self-efficacy, well-being and career preparedness. These programs will be added into GSN's suite of services, allowing for an expansion of SEL curriculum and services for students that need more intense support (Tier II and III interventions).
"We are thrilled to incorporate Empowering Education's SEL program and Alternative Roadmap's disengaged student programming along with their key staff members into the Generation Schools Network family," GSN's CEO, Wendy Loloff Cooper, said. "Ultimately, our goal is to reach as many students and teachers as possible with Social Emotional Learning curriculum, programs for disengaged students, professional development and easy-to-implement supports. These mergers will greatly increase our offerings and expand our reach to more schools, districts and afterschool programs."
The merger is especially timely for school leaders and teachers as they are preparing to support students in a post COVID environment. Numerous recent headlines have called out the need for increased support, including Chalkbeat's May 25, 2021 issue titled, "'Our kids have run out of resilience:' Experts declare youth mental health 'state of emergency' in Colorado". National headlines have echoed similar messages, with Reuters on May 6, 2021 stating "U.S. schools turn focus to mental health of students reeling from pandemic".
Schools and districts are in a unique position with federal ESSER resources over the next two years to establish and/or strengthen a coherent, evidence-based and sustainable approach to learning loss, disengaged learners and healthy school cultures. Interested schools are encouraged to contact GSN at [email protected] to learn more.
"Empowering Education has been laser-focused on making an SEL program that will be effective, easy-to-use, and fun," says Noah Teitelbaum, former Executive Director of Empowering Education and now Vice President of Product & Business Development at GSN. "By merging with Generation Schools Network, we now can integrate a school's SEL efforts into deeper multi-year transformation. With this merger, our schools can combine SEL with college and career readiness, health programming, transformational leadership and more - this is really a game-changer for our members."
"Our goal, when founding Alternative Roadmap, was to help students at-risk find their path," said Elliot Zettas, Executive Director/Co-Founder of Alternative Roadmap and now Senior Manager of College & Career Readiness at GSN. "Merging with GSN will provide broader supports for students at-risk better aiding schools in reaching their at-risk student populations."
To learn more, visit generationschools.org, empoweringeducation.org, and alternativeroadmap.org
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About Generation Schools Network
In 2020, GSN served 70 districts and 240 schools to help reach more than 80,000 students (largely minority and low-income) through four areas of service: 1) Leadership & Improvement, 2) Health & Wellness, 3) Redesign & Innovation and 4) College & Career Readiness. GSN staff, with their combined decades of experience, take a position of being a true partner in innovation, implementation and improvement. Staff don't just bring answers, but experience, familiarity with evidence-based strategies and the ability to facilitate a collaborative process that builds the capacity of local stakeholders to develop and implement customized, evidence-based solutions that benefit their school ecosystem.
Media Contact
Wendy Loloff Cooper or Alison Lauge, Generation Schools Network, +1 4402631957, [email protected]
SOURCE Generation Schools Network
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