How a private school village received $ 4 million and B3
Finology

How a private school village received $ 4 million and B3

Nitashi

Last weekend, more than 3,000 parents and studs were gathered in the exhibition park, waiting for private schools throughout Los Angeles to celebrate the “back to school” season.

The annual event was organized by the Private School Village (PSV), a non -profit community established for the purpose of solving cultural gaps that schools often overlook by associating resources, providing programming and building support, visibility and representation networks.

What makes this event unique, however, is that it is explicitly and intentionally designed to seize the black and brown family – including pins and parents – who are enrolled in a private school.

According to the latest federal data, 4.7 million (K-12) students are entered in private schools compared to the estimated 49.2 million students enrolled in public schools. Of the private school, only 6% are black, less than half of the demographic percent of black Americans (14.4%).

For the founder and Executive Director of PSV, Lisa Johnson, the low representation emphasized the need for the curator community to provide the support system. For the “raising of a child, the child requires a child” not just a known African proverb; It is a phrase that becomes its main principle, evokes her passion and the opportunity to build it.

From the parking playdate to move

Sit some of the most elite private schools in the country in the heart of Los Angeles, for groomed hedges and historical gates. From Harvard-Westlake to Sierra Canyon and then, currently exist 255 private schools Entrusted with education almost 47,000 studies per year.

For many parents, the acceptance of their child to a private school may be a golden ticket for future occasions. Yet for some studies, input with invisible challenges, such as social isolation, unrecognized cultural needs and lack of vision Ower, which looks like them.

In 2018, when Lisa and her husband Andre Johnson wrote their son Avery and daughter Gigi, in kindergarten and 4. Class, they wanted to ensure that they did not stop learning, development and ground on weekends. Lisa, who experienced one of the few black students at her Independent School in Atlanta, was surprised as a parent to see how little progress was made. Many identity -based initiatives and culturally lacking support, depth and consistency.

This observation caused her desire to create a cultural and creative space for children and families that most turned out across the school neighborhood – something she once imagined for herself.

Lisa accepted a small group of parents and began humbly by setting up parks and invited other black parents who felt a way to join them. For her first PlayDate event, she hoped to find 50 people. More than 500 turned out.

What began as a crowdsourced playdes across Los Angeles Parks has quickly become roots on which the opportunity could increase the opportunity to increase and improve programs. To this end, Lisa began collecting gifts from parents, businesses and local organizations that could benefit from this newly created “village” and contribute to its growth. In the first year, PSV acquired $ 28,500 through the fundraising efforts.

Today, seven years later, the PSV increased nearly $ 4 million, despite the challenges of Covida and the devastating LA fires. With the support of the village, the financial growth of PSV overcomes many non -profit organizations of national education and drives them with requests for community.

“School partners provide a complicated level of financial support, but it is the generosity of donors who keep the mission. Sometimes people see what is ahead of them to show up to the element or program-they realize that every dollar over a price ticket is necessary to revive it.

The sale of its foundation, PSV was directly with almost 100 schools throughout Los Angeles, Pasadena and now in northern California, serving more than 8,500 students and their families. What began as a simple assembly has turned into a movement where parents feel educated and authorized, and schools embark on a new way to engage.

Double -edged sword privilegia

While private schools provide strict academics and paths to elite universities and networks, historically shorts in the creation of an environment where black and brown students feel fully supported or heard. With research that shows that belonging to a strong predictor of well -being and students’s success is PSV at the beginning of their journey.

Johnson knew how the students could be financially privileged at the same time through the approach to educational resources, but they are damaged by the prerequisite of what this privilege means. These assumptions will delete the layered reality of many students who can navigate racial bias, micro -aggression, cultural isolation and economic diversity in their school communities.

Johnson calls it a “double sword of privileges”.

Without deliberate support in solving this dynamic, studio risk loses confidence, connection with their culture and in some boxes their mental health. National research has shown that students in high -performance schools are now categorized as “endangered” challenges in the field of mental health. Insulation layer that it is one of the few color students in predominantly white environment, and the risks multiply. This experience, which has not checked, may have lifelong effects – and develop the stigma around the term “private school children”.

PSV programming includes PodsCreated as a safe space for students at each class level to connect with peers across schools, Parent ambassadors As sources for navigation school systems and Management programs Helping high school students to grow trust, cultural pride and paths to university education. PSV also Adlisters ScholarshipThis further helps to support low -income households and reduce entry obstacles.

“In today’s world, schools are facing increasingly complex challenges and having PSV as a trustworthy partner means we are not alone,” says Alonda Cassel, head of secondary school at Morristown Beard School. “PSV helps build stronger networks in private schools, supports belonging and supports a healthier experience for every student.”

However, the actual innovation of the organization lies in its efforts to build a community. By connecting families across dozens of schools, PSV issues one insulation of effort and creates a network effect and multiplies the value for all involved.

Parent Austin Clements, co -founder and management of Slauson & Co. It agrees: “PSV develops isolated efforts of individual schools and creates a network effect that multiplies value for all participants.

The expansion of the village

Although PSV is rooted in Los Angeles, his vision expands at national level.

It is in its second year expansion to northern California and is preparing to open its first coastal efforts to build a chapter in Philadelphia. Families abroad – from the United Kingdom – also reached out to replicate the model.

“You can trust everyone in every community to just create a system of support. I encourage any city that wants to open the PSV chapter to contact and work with us directly,” Johnson said. This expansion of Coes at a critical moment. As the debates on diversity and intensification interact, organizations like PSV provide a plan to ensure that capital is not just a buzzing, but a living reality.

Johnson hopes that the PSVS can become a national movement that reddede, what is doing in private schools. By strengthening racial socialization, representation and support of the PSV community, the studies ensure that studies are not adopted, but also confirmed by the village – just as the proverb suggests.

(Tagstotranslate) Andre Johnson

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