About This Webinar
Join the American Federation of Teachers for the third installment in their community schools professional development series on building successful relationships.
The sustainable community schools movement was born out of Black and brown community struggle. In 2001, parents, grandparents and community activists in Chicago’s Little Village engaged in a 19-day hunger strike to protest the denial of a new high school for the children in their working class, Latinx community. They organized and worked with a community group to demand that the Chicago Board of Education fulfill its promise. Their persistence led to the building of Little Village Social Justice High School. Fourteen years later (and less than 10 miles away), dedicated parents, grandparents and organizers staged a 34-day hunger strike to stop the closure and privatization of Walter H. Dyett High School in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Led by their community organization and with help from Little Village allies, the organizers developed a plan to save Dyett and other schools in their community. Their fight led to the reopening of the school.
The implementation of the sustainable community schools (SCS) initiative, conceived by these struggles, was ultimately won by the Chicago Teachers Union in its 2016 bargaining contract with the Chicago Public Schools. The implementation in 20 schools began in the 2018-19 school year. Educators, administrators, students, parents and community members have since worked to bring a transformative vision of education to reality.
This webinar will identify the strategies and best practices of what makes sustainable community schools different from other community school efforts and why this model is essential to achieving racial, social and educational justice. These strategies and best practices will include an overview of the origins of the fight to create and maintain the SCS initiative, the principles that drive it, and a unique teacher-led curriculum development program.
Audience: K-12 educators, administrators, staff, community partners and parents
