BPS Engagement Toolkit

Boston Public Schools Engagement Toolkit

by Kylie Collins

Boston Public Schools is a dynamic school system with changing district policies, goals, and leadership. 

It wants parents, community members, and churches to help. But navigating the school system and understanding the role of the Church in public education can be confusing.

The Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) at the Emmanuel Gospel Center created a toolkit to inform and provide opportunities for people to get involved and support students, teachers, and administrators. 

The Boston Public Schools Engagement Toolkit resource includes data, opportunities for volunteers to engage, stories of church-school partnerships, a prayer guide, and more.  

“There are countless opportunities to engage with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and support their efforts to educate and mentor students,” said Ruth Wong, BEC director. “However, as a large, complex system, BPS can be difficult to understand, navigate and keep up with. This toolkit helps to provide direction about where to find information about BPS and its initiatives. It also suggests ideas for how you can get involved in advocacy work, volunteer, or mobilize your faith communities to participate.”

Boston Public Schools Engagement Toolkit

The toolkit is just a starting point for information and involvement. Visit the BEC website or contact Ruth Wong at rwong [at] egc.org for more information and ways to participate. 

Kylie Collins

About the Author

Kylie Collins was a summer 2022 Applied Research and Consulting Intern at EGC. She will graduate in spring 2023 with a degree in Economic Policy Analysis from Simmons University. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she developed a passion for supporting her community through advocacy and public education services. After graduation, she plans to work in the non-profit sector or in local government. In Boston, she has enjoyed Red Sox games, trying new foods, visiting the ocean, and making new friends.

Love Shows Up

Love Shows Up

How one church’s long-term relationship with a school is bearing fruit

By Pastor Ayn DuVoisin

Schools faced extraordinary challenges during the height of the pandemic. Some churches helped bridge the educational gap by tutoring students.  

One church that serves as a model for helping the local school system is Symphony Church in Allston. Its partnership with Jackson/Mann K-8 School in Allston was marked by a long-term commitment that was highly relational with effective pastoral leadership supporting the initiative. 

The Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) at the Emmanuel Gospel Center has been key to the success of church-school partnerships like this. 

“There is tremendous opportunity for churches to extend God’s love and care to the community beyond their own congregations through building meaningful relationships with school communities, which includes students, staff, and families,” said Ruth Wong, BEC director. “Through relationships, mutually transformative experiences happen, and volunteers get to experience God more deeply for themselves.”

The BEC sees a need for more churches like Symphony to embrace changing ministry strategies during the pandemic, adopting church-school partnerships as a means to engage the outsized challenges facing schools. 

Symphony Church organizing the literacy room at Jackson/Mann K-8 School. [photo credit: Symphony Church]

Pushing through

Despite the uncertainty in March 2020 when the COVID pandemic hit, Symphony Church continued serving at Jackson/Mann. The church had been sending tutors to the school for seven years and had no plans of stopping.

Jackson/Mann had several community partners during the 2019 to 2020 academic year, but school officials told Symphony they were a key partner. That motivated the church to keep showing up and serving despite the challenges when the pandemic hit. 

Around that time, Symphony adopted a new microchurch model which helped to galvanize church members to continue serving in the community despite social distancing rules. Throughout the summer and fall of 2020, Symphony Church leaders preached and challenged members to serve. One sermon series focused on BLESS: Begin with prayer, Listen with care, Eat together, Serve in love, and Share your story. This was part of an effort to cast a vision for a missional culture of sending out the microchurches to engage their neighborhoods even in the middle of a pandemic through initiatives such as prayer walks. 

That summer, 20 church volunteers spent two hours every day helping with the school’s virtual program. Symphony also gave summer-school teachers a virtual tablet to use as a whiteboard. In the fall, even more people volunteered to tutor.

Symphony Church cleaning out and organizing school closets. [photo credit: Symphony Church]

Showing up

Partnering with local schools to help students is part of Symphony’s DNA. 

In 2010, the church started meeting at the Match Charter Public School’s high school campus in Allston. The school had a system of matching volunteers as tutors to each student. Twenty tutors made a full commitment to serve for two years. 

This inspired Barry Kang, lead pastor of Symphony Church, to imagine the potential impact of supporting students with additional tutoring and classroom aides in other schools. They decided to encourage the positive momentum by hosting an appreciation dinner for the tutors. 

Pastor Kang said he was convicted by seeing how many issues in people’s lives sprang from early challenges, starting with literacy. Third grade, when education shifts from learning to read to reading to learn, is a critical turning point in a child’s life. These are precious years in supporting systemic change, Pastor Kang learned.

Coupled with his conviction that the “bedrock of society is in the development of the future generation,” Pastor Kang felt that a church-school partnership was compelling. The church’s biggest resource, its energetic worshiping community of college and postgraduate students, had little money but some available time. Through prayer, the church’s leadership saw education as a place to leverage their strengths.

Symphony Church hosted a teacher appreciation breakfast in May 2022. [photo credit: Symphony Church]

In 2014, they wondered whether Boston Public Schools could make use of additional tutoring support of one or two hours a week. At a gathering of pastors, Pastor Kang heard BEC Director Ruth Wong give a presentation on the program’s supportive role in assisting partnerships. Wong connected Symphony with Boston Partners in Education as well as the International Community Church in Brighton, which had been volunteering tutoring services at Jackson/Mann. 

“Ruth and EGC helped us get started and helped us get better,” Pastor Kang said.

Pastor Kang said Symphony’s relationship with Jackson/Mann began with its conviction that “love shows up.” He was personally committed to the partnership as well as building direct relationships with the building principal, vice-principal, and teachers. Pastor Kang reinforced the vision for outreach to Jackson/Mann from the pulpit, and the school administration saw the fruit of the relationship. 

“There is tremendous opportunity for churches to extend God’s love and care to the community beyond their own congregations through building meaningful relationships with school communities, which includes students, staff, and families. Through relationships, mutually transformative experiences happen, and volunteers get to experience God more deeply for themselves.”

— Ruth Wong, Director, Boston Education Collaborative

Leaning in

During the 2020 to 2021 school year when schools were still grappling with the impact of COVID, 50 Symphony volunteers spent 2,200 hours tutoring at Jackson/Mann. 

“That year, we were that school’s only community partner,” Pastor Kang said. “All their other partners weren’t able to pivot out of their established lanes. But we could because of the BEC’s help.” 

Boston school officials announced they would close Jackson/Mann at the end of the school year in 2022, but Symphony decided to serve to the very end as it prayerfully discerns which school to partner with next.

Symphony Church cleaning out and organizing school closets. [photo credit: Symphony Church]

Symphony is energized by the multiplication potential of some of its microchurches serving in their own communities. 

While many people wonder when things will go back to the way they were, Pastor Kang feels the pandemic forced the church in a new direction that is yielding kingdom fruit. He said one of the microchurch members, who was skeptical of the new model in the beginning, confided that “‘before the changes, my journey in Christ was like sitting in economy class, but now it feels like sitting in first class — no, actually it’s more like being in the copilot seat, and I have a much greater sense of ownership in this journey.’” 

Pastor Kang noted a shift in the church from passivism and consumerism to more active participation as an integral part of the body of Christ and the kingdom.  

Because multiplication is part of its language, Symphony hopes its relationships will create new frontiers for support in other schools. And they are partnering strategically with the BEC to explore those new connections.

Symphony’s model of community engagement has been a transforming grace for its members. The church is blessed by working with children and seeing them grow so quickly in their understanding and development. There is a gratification of seeing work they’ve been engaged in, that is clearly useful, something bigger than themselves, that glorifies God. 

During the pandemic, when there has been such continual uncertainty, this outreach of serving others has been emotionally and mentally encouraging to the church, Pastor Kang said, with all the members getting to “exercise their love muscles!”

Symphony Church’s notes of appreciation for Jackson Mann staff. [photo credit: Symphony Church]

Ayn DuVoisin

About the Author

Pastor Ayn DuVoisin has been a volunteer associate with EGC’s Boston Education Collaborative initiative since 2019. She previously served as Pastor of Children’s Ministries at North River Church in Pembroke, Massachusetts, from 2000 to 2019. Over the past decade, she has been active in building the Church & School Partnership for Boston Public Schools. She is also a former board member of Greater Things for Greater Boston. She and her husband, Jean DuVoisin, have lived in Scituate, Massachusetts, for over 40 years. She is blessed by her three adult children and well-loved Golden Retriever, Sunny.

TAKE ACTION

Can you see your church engaging in a partnership like this? Here are some resources to explore as your church prayerfully discerns a potential partnership with a school in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, or Brockton.

Volunteer

Partner with a school

Learn More

BPS Engagement Toolkit

Ministering to the Whole Family

Ministering to the whole family

How Christian out-of-school time programs play a critical role in the lives of kids and their parents during the pandemic

by Hanno van der Bijl, Managing Editor, and Pastor Ayn DuVoisin, BEC Associate

From obstacles with virtual learning to parents losing jobs, the coronavirus pandemic has made life difficult for many children in Boston.

Urban students were struggling even before COVID-19. According to “Boston Public Schools at a Glance 2019-2020,” 39% of third-graders scored Exceeding or Meeting Expectations in English Language Arts on the 2019 Next Generation Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams. About 75% of Boston Public School (BPS) students who began high school in September 2014 graduated in four years, according to the BPS 2018 Graduation Rate Report. 

Despite the challenges, Christian leaders at ministries offering after-school and summer programs say they are witnessing God’s goodness and grace toward the children and their families. But the pandemic also forced these organizations to scramble to meet the demands of the new situation with all its uncertainties.  

“We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and its negative impact on urban students and families persists into this new school year,” said Ruth Wong, director of the Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) at the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC). “While learning remotely was hard for most students, the adjustment to in-person learning has been hard for students socially and emotionally. We have heard so much about the complicated and stressful situation with delayed school reopening plans that created much anxiety for school leaders, teachers, and parents. Parents have had to juggle jobs and transportation issues. Some parents are still unable to work.” 

“We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and its negative impact on urban students and families persists into this new school year.”

— Ruth Wong, Director, Boston Education Collaborative

Last year, Brockton Christian Mentoring Initiatives (BCMI) converted their facilities and resources to set up learning labs and shifted from mentoring programs to supervising remote classes. Greenwood Shalom Tutoring Zone and Summer Enrichment remained committed to a holistic approach to serving and working with families in Dorchester. American Chinese Christian Education and Social Services (ACCESS) adapted its approach to partnering with other organizations to better serve low-income Chinese families in Chinatown.

They all leaned into God in prayer more than ever for direction and provision.

“Answers to prayer continued to reveal God’s faithfulness, especially in matters of protection over the health of the teaching staff and students at ACCESS,” said Pasang Drolma, executive director at ACCESS.

The BEC works closely with these ministries as part of its mission to support underserved urban students. Along with several other programs, it brought them together last year as a learning community to share updates and how they were adjusting to the demands of the pandemic. The BEC also helped ACCESS and Greenwood Shalom raise a combined total of more than $15,000 by assisting them in submitting proposals for coronavirus relief funds. 

When BCMI shifted to supervising remote classes during the pandemic, they saw how challenged students were in a school environment as opposed to mentoring relationships. As discipline was one of the most challenging aspects, they sat one-on-one with about two dozen students in grades one through eight to help them with their schoolwork. 

Lynda Snelling, director at BCMI, said it was really important for the students to see each other, so the organization used some available funds to build on these relationships with fun activities over weekends.

Parents appreciated the academic help and supervision. With improved connections with a nearby school through parent resource personnel, BCMI was able to secure lunches for the program.

“Along the way,” Snelling said, “God made the way.” 

“Along the way, God made the way.”

— Lynda Snelling, Director, Brockton Christian Mentoring Initiatives

Seeing God’s hand at work was also evident for Jeanette Merren, program director at Greenwood Shalom in Dorchester, which is part of Victory Generation, a program of BMA TenPoint, an alliance of churches as well as faith and community-based organizations in Boston.   

Greenwood Shalom provides a safe and nurturing environment where they attend to children’s educational, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. Teachers encourage children by helping them with their homework as well as taking tests and discovering new skills.

Through perseverance and encouragement, the 18 students, ages 5 to 13, who attended the program daily, learned efficiency as well as improved organization and time management skills.

At summer camp, Rochelle Jones, director of education at Victory Generation, supervised a new devotional time that children led by reading a devotional and commenting on what it meant for them. Apart from simply encouraging children to attend church, Jones said the team is engaging in spiritual conversations through positive, Christ-centered relationships. And the children are responding with great questions and open hearts, Jones said.   

Greenwood Shalom also partners with parents to better equip them and support them in their own educational and personal goals.

One of the major obstacles to working with parents during the early days of the pandemic was the lack of in-person meetings with families, cutting off the information usually gleaned from conversations before and after pick up.

But developing close relationships with families has given Greenwood Shalom a front-row seat to the transformation unfolding in their lives. Merren said she takes special joy in seeing God at work when a parent secures a new job.

In addition to academic enrichment, the program helps families find resources for food, finances, language learning, housing forms, and food stamps. The team also assists families, who may not be culturally familiar with the school system, in navigating communication issues such as understanding report cards, responding to emails, and advocating for special needs.

That kind of transformation was also on display for the team at ACCESS in Chinatown, which saw systemic change and more supportive relationships with families.

Like others, the organization grappled with lots of policy and schedule changes, but good communication with BPS and parents enabled ACCESS to help children and their families.

For some families, the assistance is critical. When asked what the ACCESS program meant to them, one parent shared, “It makes the difference of me being able to work or not!”

For those parents who lost jobs, ACCESS was able to make accommodations in their fee structure.

That was due in part to the love and generosity of several organizations that enabled ACCESS to maintain its outreach in the community. 

Some of those groups include the SuccessLink Youth and Young Adults Jobs program in the City of Boston Youth Engagement and Employment department, Chinatown Community Land Trust, Northeastern University’s Service-Learning program in its Office of City and Community Engagement, Boston Public Health Commission, and Tai Tung Village. 

Long-term partnerships with churches include the Christian Bible Church of Greater Boston and the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church.

These partnerships were a source of joy when challenges loomed large, enabling ACCESS to cover unanticipated expenses and avoid staff layoffs while providing creative programming in science, technology, engineering, and math in a healthy and safe learning environment.

It was the first year on the job for Annie Tran, who came on board ACCESS as program director after working in biotech. In that field, she was able to control variables in science experiments. But not at ACCESS. This new job was a radical change at a challenging time with many variables.

Tran said she learned “to be more vulnerable with my weaknesses and begin lifting them up to God.”

Despite wondering what God had planned, Tran said, “Not only is God great and powerful, but he is also strategic!”

“Not only is God great and powerful, but he is also strategic!”

— Annie Tran, Program Director, ACCESS

TAKE ACTION

This fall, schools and programs are experiencing first-hand the social-emotional impact of the pandemic on children and young people. 

School staff members have shared about challenges with helping students to relearn the norms of being a student, of how to work out conflict with other students, or how to express themselves when emotional. Staff at one school shared about the challenges they are facing with their ninth-graders who were last in school as seventh graders. 

Academic mentors and support for teachers are high needs. At the same time, families are still faced with resource needs such as food, diapers, clothing, and financial assistance.

Here’s how you can help the BEC’s partner organizations:

Volunteer

Volunteer in person. Contact Ruth Wong at rwong@egc.org for more information.  

Donate

Consider donating items for learning and activities. Follow these links for more information:

• ACCESS

  • Wishlist: activity sets, arts and crafts supplies, board games for children, chapter books as well as children’s books, puzzles

• BCMI

  • Wishlist: arts and craft supplies, games, gift cards to Target and Walmart for Christmas gifts

• Greenwood Shalom

  • Wishlist: Treetop mystery books series for grades K-7, 15 to 20 headphones, 20 Bluetooth speakers, one TV screen, 20 exercise mats in bags, 20 STEAM Activity sets

Here’s how you can help the BEC:

Partner 

The BEC is looking for church partners and Christians across the Greater Boston area to partner with and love on these Christian out-of-school time programs as well as school communities in the new school year. Contact Ruth Wong at rwong@egc.org if you are interested in learning more about how your church can partner with a local school.

Mentor

The BEC is seeking to recruit 250 volunteers to serve as academic mentors. Both schools and out-of-school time programs need in-person volunteers to assist teachers and staff to work with students in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, and Brockton. There are some remote volunteer opportunities, too. To find out more, contact Ruth Wong at rwong@egc.org.

Donate cloth masks and clothing

BPS staff have requested the faith community to donate cloth masks, and Catie’s Closet is holding clothing drives. Contact Ayn Duvoisin at becassociate2@egc.org for more information on both initiatives. 

Refer job candidates for BPS schools

Know of someone who would be a good fit for BPS? There are about 400 open positions in the schools. Please see the district’s list of job openings to refer candidates to the school.

Support families

Immigrant parents and families experiencing homelessness need help to navigate Zoom, online learning platforms, and resources. There is a special need for volunteers who speak Spanish. Volunteers can help provide support through phone or Zoom calls. We can train you to learn how to access various online platforms like Google Classroom. Contact Ruth Wong at rwong@egc.org to learn more.

Families are also in need of basic items such as food, clothing, diapers, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, etc. Go to www.egc.org/covidresponse to donate to our COVID-response fund to help families.

Other opportunities to support parents during these challenging times could also be explored. Contact Ruth at rwong@egc.org if you’re interested in working with families.

Hanno van der Bijl

Ayn DuVoisin

About the Authors

Hanno van der Bijl returned to EGC as managing editor after working as a teacher and reporter in Alabama for almost a decade. Before that, he worked with EGC’s research team and graduated with an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2010. A native of South Africa, he is thrilled to be back in Boston where he became a U.S. citizen in 2007 at the Hynes Convention Center. Hanno and his wife, Lauren, have three young, beautiful children who are already smarter than their parents.

Pastor Ayn DuVoisin has been a volunteer associate with EGC’s Boston Education Collaborative initiative since 2019. She previously served as Pastor of Children’s Ministries at North River Church in Pembroke, Massachusetts, from 2000 to 2019. Over the past decade, she has been active in building the Church & School Partnership for Boston Public Schools. She is also a former board member of Greater Things for Greater Boston. She and her husband, Jean DuVoisin, have lived in Scituate, Massachusetts, for over 40 years. She is blessed by her three adult children and well-loved Golden Retriever, Sunny.

The Boston Education Collaborative's Partnership with Boston Public Schools

Resources for the urban pastor and community leader published by Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston

Emmanuel Research Review reprint
Issue No. 84 — November 2012

Introduced by Brian Corcoran, Managing Editor, Emmanuel Research Review

This issue takes a look at the history and recent collaboration between the Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Boston Education Collaborative (BEC) and the Boston Public Schools Faith-Based Partnerships. An increasing number of congregations and faith-based organizations are thinking about how they can assist public schools and various aspects of educational justice, and the BEC's story provides a model which can inform the church broadly when navigating the complexity of collaboration between private, faith-based organizations and an urban, public school system.

This issue also features an article by Lydia Johnson Reynolds on the partnership with the Boston Public Schools’ “Circle of Promise” initiative and the BEC's “Reflection and Learning Sessions” that provide tools, encouragement, networking, and support for people from churches and nonprofits working with students. We’ve also included a video interview with Ruth Wong, Director of the Boston Education Collaborative, and a link to download the BEC’s Guidebook for Boston Public Schools Faith-Based Partnerships.

The Boston Education Collaborative, a program of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, works with churches, schools, and nonprofits to empower underserved urban students with the education they need for transformation—in their lives and in their communities.

Building upon educational research and needs assessments, the BEC supports urban churches and organizations in strengthening their existing programs, starting new initiatives, evaluating the short- and long-term impact of their programs, coordinating learning groups, and organizing trainings. Churches and Christian organizations have been instrumental in having a positive impact in the lives of urban students and their families. However, these churches and organizations often face the challenges of:

• working in isolation from other Christian organizations;

• lacking the capacity to fully support their staff with professional development;

• lacking the know-how or connections to access resources;

• and funding instability and frequent staff turnover.

To be effective, these churches and Christian organizations need:

• a current understanding of urban education and the ways they can engage in the process of empowering urban students through education;

• support around resources, curriculum, and training;

• mental and physical space to evaluate and reflect on their programs;

• and opportunities to network with other churches and Christian nonprofits that also have educational programs.

Now in its 13th year (writing in 2012), the BEC has worked through various means towards its central mission of “working with churches, schools, and nonprofits to empower underserved urban students with the education they need for transformation—in their lives and in their communities.” Some of this experience has been featured in past Emmanuel Research Review issues and other publications.

In the August 2005 issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, “The Role of Churches in Mapping Out a Road to Higher Education,” Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher at EGC pointed out that “Churches and Christian ministries can play a significant role advising, motivating, and equipping young people to obtain a college education,” and he shared a case study by Edward R. Davis and Amy L. Sherman on church-based Higher Education Resource Centers (HERC) entitled, College Prep Ministry in Boston: León de Judá, which the BEC helped launch.

In the September-October 2010 issue of Inside EGC, in an article called “The Boston Education Collaborative: Helping Urban Churches Motivate & Support Underserved Students,” Steve Daman, senior writer at EGC, wrote about the beginning of the BEC’s “Reflection and Learning Sessions” which are built “upon research and needs assessment studies at EGC… to support urban churches and organizations in strengthening their existing education programs, starting new initiatives, and evaluating the short and long-term impact of their programs” through “coordinating learning groups, and organizing peer trainings for Christians involved in education.”

In the April 2011 issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, “The Boston Education Collaborative Church Survey Report,” by Laura Neal and Ruth Wong, provides a preliminary investigation and overview of how Boston-area churches are currently engaged in education, what areas of programming they are interested in further developing, and what resources are needed for them to become more involved in education. Even with some of the world’s most famous learning institutions in our backyard, Boston-area churches continue to assist and complement local public and private educational systems by providing a diverse spectrum of programs that reach beyond spiritual formation.

An Interview with Ruth Wong, BEC Director and Coordinator of Boston Public School Circle of Promise

In this interview, Ruth Wong talks about how she became involved in the BEC, the BPS Circle of Promise, and how their collaborative partnership is impacting students, teachers, and local schools. As an increasing number of congregations and faith-based organizations are thinking about how they can assist public schools and various aspects of educational justice, the BEC’s story provides a model which can inform the church broadly when navigating the complexity in collaboration between private, faith-based organizations and an urban, public school system. As Ruth points out, The Office of Community Engagement and Circle of Promise has an online survey for (Boston) Faith-Based Institution’s Resource Assessment: www.svy.mk/faithpartner

(See also Boston Public Schools’ blog “All About BPS”  entry for Friday, December 7, 2012, titled “Ruth has Faith” http://www.allaboutbps.blogspot.com/2012/12/ruth-has-faith.html)

Guidebook for the Boston Public Schools Faith-Based Partnerships

The Guidebook for the Boston Public Schools Faith-Based Partnerships is a brief guide and resource for schools and faith-based institutions alike. It relies on the BPS’s Office of Community Engagement and Circle of Promise (CECoP’s) cumulative learning from interviews with leaders of partnering institutions, literature reviews of cases, articles, and publications local and abroad, and practical experiences in initiating and supporting such partnerships. Contact Ruth Wong (link below) for a free downloadable copy.

The Boston Education Collaborative's Partnership with Boston Public Schools

Exciting New Partnership for the BEC and Boston Public Schools

by Lydia Johnson Reynolds

When Boston’s Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Public Schools (BPS) Superintendent Carol R. Johnson launched a new initiative called the Circle of Promise in January of 2010, BPS appointed Brian Barnes, a former BPS teacher and administrator as the coordinator for the program. Brian’s main initial emphasis was to support existing partnerships and create new partnerships within the Circle's geographic area, which includes 47 schools.

In the process of reaching out to principals and leaders of many faith-based institutions in Greater Boston, Brian contacted EGC because he knew about the Boston Church Directory, a publication and online resource of EGC, which he thought would be a helpful resource in finding potential community partners. Erik Nordbye, ministry associate in field research in our Applied Research department at that time, not only helped him with the directory information but also passed along his information to Ruth Wong, director of EGC’s Boston Education Collaborative (BEC), whose mission aligns well with the Circle of Promise goals.

Ruth contacted Brian and subsequently became a part of his advisory committee, working along with him and others toward some of the key early efforts of the Circle of Promise. EGC’s network and Brian’s own network complemented one another well, and Brian and Ruth had a natural sense of shared purpose in bringing together faith-based and school partners. Ruth was particularly excited for this partnership because the BPS Office of Community Engagement and Circle of Promise (CECoP) was extending an invitation to the entire community to support schools and families.

In May of 2011, CECoP, along with faith and community partners, hosted a kickoff event (left image) attended by Superintendent Johnson and about 200 people, including more than 20 school leaders and about 50 faith-based organizations. From surveys at this event and its follow-up, CECoP began to focus on efforts to meet these two main identified needs: matching the resources of the community organizations with needs within the schools (and vice versa) and technical assistance in setting up and evaluating partnerships.

Throughout the following school year they continued to survey people engaged in existing partnerships and gathered again in March of 2012 to talk further about sustainable partnerships. Of course these partnerships look really different from school to school, but those engaged in them were able to learn from each other’s experiences. They invited one of EGC’s nearest neighbor—St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church—to share about how their partnership endured through multiple leadership changes at the Blackstone Elementary School. In addition to the March workshop, Brian and Ruth presented about the Circle of Promise at a BPS-wide conference, and the CECoP even hosted the US. Department of Education and President Obama’s Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships for a visit to see the work that has been done so far.

As Brian prepared to start a doctorate program this school year, he recommended Ruth to replace him in his BPS position due to her substantial contributions to the project. Brian also valued EGC’s substantial reputation in the community, commenting that “EGC historically has been in the business of supporting youth in this city, so the work [of the Circle of Promise] is validated even more by its involvement.”

Ruth was appointed Coordinator for the 2012-2013 school year and will continue in her role as the Director of the BEC. Ruth sees her BPS role as a critical stabilizing factor for supporting partnerships through turnover within either the schools or the community organizations, and is excited to continue engaging new partners both within the Circle and throughout Boston. “These two positions fit together in a way that allows Ruth to readily pursue both, and we're excited for the opportunity for strategic partnership with the BPS,” says Jeff Bass, EGC Executive Director.

EGC is excited for this opportunity for extensive partnership with BPS with the alignment of the BEC’s work and that of BPS’s Office of Community Engagement and Circle of Promise through Ruth’s engagement in both. It’s always interesting to see how the various phases of ministry unfold over the years! Here is another element to add to the ongoing narrative of the BEC timeline.

Since its founding, the BEC has helped make an impact on church-based programs in Greater Boston that help urban residents reach educational goals.

• 1999: helped launch church-based Higher Education Resource Centers. Three continue to serve college-bound, urban students in the South End, Dorchester, and Worcester.

• 2003: created the New City Scholars Program through a partnership with Gordon College. This successful program, which is now called the Clarendon Scholars Program, is run by Gordon, and is in its 7th year.

• 2007: helped Greater Boston Vineyard start an ongoing, two-year, college readiness program.

• 2009 and 2010: developed learning relationships with leaders from over 50 churches and ministries to understand how they are already serving their students and to assess the needs for further support.

• 2009-2011: convened and supported a growing network of Christian leaders for reflection, learning, prayer, peer support, and coordinated action. Over 40 individuals representing more than 25 churches and organizations participated in BEC learning community events and trainings.

• 2009-2011: helped the Episcopal Quincy Chinese Center with program and staff development. We helped to launch a college preparation program for immigrant Chinese high school students.

• 2011: took a leadership role to support the Boston Public Schools (BPS) Circle of Promise Initiative’s efforts to foster partnerships between schools and faith-based institutions. We helped to plan, prepare, and facilitate a May event that gathered more than 150 school principals, staff, faith leaders, and congregants to hear about different models for partnerships and for dialogue. We are continuing work with the BPS to complete follow-up work for this event and to help with partnership matches.

The Circle of Promise        

The Circle of Promise strategy is a shared initiative of Boston’s Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Public Schools (BPS) Superintendent Carol R. Johnson as part of BPS’s larger five-year plan to improve academic outcomes for students within the geographic area shown in the red circle (left image). There are 47 schools within the Circle, covering all grades. Ten of the current 11 “turnaround” (designated by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as significantly underperforming for several years) schools within the Boston school system are located within the Circle.

What’s new about the work being done within the Circle is that BPS is working to extend its community engagement work to include the largely untapped resource of faith-based institutions. Dr. Johnson recognized that faith-based institutions—including churches, mosques, synagogues, various other religious centers, and faith-based nonprofits—are a part of the fabric of Boston with a long history of supporting and nurturing the growth and education of this city’s children.

The Circle is part of the BPS’s Office of Community Engagement and Circle of Promise (CECoP), which is currently focused on two main areas: improving the school choice process and fostering partnerships between schools and community organizations. EGC’s Boston Education Collaborative has been a part of the work in both of these areas, including helping to build faith and community partnerships with schools, serving on the stakeholders’ group for the school choice process, and helping co-facilitate discussions at community meetings.

BEC Reflection and Learning Sessions provide tools, encouragement, networking, and support for people from churches and nonprofits working with students

The BEC began offering Reflection and Learning Sessions (R&Ls) in fall of 2009 as a way to support people from churches and Christian non-profits as they, in turn, support students. Since then, the BEC has hosted these informal sessions quarterly as an opportunity for the attendees to take a step back from their work lives, reflect on what’s been happening, and learn from it. R&Ls have also given attendees time for fellowship together and opportunities to network among their peers. The BEC has added an evening session, which duplicates the morning session, in order to accommodate participants who can’t attend during the day.

Each session includes some fellowship time followed by a topic for discussion or presentation. Usually about 10-12 people attend the morning sessions and three to five attend the evening ones. During the first year of the R&Ls, the discussion theme was “transformation.” This past year the discussions centered on systems thinking topics, and participants were able to do some systems mapping of elements of their work.

Here are stories of a few participants impacted by the sessions.

• Andrew Walker is a Sunday School teacher at First Lutheran Church of Boston. Andrew has participated for the last school year, requesting time off from his daytime job to attend. “[The sessions have been] very instructive and a great opportunity for conversation with other people in similar pursuits,” he says. Andrew particularly appreciated learning about EGC’s systems thinking tools and says he is “eager for more” in the coming year.

• Jovan Zuniga is the Director of the Salvation Army’s Bridging the Gap program in Boston. Jovan, whose program serves court-involved youth, has attended the R&Ls since August 2010. “I always make room for the sessions because I value the chance to step out of what I do and reflect,” he says. Jovan has used the R&Ls as an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of his work and think together with his peers on how to go back and be more effective. “The sessions enable me to gather with others doing similar work, which is encouraging and educational. Overall, the meetings make my work better.”

• David Edwards is the Director of the Bridging the Gap program in Cambridge. David has also participated in the R&Ls since August 2010, and has really valued the support—particularly spiritual support—and networking opportunities made possible by the R&Ls. He took what he learned in the sessions on systems thinking this last year back to work, and it has strongly influenced the way he works now. He mentioned the bonus of not only reflecting together with his colleagues during the sessions but also connecting outside of the R&L sessions and being able to partner together and share resources to address specific work challenges.

Christian educators, youth workers and program staff in Greater Boston are invited to participate in the R&Ls. For more information, contact Ruth Wong at rwong[at]egc.org.