Best Practices

Defining US is a youth empowerment campaign series, using educational strategies to address the most important social issues of our time. The first campaign in the series is dedicated to empowering students, to help change the narrative about young men of color and improve race relations nationwide. A key initiative of the campaign is creating and replicating school programs that help these young men succeed. School districts across the U.S. are partners, supporters and innovators, creating opportunities through life-changing teaching and learning strategies that help these young men, and all students of color, succeed. Join the campaign, and partner with your peer districts nationwide.

Shared Best Practices

Videos and Resources

Expanded Success Initiative

ESI is focused on increasing the life outcomes of black and Latino males who attend NYC public high schools by closing educational achievement and opportunity gaps and preparing them to graduate college and career ready.

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Young Men’s Gathering Program

One of the many ESI programs that support the continued achievement of Black and Latino young men is the Young Men’s Gatherings, open to all 9th and 10th grade students who are involved in the Expanded Success Initiative, as well as accompanying staff.

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Bedford Academy Program

This program provides socio-emotional supports for Black and Latino young men to explicitly accelerate the development of personal and academic behaviors that contribute to college resilience and persistence.

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ESI
CREATES

Culturally Responsive Environments Attaining Transformative Equitable Solutions (CREATES) is a cohort of schools using the CRE Framework to ensure that policies, practices, and procedures that exist and those that are created, are filtered through a culturally responsive and equity lens.

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Peer-to-Peer
Mentoring

ESI has embarked on the mission of supporting New York City high schools with existing peer-to-peer mentoring programs to increase the number of students engaged while strengthening and expanding the quality of service provided within priority communities.

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