Eagle Rock’s Professional Development Center continues education renewal work in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Wednesday, November 18th as they serve as a partner to Opportunity Santa Fe – A Community Summit for Collective Impact. In addition to partnering on the event at 10.45 am Eagle Rock will present Opportunity Youth: Preventing and re‐engaging disconnected youth in Santa Fe. A case study approach to developing collaborative solutions.
Approximately 2,600 youth in ages 16‐24 in Santa Fe are estimated to be “disconnected” from school and work. More than half of them do not have a high school diploma or equivalent, and youth living in poverty are almost three times more likely to be disconnected reinforcing the cycle of poverty. Moreover, there are additional 2,000 youth who are considered “under‐connected” – working without a high school diploma or unemployed while in school. How can we better reach and support these disconnected and under‐connected youth as a community? How can we create a more coordinated system to connect them to pathways toward learning and earning that fit their needs? What is currently working in Santa Fe and what are the gaps that we need to address?
Session Goal: Using real‐life scenario cases, participants will have an opportunity to hear from youth directly about their experiences, hear stories of successes that have occurred in Santa Fe to support disconnected youth, and engage in collaborative activities to unpack the stories and determine the success elements that already exist in Santa Fe. Participants will also study how other communities are reconnecting out‐of‐school youth and what gaps or challenges exist in our community that we need to address. The session will result in proposals inspired by the best of what has worked built upon the ingredients we know exist in our community and actions we could take collectively to address the gaps.
About Eagle Rock
Eagle Rock, a nonprofit Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of the American Honda Motor Company, is both a school for high school age students and a professional development center for educators. The school is a year-round, residential, and full-scholarship school that enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative learning program with national recognition.
The Professional Development Center works with educators from around the country who are interested in engaging in education renewal and reform. The Professional Development Center works with educators committed to making high school a more engaging experience for our country’s youth.
We envision this country’s high schools as high functioning centers of engagement and learning. We accelerate school improvement and support implementation of engaging practices that foster each students’ unique potential and help young people use their minds well.
For more information please visit www.eaglerockschool.org and check us out on Twitter @eaglerockschool and on Facebook at facebook.com/EagleRockSchool.