Message from the President: Investing in Adolescent Thriving
This is an important day for the Stuart Foundation. Today we launch the California Thriving Youth Initiative to advance the learning, leadership, and well-being of California’s adolescents. In partnership with the California Community Foundation and informed by years of learning from grantee partners and other experts in the field, we’ve established two new funds to reaffirm the essential role that public education plays in a diverse and changing democracy. Seeded with our own $30 million investment, soon to be augmented by other philanthropic partners, this initiative is timed to leverage once-in-a-generation public investments in California that are catalyzing systemic shifts in teaching and learning, school design, college and career preparation, dual enrollment, and the way in which schools — in partnership with students, families, and communities — re-imagine themselves to serve all young people well.
You’ll find more information about the Purpose of Education Fund and the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund on our new website, also launched today. We’re particularly excited about the opportunity the site affords to elevate the work of our incredible grantees, including through a new library of resources developed by grantee partners over the last decade with Foundation support. The site also includes a new Stories section, where we’ll spotlight grantee partners who are changing the odds for young people and amplify the voices and perspectives of those working to transform the public education system. Take the site for a test drive and share your feedback with us.
I am in equal measure excited and proud to share these new beginnings with you. I’m grateful to all those who supported us to arrive at this moment: our dedicated Board of Trustees and passionate and brilliant team; the grantee partners, community leaders, researchers, educators, families, and youth from whom we have learned so much about what adolescents need to truly thrive.
I am in equal measure excited and proud to share these new beginnings with you. I’m grateful to all those who supported us to arrive at this moment.
But there’s one person in particular whose influence is stamped on these initiatives. Jeannie Oakes, who passed in April, was a leader, researcher, advocate, philanthropist, mentor, model, and friend to me and so many who now carry on her significant work. What I learned from Jeannie – what so many of us in California learned from her – wasn’t just about the “what” of the work, but also the “how” of it. The “what” is the importance of bringing research and evidence to policy and practice. It is decades of scholarship documenting the unequal learning opportunities and conditions inside school systems. It is an unwavering belief in public schools as a public good that must be reimagined to fulfill its promise. The “how” was to be collaborative, to always be listening and learning, and the deep relationships Jeannie nurtured and valued. She brought the voices and lessons of families, young people, educators, and community organizers to the tables where big decisions were made. In doing so, both the conversations and the policies that grew out of them were fundamentally different – better – because they included all of the stakeholders who play a role in advancing change.
The team at UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, which Jeannie founded with UCLA colleague John Rogers in 2000 and where I worked until I joined the Stuart Foundation, held our meetings in a conference room that featured the images at the top of this update – floor-to-ceiling murals of W.E.B. Dubois, Ella Baker, and John Dewey. They were ever-present reminders of the legacy our work carried forward.
We’ll share more in the coming months about additional philanthropic partners and early grantee investments associated with the new funds. As we embark on this next phase of our collective work, the values and practices that Jeannie embodied will ground and guide our efforts.
In Solidarity,
Sophie
Foundation News
The Stuart Foundation is thrilled to announce a new member of our small but mighty team. Rei Atkinson is our new Fund Partnership Manager, working alongside Peter Ross and Kathryn Bradley on the California Thriving Youth Initiative. Check out Rei’s bio to learn about the experiences she brings to the position. Welcome, Rei!