clients

Collaborative has a long-standing partnership with the Annenberg Institute, with common commitments to core principles of results, equity, community and learning. Our collective goal over the past six years has been to support the integration of knowledge management across the organization and across the field. Collaborative’s work has included a variety of efforts to support the Institute in creating, sharing and utilizing knowledge that can accelerate improvements in education systems, whether in schools, districts, communities or states.

Some key projects with the Institute include support in designing, implementing and documenting an Emerging Knowledge Forum for three years, created to deepen the dialogue and provide opportunities for 100 leaders in education reform to learn from each in interactive and meaningful learning sessions.

With funding from the Gates Foundation, Collaborative helped the Institute to assess its own efforts to share useful online knowledge products and tools within its networks. By examining lessons from the Institute's dissemination and utilization efforts, and comparing those insights with state-of-art practice of other organizations. Collaborative helped the Institute to define the purpose of “tools” and outlined a series of recommendations to improve the engagement of end-users, motivate constituents, and track the impact of the use of Annenberg Institute's online resources.

In addition, Collaborative has provided strategic public relations and media outreach services to maximize the distribution of the research findings in support of the Institute’s release of a seven-year study, funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation that has led to a national dialogue on the direct correlation between community organizing efforts and the improvement of student achievement. 

Collaborative advised the United Way of Greenville County (SC) on research and analysis of relevant data, convening decision makers, and developing a strategic planning process and quality assessment tool for local afterschool programs.

Collaborative facilitated the development of a strategic action plan with a community steering committee that emphasizes quality, access and sustainability for all afterschool programs and systems in Greenville, South Carolina—including the creation of a quality assessment tool. The purpose of the After School Strategic Plan is to organize support services for children and youth in out-of-school hours into a county-wide effort that assists them in attaining high school graduation. In addition, Collaborative shared research on local, state and national quality assessment tools that helped community leaders establish best practices for afterschool programs in Greenville County that represent a comprehensive set of standards to indicate the measure of high quality programming and help guide local professional development efforts.

Massachusetts 2020 turned to Collaborative to plan and execute their annual Summit in celebration of expanded learning time (ELT) in Massachusetts, to recognize leaders in the field and to provide professional development to staff and administrators in ELT schools.

Collaborative helped Massachusetts 2020 plan and facilitate their Expanded Learning Time Summit, which brings together Expanded Learning Time schools and potential schools to celebrate the work accomplished by the state. Collaborative oversaw the Summit’s logistical needs and scheduling, disseminated invitations and a post-summit evaluation, managed the online and on-site registration processes, and managed the design process and agenda and materials development. This meeting demonstrates Collaborative’s continued experience with developing and hosting meetings for educational endeavors across the country.

The National AfterSchool Association (NAA) turns to Collaborative to implement the premiere convention for the afterschool field, convening almost 2,500 afterschool professionals and stakeholders annually to connect, share new research, learn about products and resources, visit local afterschool programs, and hear from experts on the issues that matter most to them.

Collaborative directs NAA’s annual convention, the largest professional development opportunity for afterschool professionals. The work includes developing a Web site, handling registration and logistics, producing content, as well as targeted marketing outreach. Having assisted with workshop coordination at the 2008 Convention, Collaborative supported NAA's 2009 convention, including facilitating the request for proposal process for workshop presenters, identifying keynote speakers, preparing marketing and outreach materials, coordinating registration efforts, fielding questions, and designing and maintaining the convention Web site.

When Prince George’s County Public Schools needed support on high-level meeting facilitation and strategic planning, they called upon the knowledge and expertise of Collaborative. The work was to include preparation of documentation, logistics, and a summary document.

Collaborative facilitated a day-long retreat for the Superintendent of Prince George's County, Maryland schools and his Executive Team to help them move their schools forward on a new reform agenda. Collaborative prepared an agenda, conducted on-site facilitation of the retreat and created a reflections memo summarizing key thoughts and possible next steps emerging from the retreat.

As KETC/Channel 9 in St. Louis was seeking innovative and effective ways to infuse community engagement into national initiatives on the Mortgage Crisis and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, they turned to the Collaborative team to provide technical assistance and consultation services.

Collaborative engaged KETC/Channel 9 senior leadership and teams from across the country to bring community engagement principles and strategies into partnership development and project planning. The team harnessed resources to provide facilitation and technical expertise to a network of public broadcasting stations, as well as the development of agendas for critical calls and planning sessions.

The San Francisco Education Fund (now merged with San Francisco School Volunteers) enlisted Collaborative to provide knowledge and expertise on community engagement and mobilization issues. Collaborative was challenged to supply research and analysis of information and data to produce a set of recommendations for the Education Fund.

Collaborative partnered with the San Francisco Education Fund (SFEF) to develop a discussion guide for a parent engagement process on the issues of student enrollment, retention and recruitment. Collaborative helped to write, edit, design and test the implementation of this guide, as well as analyze findings gathered from conversations that will help shape decisions about school consolidation and enrollment policies.

Collaborative serves as trusted advisor to The Mobile Area Education Foundation on issues ranging from leadership facilitation to communications planning to community engagement. The Foundation charged Collaborative with the task of supporting its efforts to establish and sustain contact with community members, as well as to monitor the engagement process and report back to the community.

Throughout the engagement process, Collaborative supported the Foundation in its efforts to establish and sustain contact with community members, as well as to monitor the engagement process and report back to the community. Collaborative also produced a communications plan to aid school systems in identifying and communicating with internal and external community members.

Collaborative provides the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools with knowledge and expertise on community engagement and strategic planning on an ongoing basis, as well as conducting planning sessions among decision makers.

Collaborative facilitated a meeting of a steering committee to help make decisions on ongoing engagement strategies. Collaborative provided guidance and technical assistance regarding ongoing public engagement activities and consulted monthly on technical assistance and strategy. We designed a comprehensive community engagement strategy to address plans for a high school in the historic community of Eatonville that produced a report from the community to the school board.

When the Forum for Youth Investment needed a firm with a stellar background in facilitating a meeting of high-level staff members, they called upon Collaborative to provide guidance and direction.

Collaborative prepared a comprehensive agenda through phone interviews and a planning session. The team facilitated a two-day retreat with the Forum’s Directors, followed by a summary document concerning the work done at the retreat.