Black Education For New Orleans

2021 IMPACT REPORT

Over the past four years, Black Education for New Orleans (BE NOLA) has worked to support Black educators and Black-governed, Black-led schools (BGBLS) to ensure an education that creates better outcomes and opportunities for Black children in New Orleans as a critical factor in building a thriving Black community.

Our core priorities are:

Black-Governed, Black-Led School Support
Educator Support
Communications and Awareness-Building (Advocacy)

We intentionally balance direct support to schools and educators with approaches that aim to drive more equitable policies and practices in the ecosystem. It’s no secret that this has been a particularly challenging year for New Orleans. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of Hurricane Ida continue to create tremendous challenges for schools, students, and the city as a whole. Still, we have seen our community band together to keep moving forward.

BE NOLA's 2021 Impact Report is especially geared towards the broad and diverse network of partners, supporters, and friends who have enabled us achieve these results and continue to innovate and push forward. We are grateful for your support and commitment to our mission to serve the students of New Orleans. Thank you for standing with us.

“Providing an outlet for Black leaders to share, reflect, and be vulnerable has proven to be invaluable. I have gotten ideas from other leaders, problem solved, laughed, cried, and grown.”

2020-2021 BE NOLA Collective

The 2020-2021 school year marked BE NOLA’s second annual iteration of “The BE NOLA Collective,” a program which provides intensive services and customized support to a small cohort of standalone and small network BGBLS across New Orleans. This was an unprecedented year for the BE NOLA Collective. We retrofitted the entirety of the program to a virtual platform due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. We also strategically expanded the program to include middle school leaders who were nominated by each of our partner schools and were responsible for carrying out the schools' COVID-19 strategies. Each school received customized capacity-building support based on the following conditions for effective schools: quality instruction, culture and climate, family and community engagement, leadership and management and finance and operations.

Culturally Responsive Professional Development

The 2020-2021 BE NOLA Collective delivered 25 hours of culturally responsive professional development to 6 CEOs/principals, 10 middle leaders, and 92 teachers, focusing on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Virtual Learning, Staff Social-Emotional Resiliency, Virtual Family Engagement, and School Operations during the pandemic. According to one participant: "The discussions in the cohort were very informative and a lot of information was presented that will guide me in implementing plans for the upcoming school year.”

Technology Supply Sponsorships

With support from local businesses, BE NOLA secured $20,000 in technology supplies for three local schools. The products supported educators and students to better navigate the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic, where many had to pivot to a virtual or hybrid-learning setting.

Fundraising Capacity-Building

As part of our ongoing effort to lift the positive profile of our BE NOLA Collective schools, we produced fundraising videos for school partners to secure more than $55,000 in local grant awards. Dr. Vera Triplett, CEO of the Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning noted: "Cox Communications – that grant was a direct result of my association with the cohort. Funds are being used for a music program – now all kids at Noble Minds are getting violin lessons.”

School Support Impact Numbers

During the 2020-2021 school year, we provided intensive, direct support to a cohort of

4
BGBLS that included Élan Academy Charter School, Lafayette Academy, Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning and International High School of New Orleans.

BE NOLA provided 6 CEOs/Principals, 10 Middle Leaders and 92 Teachers with

25
hours of culturally responsive professional development impacting 1099 students.

“I very much appreciated the Summit’s intention
of supporting us as whole people, not just educators.
I feel motivated to keep grinding for our babies.”

Black Educator Support

2nd Annual Black is Brilliant Summit

We hosted our second annual Black is Brilliant Summit, a virtual, exclusive space for Black educators and visionaries in the education landscape to gather and dream a future that is uniquely for us, by us. We engaged 500+ participants in-person, virtually, and through viewing sites at local Black-owned businesses in all corners of the city.

Replay Summit Broadcast

Black Women Brilliance Design Studio

We invited 12 Black women educators to participate in a Black Woman Brilliance Design Sprint in the Spring/ Summer of 2021 around the following question: What could it look like to center the wellness and efficacy of Black women educators in New Orleans? Participants received a $5000 micro grant to pilot an innovation that they launched in the Fall. According to one participant: “Black women in education haven’t really had the space or time to share what they’re experiencing. We all know that there is an enormous need for Black women to be heard, and those voices have to be used as tools to influence both policy and practice.”

Learn More

Educator Support Impact Numbers

The 2021 Black Is Brilliant Summit gathered

544
Black education stakeholders representing

57
schools across 7 states.

To date over

2000
educators impacted by BE NOLA's educator support programs.

“We are committed to changing the narrative of Black education in New Orleans.”

Communications and Awareness Building

Black Brilliance Campaign

in 2021, we launched our Black Brilliance Campaign, highlighting the brilliance of Black educators across our community while increasing awareness of how supporting Black educators will catalyze educational progress in our city. We reached 1.3 million people through our campaign and focused attention on the need for more school-based funding transparency to help us address the four biggest challenges facing New Orleans public schools.

The Black Brilliance Campaign culminated in the launch of a 10-point platform for Quality Black Educator development and support in New Orleans.

Read the Platform

Black is Brilliant Course Launched

We developed a free, self-paced online course to help the public learn about the remarkable efforts of Black people in New Orleans to pursue and create equitable, rigorous, and high quality educational experiences for children. Totaling 8 modules, this course is foundational for anyone working with New Orleans Black children and was developed in collaboration with renowned scholar of critical race theory in education, Dr. Adrienne Dixson.

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION

This year, our Executive Director received recognition from New Orleans City Business as a 2021 Woman of the Year and Top 500 in New Orleans Business.

2021 was our biggest fundraising year yet. We exceeded our 2020 fundraising total by 64%, thanks to so many generous partners.

Thank you!

Your investment in strong futures for Black children, Black educators and Black-governed, Black-led schools in New Orleans truly means the world to us.

If you're excited about what we're doing and what to know how you can support, please consider making a small recurring donation that will help us increase our impact in 2022.

Positive thoughts and new connections are welcome too. We appreciate you!

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