What I Do
As a member of the Education and Learning Initiative, I’m responsible for guiding the design and implementation of instructional programming at Phipps Neighborhoods. The specific programs I work with are Career Network: Healthcare, English for Speakers of Other Languages, Pre-High School Equivalency (HSE) and HSE prep, and Justice Corps. These are all programs that provide an opportunity for adults of all ages to achieve their educational goals, as well as their personal potential. On any given day, I facilitate the development and execution of academic interventions and learning strategies to support the individual learning strengths of our diverse population of learners. I also provide the very best instructional support and training for staff, and I’m involved in building and refining curricula and assessment instruments.
Why I work at Phipps Neighborhoods
I fully embrace our mission to provide children and their families with the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty. There is no doubt in my mind that the best tool to break the cycle of poverty is an education.
Success Story
In 2014, our team spent countless hours developing a curriculum for Career Network: Healthcare. If you’ve ever worked on a curriculum you’d know it is tedious work. You have to spend time researching, proof-reading and amassing huge binders filled with lessons and notes. I felt extremely accomplished when I finished and the final product was approved. However, the real moment of accomplishment for me was when the first class of Career Network: Healthcare graduated, using the new curriculum. It was as if my efforts developing the curriculum were morphed into a young person’s future success.
About the Education and Learning Initiative
Phipps Neighborhoods launched the Education and Learning Initiative (ELI) in order to create educational standards, facilitate the development of a progressive curriculum pipeline, and evaluate outcomes to ensure quality and continuous improvement of Phipps Neighborhoods’ education programming. ELI focuses on increasing the quality of services by building staff capacity to meet high-quality education standards of practice. ELI provides professional development, training, mentoring, coaching, evaluation, and feedback to staff at all levels of education programming. Program evaluation and curriculum planning tools have been created to clarify expectations and streamline staff efforts toward improving educational practices, with ELI staff providing ongoing support in order to successfully implement these tools.