E3 Educate Empower Elevate

Cocreation - beginning in february of 2022, the E3 foundation partnered with five community based organizations (cbos) as critical thought partners to the barriers facing our communities' families and children. For over a year the group met; researching, brainstorming, strategizing and creating. The results of this partnership included two annual community-based events that directly impact and Empower families to advocate for their children, and a long term plan for coalition building. However, in addition to the previously mentioned results the group had several reflections and specific recommendations to guide future community-based work. These reflections and recommendations are relevant to not only other cbos and educational institutions, but also to philanthropic organizations, funders, and systems that support the education of black and brown families. These reflections and recommendations are guideposts for the work that we do, which should always be centered on the voices of those most impacted by inequities and the people who are "doing the work". 1) build collaborative spaces 2) partner to build capacity in community-based organizations 3) convene to co-create 4) advocate 5) build coalitionsthe work of this group's efforts will be summarized in the E3 foundation's second published report entitled, "the community is a key solution to educational inequities: a summary of the E3 co-creation project".

Pro-truth sc - since summer 2021, we have been working diligently with the naacp legal defense fund (ldf), the sc american civil liberties union (aclu), lowcountry black parents association, wren, jewish federation and other concerned citizens and community members to strategize, organize, Educate the community about sc's legislative actions pertaining to the teaching of truthful education in our state. These founding organizations and subsequent partners formed the protruth sc coalition. The protruthsc coalition has worked to Educate the community, bridging the connecting between the state legislature and the community to ensure the community knows what is occurring, is educated on the legislative process and understands how to advocate for themselves. To learn more about this work, visit httpslinkedgepilotcoms8dccfc214rh...

Regional talent strategy - numerous reports over the last decade have chronicled that all students, but specifically black students, benefit from black teachers. But in the charleston region, only 12% of the teaching population identifies with the representation of over 40% of black students. These numbers have remained stagnant for over 10 years. In 2018, of charleston county school district's 3,312 teachers, 2,336 (71%) are white women and 456 (14%) are white men compared to 383 (12%) black women and 72 (less than one percent) black men. Further, there are more white males than teachers of color, both men and women. Therefore, E3 is working to facilitate the creation of a pipeline of community-centered, entrepreneurially-focused teachers and leaders with a strong bias for teachers and leaders of color that will advocate and change the academic trajectory of students of color in charleston. Over the last year, we have created a long-term partnership with the national thought leader for black educator recruitment/retention, center for black educator development (www.centerforblacked.org) (cbed). In september 2022, we participated in a strategic work session with cbed focused on analyzing the black educator experience in the charleston tri-county region with our fellow partners - teach for america and the black educator collective. E3 also attended cbed's black male convening in philadelphia with over 600 attendees from across the nation and the globe. And most recently, our team is working with local partners, metanoia, charleston county school district, teach for america, and other current/former servant leader interns (slis) and ella baker trainers of freedom schools to develop a freedom schools expansion in our region that would be a training ground for teacher preparation.

Workforce development - in august 2022, the lowcountry careers collaborative (lcc) is an initiative developed by the charleston chamber foundation through the charleston metro chamber of commerce (the chamber), in conjunction with E3 was one of 32 nationwide recipients of the good jobs challenge (american rescue act); an $8.4m grant. The project aims to bridge historical gaps in representation within workforce development to ignite inclusive and equitable growth that is equally beneficial to industry, the economy, and workers. Lcc's initial focus is healthcare - the lowcountry healthcare careers collaborative (lhcc), and one of the region's largest employers and providers, roper st. francis healthcare serves as the backbone organization. As a result of this work, in partnership with the chamber foundation, roper st. francis, training partners, wrap-around service providers, and employers, we are committed to developing an equity-centric, employer-led approach that builds upon our existing regional training systems to offer pathways to higher level careers by: 1) empowering underserved populations to seek opportunities in promising sectors; 2) collaborating across sectors to address skills gaps identified by employers; and 3) addressing workforce barriers that have prevented inclusive and equitable growth.