Horizon Education Alliance Inc

Student pathways system is focused on two priorities: 1) career awareness and exploration initiatives and 2) youth apprenticeships, with the goal that all elkhart county students graduate from high school with an identified career pathway that integrates relevant hands-on experience and postsecondary education opportunities. Career quest, manufacturing day and an introduction to apprenticeships are all integrated as part of this core curriculum. Career quest was launched in april 2019 to provide all 7th graders with the opportunity to explore careers in four high-demand industries: advanced manufacturing, construction, health sciences and information technology. Manufacturing day now reaches all 8th graders each year. Industry-infused project-based learning has included about fifty teachers each year, who are paired with business partners to develop and implement authentic projects with students. Industry-infused pbl can be implemented in classrooms across k-12, but there has been a particular focus on late middle school and early high school. Elkhart county has made significant progress in the design and implementation of a youth apprenticeship model. All seven school districts, ivy tech, and local businesses collaborated to launch youth apprenticeships across 7 pathways: advanced manufacturing, business, education, financial services, healthcare, information technology, paralegal, with 28 apprentices in the 2023-24 school year. The structures are being put into place to expand to a much higher number of apprentices in upcoming years. All 28 apprenticeships are registered with the united states department of labor with each business partner serving as the sponsor. The youth apprenticeship team also works with businesses to become sites for apprentices and to upload job postings to our apprenticeship portal in time to match with interested students each spring. Our team continues to work closely with careerwise colorado for technical assistance and support, and we are also part of the national partnership to advance youth apprenticeship (paya) network and the state design team for youth apprenticeships.

Parenting: triple p positive parenting program: our focus on strong foundations for learning is centered on the goal that all children and youth in elkhart county thrive in all aspects of their development through experiencing nurturing environments. Nurturing environments are those that support children's pro-social development, are responsive to their needs, and limit exposure to toxic stress in their homes, schools, and communities. Hea coordinates triple p positive parenting program across our county in partnership with social service agencies, schools, libraries, hospitals and health centers, early childhood centers, and other employers and community organizations. Triple p is an evidence-based parenting program designed by psychologists to offer parenting support to all parents from before their child's birth through their adolescence. This support is provided at different levels of intensity as needed, in parent-friendly settings throughout the community. Triple p encourages parents to choose strategies that work for them and helps parents apply the skills they learn in a variety of situations so that they become more self-sufficient, competent, and confident parents capable of providing a nurturing environment for their children.

Les/cccec- les/sel: hea is committed to the ongoing development of life and employability skills (les) and social and emotional learning (sel) as part of our lifespan approach. Sel skills are foundational to promoting the learning conditions and development needed to cultivate the life and employability skills that are critical in our world today. Hea is no longer actively involved in providing direct support to programmatic approaches in this area, but does provide direct support to school districts around les/sel needs when requested. Les/sel are integrated into all areas of our existing work and serve as a through-line to additional systemic and strategic supports. Successful evidence-based approaches point to the importance of integrated les/sel models where schools, communities and families work at this together rather than in isolation. The majority of our focus is on promoting these connections, providing support to other organizations, building community capacity in les/sel, making connections between organizations to advance les/sel integration and providing expertise and resources. These approaches are not based in implementing any one specific strategy or intervention, but in supporting our community to address specific needs through a broad set of evidence-based strategies, practices and policies that promote positive mental health and well-being, and foster the life and employability skills that our children, youth and adults need in order to thrive. - cccec: hea continues to provide technical support and leadership to the comprehensive counseling collaborative of elkhart county (cccec) as part of our collective goals to ensure that all elkhart county children experience educational settings that support the integration of academic, social-emotional, life and employability skills needed for success in school and beyond. Following the four-year initial phase funded by lilly endowment, hea continues to work with all seven school districts in elkhart county to support the efforts of districts and school counselors to convene, collaborate and enhance their ability to serve students through collective learning and action. Hea provides guidance and strategic planning support, facilitation and support of work teams, grant writing assistance, data coordination and analysis, as well as meeting and event coordination and facilitation. Through meetings, events and professional development opportunities, more than 90 school counselors are engaged annually in multiple meetings, events and professional development opportunities that focus on how to support schools and students through these challenging times. Last year we also launched a new partnership with the source (hosted by oaklawn) to add a social work collaborative branch to the cccec. This additional focus allows over 40 social workers to participate in relevant cccec activities while also building collaboration and strategically enhancing their professional growth as social workers in schools. Through the work of the cccec, school counselors and social workers are able to provide high quality support for mental health needs and academic and college/career engagement to over 35,000 students in elkhart county.

Early childhood: hea's work in the early years has focused on kindergarten readiness as a key indicator for success in school and life. Hea recognizes that preparing all young children for success requires a broad community effort that engages stakeholders from multiple sectors in re-imagining how our early childhood system can provide the resources and opportunities that all families and children need to thrive. Hea has invested in facilitation support from tamarack institute, an international thought leader and implementer of systems change and collective impact, who is guiding our learning and building our local capacity to lead work at the systems level. Hea, together with four partner organizations - the community foundation of elkhart county, the source, (hosted by oaklawn), child and parent services, and crossroads united way supported the launch of building strong brains elkhart county's early childhood initiative in 2022. Building strong brains aims to bring the community together to build a system supporting children under age six and the families who raise them so that every child is prepared when they enter elementary school. Three outcomes were defined as critical for reaching this goal: children and mothers have positive health outcomes; children have access to safe and stimulating environments; and families have the resources they need to support children's positive development. Action teams have formed to lead work in each of these outcome areas. Hea is a key partner in this work, helping support overall leadership, action teams, and data and evaluation efforts.