New York City Outward Bound Center Inc.

NYC Outward Bound Schools partners with over 70 public schools across NYC to engage students in equitable, immersive and joyful learning that prepares them to thrive in community, college and career. We intentionally serve a diverse population of the City’s young people and put principles of equity and inclusion at the center of our work. By working with networks of schools and partnering with NYC’s Department of Education, we aim to make real and systemic changes in NYC's schools. Our student-centered model integrates social, emotional and academic development (SEAD) — all critical components of student success — and we partner closely with schools to help ensure students have voice and choice in what they learn. We coach educators and school leaders to implement relevant and engaging learning into their classrooms and increase student sense of belonging through Crew, our signature advisory structure. We also provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills through our outdoor adventure programs. Together, our supports help students graduate with a solid postsecondary plan, prepared to thrive in college, career and life. In fact, students who attend schools that fully embrace our model are much more likely to graduate high school on-time, and to enroll and persist in college.

To prove that transformation and innovation can happen within a public school system, and that with

Goal One: Grow our footprint in the NYC public school system and build our capacity to disseminate.

Goal Two: Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion/strengthen our capacity to work with Black & Brown students.

Goal Three: Adopt an adaptive approach to our work with schools.

Our Management Team, Great Place to Work Committee, Board's Executive Committee Members participated in several online workshops led by Be the Change Consulting as part of their "Becoming an Antiracist Organization" series. And we followed up on that work by working with Dr.Yolanda Sealey Ruiz (a professor, coach, writer, and parent to NYC public school students) to help us identify ways to gather meaningful data about our organization’s "justice- equity-diversity-inclusion efforts and how to use that data to change both our internal structures and practices and the work we do with our schools. We expanded our Management Team to include mid-level leaders in the organization so that they could learn more about how to manage and lead an organization.

Over the past 18 months, we faced the twin challenges of a global pandemic and a racial reckoning, both of which brought into bold relief the deep inequities in our society and demanded that we discover and actualize our best selves. Despite setbacks, NYC Outward Bound Schools brought our special brand of education to more than 16,900 students and 1,290 educators in 59 schools across New York City. Our network of educators and staff creatively pivoted to ensure our students were getting the academic and social-emotional supports they needed. They reimagined high-quality learning experiences in new virtual landscapes and made sure that assignments were relevant and empowering to students. They made space for courageous conversations about race and reminded us of the need to double down on our efforts to disrupt and dismantle the inequities that have, until now, prevented too many of our city’s young people from getting the education they need and deserve. And now that students have returned to in-person learning we have taken what we have learned the past 18 months and are helping our schools and educators reimagine what engaging and equitable classrooms can look like. We are providing student programs and professional development for educators aimed at ensuring all of our students experience an education that supports them to: Have the knowledge and skills to pursue opportunities after high school for further learning and thriving; Have all they need to be socially, emotionally, and academically succeeding; Feel seen, heard, and recognized for their full human-selves; Imagine themselves as agents of change with the tools necessary to be critical of their surrounding world and the knowledge and skills to propose and lead change; Be able to care for, negotiate and secure personal needs and growth as well as that of others; Demonstrate in multiple ways what they can do and who they are, with chances to fail and define/reinvent themselves safely.