Resources and Updates:
Innovation

Brian Gloor is the Assistant Principal at Bard High School Early College DC What CityBridge program did you participate in? Design Fellowship, Spring 2021 What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge programming? The most impactful part of the CityBridge Design Fellowship experience was being able to meet as a group…

by Riley Jones, IV One of the more critical activities in starting a new venture is rather obvious: raising money to sustain operations. What is less obvious starting out is where to go to find capital. While there are many different types of capital you can take advantage of—loans, venture investment, grants, the list goes…

Ashley McMichael is the Founder & CEO of Innovative Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences (IALAS). What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge programming? The most impactful part of the CityBridge programming has been the ecosystem mapping with Cherrelle Swain!!! It allowed me to work towards an actionable plan for building…

By Rena Johnson The pandemic has challenged us in many ways. When the experience of school, work, and home changed forever on March 18, 2020, we were called to act quickly in pursuit of finding normalcy amidst chaos. I found myself, like most of my colleagues in the education space, scrambling to make sense of…

Tyecia Powell and Susan Comfort are the co-founders of Nonprofit Wellness, an organization dedicated to improving employee well-being & retention at schools and nonprofits in DC and nationwide. What CityBridge program did you participate in? Design Residency, Ventures, 2020-2021 What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge programming? Ty: For me,…

By Jim Kline We know that it is easy for equity to go out the window when designers are busy and feel the urgency of deadlines. In our incubator, we intentionally coach our participants to slow down and listen. The radical act of practicing empathy and seeking to understand the true problem at hand makes…

Read our interview below with Rennie M. Taylor, Assistant Principal at Stuart-Hobson Middle School. What CityBridge program did you participate in? Design Fellowship in the fall of 2020 What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge programming? Design Fellowship exposed my team to new tools and methods to support the social…

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt Whether you are creating a new program, launching a new school, or transforming an existing school, the CityBridge Incubator helps teams design and scale innovative and equity-centered education solutions. But to solve a problem, it is important to know what you are currently doing, and most importantly why. One powerful tool…

Our 2020 programming has come to a close! We couldn’t be more grateful to the 187 innovators for equity who immersed themselves in our programming and are actively working to transform the student experience for DC’s young people. Here are the highlights: We incubated 3 women-led education ventures. Design Fellows launched 30 education pilots. 98% of participants felt supported by their coach. 75% of participants identified as…

High-impact tutoring is a proven solution to accelerate student learning and improve well-being. In a collective effort to increase access to this research-backed approach for our most vulnerable students, CityTutor DC is helping community organizations add high-impact tutoring to their services in the 2021-22 school year. Partner organizations selected to start a CityTutor Hub will receive funding to create…