Agncy

Lisa Grant leads the Cambridge Office of Early Childhood, which this year launched a program to offer preschool for all 4 (and some 3) year-olds in the city. Achieving this required braiding together a disparate ecosystem and keeping people at the heart of the structures developed. Throughout, Lisa’s work has centered the families navigating this system and the educators who are nurturing the city’s children. Lisa shows us how clear strategy can support collaboration when we stay human about the impact of the work. We worked with Lisa in 2021 to co-create the strategic plan for the Birth to 3rd Grade Partnership (now the Office), focused on the systemic work necessary to implement universal pre-k. Read about the Cambridge Preschool Program here: https://lnkd.in/eGcKcj9Z #cocreation #collaboration #universalprek #earlychildhoodeducation

Jamal Spencer is a Juvenile Justice Youth Development Specialist at the Department of Youth Services, working with young people in DYS facilities to support their healing and safety. In times of struggle, Jamal has shown us what it looks like to show up for each other and for oneself. Jamal taught us to remember the stores of change and positivity we have within. We met Jamal in restorative justice training when he was a fellow with the Transformational Prison Project and worked with him and his board as he started his reentry organization, EVOLve Together. More about TPP’s fellowship program here: https://lnkd.in/gcDjtSwC #shine #healing #change #positivity

Myrna St Hilaire was a Research Assistant for the Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Myrna facilitated interviews with us with families speaking Haitian Creole, connecting not just over language, but shared experiences and cultural touchstones. Myrna showed us how translation is not only about words; it holds context and culture. We worked with BMC to use human-centered design to ground its development of its Pediatric Practice of the Future. Read a publication on this work here: https://lnkd.in/e7SSVUba #culture #context #connection

Barbara Kalu was a fourth-year psychology major at Boston University and Community Ambassador Program Manager for the BU Spark! program, a learning lab that brings together applied learning, community, and equity in technology. We saw Barbara nurture the BU Spark! community with intention, helping its members know and care for each other more fully. Barbara teaches us that tending to each other’s well-being makes for stronger communities and stronger work. We worked with BU Spark! to co-create the strategic foundations for its student ambassador program. Learn more about Spark! and its programs here: https://www.bu.edu/spark/ #community #nurture

Elizabeth N. is Founder and Executive Director at Shadida Solutions, a non-profit that partners with innovators, creators, and leaders to support the strategic development of their organizations. We met Liz through our shared work with the New Commonwealth Fund, in which we saw her redirect, question, and push to move a room closer to the heart of an issue. Liz shows us what it can look like to get clear about your values and to ask the same of others. We partnered with Liz and the rest of the NCF team to support its disruptive strategies, beliefs and ways of working. Learn more about Shadida Solutions’s work?here: https://lnkd.in/eQ6Te5aB #risktaking #strategy #values

Yuko Okabe is an illustrator and storyteller who brings play and nuance to enlivening people on the page. Working with Yuko is like having an amazing pen pal who you can’t wait to get a letter from. They can hear the voices in a Google document, make ideas richer and more clever, and translate concepts into images. Yuko exemplifies for us why collective work is powerful. We worked with Yuko on a comic for the public arts curator Boston Public Art Triennial fka Now + There to highlight the process of permitting public art in Boston (and also on the illustrations seen here!). #storytelling #illustrator #collectivework #play

Isaac Yablo is Senior Advisor for Community Safety for the City of Boston. He moves seamlessly across scales, from city-wide strategy to on-scene response. In his work, we watched how well Isaac sees people, where they are coming from, and the structures that surround them: the not visible things that are driving visible behaviors. Isaac has shown us what it can mean to be seen. Read our 2023 Year of Stories here: https://lnkd.in/gGt_nfRn The project: We worked with Isaac in co-designing an updated protocol for the city’s response to incidents of community violence. Read about some of Isaac’s work here: https://lnkd.in/e7snpWXV #communitysafety #strategy #codesign

Yesterday we co-hosted the “Reimagining Massachusetts Reentry” event at Gillette Stadium in partnership with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and New England Patriots Foundation. With a program facilitated by Agncy, we were joined by partners from state prisons, county jails, MA legislature, probation, parole, DYS, judiciary, and various secretariats and community organizations focused on reentry services.

Vanja Pejic, Ph.D. is a psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships and instructor at Harvard Medical School. In her work at Boston International Newcomers Academy she has built systems and structures to enable school-based care and evaluation responsive to the migration stories and experiences of the school’s community. Her research and advocacy balance what is experienced and what can be measured. Vanja shows us what it can look like to hold the individual and the systemic at once. Read our 2023 Year of Stories here: https://lnkd.in/gGt_nfRn The project:?We worked with the?Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships?team to co-create a vision and mission while building their organization-wide alignment muscles. https://lnkd.in/gNGR_Y8n #systemicthinker #perspective #vision

Marsha Innis Mitchell is Executive Director of Postsecondary Initiatives at Boston Public Schools. In the years we’ve worked with BPS, we’ve watched Marsha diligently and strategically construct new systems within a bureaucracy that can resist change. With warmth and imagination, Marsha moves forward programs that make a difference in the lives of Boston’s students. Marsha reminds us that executing on vision requires steadfast effort and engagement. Read our 2023 Year of Stories here:?https://lnkd.in/gGt_nfRn The project: We worked with Marsha and the rest of BPS’s Office of Secondary Schools on its strategic plan and the district’s vision of a graduate. Check out students’ feedback on this vision here. https://lnkd.in/gmZ2TuKF #imagination?#publicschools #holdingthevision #engagement