What we do

Children thrive with multi-generational support. Generations have been failed by schools. In deep collaboration, Launch and their partners work to build transparent, trusting relationships with both students and their families. The community of Launch educators provides support to both generations with access to community resources, by serving as partners and advocates in their student’s educational experience, and empowering parents to continue facilitating their child’s education after they’ve graduated from the program.

The Launch approach is based on the years of experience all educators bring to the partnership. Founders Sarah Rauenhorst and Justin Darnell bring expertise from their combined 25 years in education, most of it in the classroom. CHIC and Kids Above Everything leaders Sade Cooper, Dane Washinigton, and Kirk Stevenson bring their combined 25 years of doing work in their community to improve the outcomes of youth and young adults.

And of course, all of Launch’s essential elements are research based. Launch’s value and impact is not solely because we incorporate these research-based elements, but because we uniquely bring together multiple organizations and leaders to weave together so many of these research-based elements.

What Fuels the Launch Model:

The Challenge

Societal Inequities
There are deep and pervasive societal inequities which wreak havoc on our kids and communities of color. These inequities are generational, colonial, based on power and privilege, and complicated. They result in large gaps in life outcomes for individuals purely based on their race and where they grew up. (Opportunity Insights’ research on racial disparities)

Education Inequities
Launch believes it is not one thing that causes and perpetuates achievement and opportunity gaps, but many complex factors. There are achievement gaps that begin early, unfairly and inequitably impact kids of color, and grow overtime. (“Rethinking the Achievement Gap” by Andy Porter) There is also an opportunity gap in students of color’s access to high quality and rigorous educational experiences. (The Opportunity Myth)

Solutions

Collective Impact
Closing achievement and opportunity gaps is not something that can be done by one person, one school, one organization, or one community. It requires a collective impact approach in which organizations align their goals, activities, and ultimately impact. (“Collective Impact” and “Does Collective Impact Really Make An Impact?” from Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Social Networks
There is a significant amount of untapped potential currently living in kids of color and kids from low-income communities. Increasing their access to successful mentors who are from their community and culture can ignite their potential and set them on a course to success. (“Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation” from Opportunity Insights)

Adult Influences
Educators of color tend to hold higher expectations for students of color than white teachers and when students of color or students from low-income communities are held to high-expectations they excel and meet those high expectations. (“Choosing the Opportunity Gap” from The Opportunity Myth) In addition, high-quality teachers directly impact students’ ability to succeed and ultimately improve life outcomes including increased educational levels, earnings, quality of neighborhoods, and savings for retirement. (Opportunity Insights)

Authentic Whole Child Education
Educating a child is more than just about improving test scores. An authentic whole child education is about providing an environment which balances social, emotional, academic, mindset, and behavioral development in a culturally responsive manner that applies to real world scenarios. (“The Influence of Teaching Beyond the Achievement Gap” from The Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University and “Designing for Learning” from Transcend)

Trauma-Informed Approaches
Kids who come from low-income communities tend to have more exposure to adverse childhood experiences also known as trauma. (“Adverse Childhood Experiences” from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention) Fortunately, educators play a critical role supporting students as they navigate their trauma and ensuring school is a safe and supportive place. (Trauma Learning and Policy Initiative and Neurosequential Model in Education)

Family and Community Integration
Families and the communities in which they live are critical experts and educators of their children. Through generations of oppression and discrimiantion, schools have degraded trust with families of color. Schools and educators must rebuild trust with families, have honest and transparent conversations about how the two entities can support each other, and build family advocacy. (“Effective Family Engagement Beings with Trust” from Dr. Karen Mapp of the Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Childhood Development
Children develop within a nested ecological system. Individuals and societal factors at each distinct level impact children’s development; therefore, protective and preventive factors must reach each environment and the individuals involved in a child’s development. (Bronfrenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of Development and Gracia Coll’s Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental)