Client Spotlight: Victory College Prep
Victory College Prep (VCP) is a K-12 nonprofit public charter school network serving more than 900 students from historically marginalized communities in Greater Indianapolis.
With support from longtime partners at The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit organization, VCP participated in an Equity in Schools cohort where they identified data-driven strategies to deepen their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion values and better live out their values.
“The cohort offered a powerful duality that affirmed and challenged what we believed to be true and hoped to be possible about our school community’s previous and future efforts to support inclusivity, increase belonging, and operate more equitably. This duality was the result of thoughtful and nurturing facilitation by Beloved Community team members and an engagement model that encouraged safe but honest dialogue for cohort participants.”
Victory College Prep was intentional about their approach to DEI work: it was important that they establish purposeful equity and inclusion policies, and develop actionable guidelines that promote better practices across their school network in alignment with a broader strategic operations plan. They wanted their commitments to equity and inclusion provide clear and transparent standards for accountability not just to their students, families and interest partners, but to each other as well.
One of the ways that Beloved Community helped VCP to operationalize their DEI vision was by identifying potential action steps, and classifying them as one of four types: 1) quick wins 2) adjustments 3) new actions possible with current resources, and 4) new actions requiring additional resources. This process allowed VCP to better understand their capacity for change and determine the next best steps in achieving their specific organizational goals.
“Whenever an organization is seeking meaningful progress on this kind of scale, it can be difficult to assess where to begin, how to best yield results, or sustain genuine momentum. Classifying action steps helped us understand how to begin our work successfully and allowed us to muster patience and discipline for the efforts that will (understandably) be longer in leading us to our desired outcomes.”
VCP empowers K-12 students with the academic and social-emotional skills to thrive in college and a career. Their team of educators and administrators has committed to supporting the whole student by emphasizing academic and social-emotional learning, and by pursuing restorative discipline with trust in student capacity for self-growth. The network has nearly a decade of graduating classes that exemplify their impact on the Indianapolis community.
To learn more about Victory College Prep and how they are building a beloved community in Indianapolis, visit their website.
