Addressing Social issues through Cross-sector Partnership: Co-Designing a Youth Leadership Initiative with the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet
FY22 SI-GECS Type 1 | FY23 SI-GECS Type 1 | FY24 SI-RITEA Type B
Abstract
Youth well-being is at risk in our country. Our work investigates how cross-sector partners, across different agencies and community organizations, conceptualize and act to enhance youth wellbeing through a Children’s Cabinet in Chelsea. With generous support from Boston College, including SIGECS funding from the Schiller Institute, our research team has worked closely with community partners to facilitate the Children’s Cabinet since its inception in March of 2021. Our team serves as core members of the Cabinet’s leadership team to plan and document the process of building cross-sector infrastructure to support youth in Chelsea. Thus far, we have helped the Cabinet facilitate opportunities to hear from youth on key factors in their well being and incorporate youth leadership in community problem solving. The next phase of work will engage youth directly in the cabinet by establishing a Youth Leadership Institute. In collaboration with our community partners, we will explore these questions: 1. What leadership and inquiry experiences can we co-design with youth to involve them in addressing youth wellbeing and addressing social issues in Chelsea? 2. How does our participatory design process meaningfully engage youth in the Children’s Cabinet’s cross-sector efforts to increase youth wellbeing in Chelsea?
Youth wellbeing is at risk in our country. Building on Phase I of this project (which was supported by the Schiller Institute in 2021-2022), this Phase II study will examine how public schools and community organizations come together to develop a citywide Mental Health Campaign to promote youth wellbeing in the aftermath of a global pandemic. Our focus is the town of Chelsea, MA. Chelsea was at the epicenter of the pandemic with some of the highest rates of illness and death, financial hardships, and a halt to in-person school and additional services that lasted over a year.
Phase II of our mixed methods study leverages a unique community endeavor to address mental health concerns through the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet. The Cabinet includes 30 local community leaders from the school district, social service and health agencies, government including the city manager and housing authority, and non-profit organizations. As a core partner in this work since its inception (captured in Phase I), our research team will focus on these research questions:
- How do stakeholders across roles and institutions understand youth wellbeing in a community context?
- How can we co-design a Mental Health Campaign to address youth wellbeing in context?
- What are the outcomes of engaging in our PDR process for those involved? How does it shape their own perspectives on youth wellbeing in Chelsea?
In the midst of and after disaster, schools and other child-serving institutions play a crucial role in supporting community recovery and mitigating trauma. Our multidisciplinary research team will engage in a collaborative research process to address critical societal issues in public health, immigration, and education in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Collaborating with the town and school district, we will conduct exploratory mixed-methods research focused on child wellbeing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. As research partners, we will help with the establishment of the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet to support families and children, providing, “a designated forum for regular collaboration among all government agencies and external organizations that serve children” (Ed Redesign, 2019, p. 4). In total, 25 local community leaders from the school district, social service and health agencies, government including the city manager and housing authority, and non-profit organizations have joined the Children’s Cabinet.
Our research team will document the collaborative process of cross-sector engagement, support the use of high-quality evidence, and study the impact on children’s wellbeing and health in Chelsea. The research questions that guide our study are as follows:How does a global pandemic affect children and families’ wellbeing?In response, how have schools mobilized health services, resources and community partnerships to support immigrant families in Chelsea?How does the Children’s Cabinet contribute to the coordination of services for children and families in Chelsea?
Presentations
- Lima Becker, M., Lowenhaupt, R., Oliveira, G., Lai, B.S., *Hegseth, W. (2022,November). It’s always been the case: Community leaders’ pandemic sensemaking in a cross-sector collaborative. University Council for Education Administration Conference. Seattle, Washington.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Lai, B.S., Oliveira, G., Abeyta, A., & Jennings, A. (2022, April).Community leaders’ sensemaking of environmental jolts: A case study of pandemic responses. Presented at the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, California.
- *Aubé, S., *Riobueno-Naylor, A., *Lima Becker, M., *Hayes, J., Lowenhaupt, R., Oliviera, G., & Lai, B.S. (2022, August). For the Community, From the Community: A Town’s Children’s Cabinet. Division 27: Community Psychology [Online Poster Session]. American Psychological Association Convention.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Lai, B.S., & Oliveira, G. (2023, January).The Collaborative Design of a Children’s Cabinet: A Case Study of One Cross-Sector Initiative in Response to the Global Pandemic. Presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness & Improvement. Vina del Mar, Chile.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Lai, B.S., Oliveira, G., *Alford, B. (2023, April). The Collaborative Design of a Children’s Cabinet: A Cross-Sector Initiative to support Child Wellbeing. American Educational Research Association annual conference. Chicago, IL.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Lai, B.S., Oliveira, G., Jennings, A. & *Alford, B. (2023, April). The Collaborative Design of a Children’s Cabinet: A Cross-Sector Initiative to Support Child Wellbeing. The American Educational Research Association annual conference. Chicago, IL.
- Hegseth, W. Lowenhaupt, R., Lai, B.S., Oliveira, G., *Lima-Becker, M., & *Alford, B. (2022). Community leaders’ sensemaking of environmental jolts. University Council for Education Administration Conference. Seattle, Washington.
- *Herge, W., Lowenhaupt, R., Oliveira, G., & Lai, B.S. (2023, November). Leadership for Situated, Systemic Wellbeing: A Framework Informed by a Cross-Sector Children’s Cabinet. University Council for Educational Administration. Minneapolis, MN.
- It’s always been the case: Community leaders’ pandemic sensemaking in a cross-sector collaborative, University Council for Education Administration Conference, 2022
- Community leaders’ sensemaking of environmental jolts: A case study of pandemic responses, American Educational Research Association, April 2022
- For the Community, From the Community: A Town’s Children’s Cabinet, American Psychological Association 2022 Convention, August 2022
- The Collaborative Design of a Children’s Cabinet: A Case Study of One Cross-Sector Initiative in Response to the Global Pandemic, International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, January 2023
- The Collaborative Design of a Children's Cabinet: A Cross-Sector Initiative to Support Child Well-Being, American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, April 2023
- Lowenhaupt, R., *Alford, B., Hegseth, W., *Huo, P., Oliveira, G., & Lai, B.S. (2024, January). Responding to Crisis through Cross-sector Collaboration: Institutional Logics and School Improvement in the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet. International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. Dublin, Ireland.
Publications
- Lowenhaupt, R., Oliveria, G., Lima Becker, M., & Lai, B.S. (In preparation). Community leaders sensemaking of environmental jolts: A case study of pandemic response. Journal of Community Practice.
- Hegseth, W., Lowenhaupt, R., Bruhn, S., Oliveira, G., Lai, B. (Accepted, 2024). Toward a Framework for Educational Leadership for Well-being. Journal of Ethics in Educational Leadership.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Oliveira, G., Lima Becker, M.*, Lai, B. (2024). Community Leaders’ Sensemaking of Environmental Jolts: Stabilizing and Silver Lining Framing of Disruption. Journal of Community Practice.
- Lai, B.S., Oliveira, G., Lowenhaupt, R., *Montes, M., & *Riobueno-Naylor, A. (Accepted). The important role of schools following disaster events. National Academies of Medicine Perspectives.
- Lowenhaupt, R., Hegseth, W., Oliveira, G., Lai, B. (Under review). Co-Designing a Children’s Cabinet: A School District-University Partnership for Youth Well-being Post-pandemic. Journal of Educational Administration.
Additional Grants
- Collaborative Fellowship at Boston College: “Chelsea’s Child Wellbeing Initiative: A District-Community-University Partnership”. Granted for 2022-2023.
- IGNITE, Boston College. Chelsea’s Child Wellbeing Initiative: A District-Community-University Partnership. Granted for 2021-2022.
- The Youth Leadership Initiative: Schiller Institute Grants for Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship, Research in Targeted and Emerging Areas (SI-RITEA), $40,000. Awarded in 2023.
- Collaborative Fellowship at Boston College: “Chelsea’s Child Wellbeing Initiative: A District-Community-University Partnership”, $45,000. Granted for 2023-2024.
- William T. Grant Foundation Reducing Inequality President’s Special Initiative Grant ($50,000). Lowenhaupt, R. (PI), Lai, B. (Co-PI), Oliveira, G. (Co-PI), 2024-2025. Reducing Inequality through a Cross-Sector Network of Care for Immigrant-Origin Youth: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet.
- 2023 – 2024 Reducing Inequality through a Cross-Sector Care Network for Immigrant-Origin Youth: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet, W.T. Grant Foundation
- Role: PI, Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Co-PIs Betty Lai & Gabrielle Oliveira
- Amount: $50,000
Students Trained
- 5 Undergraduate Students
- Isabella Gomez
- Sarah Quan
- Valeria Ramos
- Adeline Kim
- Diane Chung
- 6 Graduate Students
- Mauricio Montes
- Alexa Riobueno-Naylor
- Aneesa Wermers
- Babatunde Alford, PhD student, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
- Nishat Akhi, PhD student, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
- Mariana Lima Becker, PhD student, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
- Samantha Aube, PhD student, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
- Julian Hayes, PhD student, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- 6 Postdoctorals
- Whitney Hegseth, Ph.D., visiting Fellow in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development
- Sarah Bruhn, Ph.D., visiting Fellow in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Additional Accomplishments
- Hosted and developed several events and programs for Chelsea’s Childrens’ Cabinet
- Collaboration on a youth mental health campaign in Chelsea
- Partnership meetings with the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet
- Qualitative interview protocol developed and 28 interviews conducted with youth at Chelsea High School to understand how they conceptualize wellbeing and how they envision youth leadership
- Developed a youth leadership summit, in collaboration with our community partners, to take place in July 2023 and recruited 12 student participants
- In May, Dr. Lowenhaupt received a community award from Chelsea recognizing her efforts to support youth wellbeing.
- Team facilitates meetings supporting youth wellbeing with the Children’s Cabinet.
Media
Chelsea Project Team at the Harlem Children's Zone
Chelsea Project Team members, Babatunde Alford, Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Nishat Tasnim (left to right), at the AERA conference in Denver.
Chelsea Project Team at the Harlem Children's Zone
Chelsea Project Team youth members reconvening for further discussions.