Harwood Institute: Youngstown schools plan must be about people

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

Community engagement will play a role in the improvement of the city schools, and it has to be about people and the community, the president of the institute that will lead it said.

The schools Academic Distress Commission is developing a revised plan to improve student achievement. The only part of that plan that’s been approved so far is the community engagement piece.

The Raymond John Wean Foundation has offered to help with that aspect of the plan and recommended the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation of Bethesda, Md., for the effort.

“Such an effort recognizes the legitimate voice of parents, families, students, teachers, administrators, businesses, the faith-based community and other stakeholders and builds ownership for a long- lasting set of working relationships to engender greater success for an academic-improvement plan,” Wean Foundation President Jeffrey M. Glebocki wrote in a letter last month to commission members.

Richard C. Harwood, institute founder and president, said how the community engagement will be performed will be determined by working with the Wean Foundation and school district and commission representatives. But it must understand the problems faced by people in the district and “meeting folks whoever they are, wherever they are,” he said.

Harwood has been to the city many times before, most recently before the Christmas holiday, meeting with business individuals.

A 1999 Harwood study labeled the city as a place in waiting, using the institute’s index. He sees much improvement since then, however.

“It’s in the early catalytic stage,” Harwood said. “You’re seeing pockets of real courage occurring.”

The early catalytic stage means more people, groups and leaders are poised for real change and progress, he said.

“Before, [people] were waiting for the knight of a white horse,” Harwood said.

He pointed to community gardens, bicycle racks and young people getting involved as signs of new life in the city.

Other groups have approached the institute about its coming to the Mahoning Valley, Harwood said, declining to identify the groups.

“We’re looking at building to a community effort rather than just an isolated effort,” he said.

Harwood, who has been involved in efforts to strengthen communities and improve public life for 25 years, says he’s sick of change efforts that “parachute” into a community and then leave.

“That’s not how you create change,” he said. “The institute is really committed to not doing that.”