As interest in SEL grows nationally, classroom teachers, district leaders, and parents increasingly demand attention to social and emotional skill development. While many residential EE providers strive to create inclusive learning environments and increase personal and interpersonal development through immersive programming, we lack a common language and framework for these efforts.

With funding from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, NatureBridge is convening a group of organizations over the course of a year (mid-2018 to mid-2019) to collaboratively work through the question of how to most effectively incorporate SEL frameworks, research, and preferred practices into residential EE programming. NatureBridge is eager to engage with other residential EE organizations to develop such common language and better understand the role of SEL in our field; we are both excited about and humbled by the opportunity to collaborate with others to contribute to our sector in this way.

We anticipate that participating in the partnership will require a time commitment of up to 80 hours per person over the course of the year. We invite two staff members per organization at the Program Director level or higher. As members of the partnership, you will be asked to:

• Participate in 3 one-day in-person meetings, with at least two occurring on the west coast
• Participate in monthly video conferences
• Respond to periodic email communication and engage in review of materials between meetings
• Engage authentically and collaboratively in this generative learning process

The term of service for partnership members is one year, commencing in September 2018. We recognize that effective collaborations require investments in personnel costs and that many EE staff are already overburdened and organizational budgets stretched; the grant was written with that in mind. In an effort to approach compensation in an equitable way, participating organizations will receive reciprocity grants of no less than $6,000 to compensate for the time required to participate. This rate was determined by assuming participation for two individuals at a program manager level or higher (one education leader and one senior administrator). Travel (air, food, and lodging) expenses for the in-person meetings will be covered as well.

We will have our first convening in late September or early October where we will launch the work of the partnership by collaboratively drafting our charter and agreeing on decision-making and other group agreements and learning more about each participating organization’s approach to social and emotional development with youth in program.

Learn more and apply today!