At the network’s 2018 Global Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, Teach For All launched the Global Learning Lab for Community Impact (Community Impact Lab) to learn from communities that are making significant progress toward the outcomes they envision for their children, and share insights from those communities within and beyond the global network.

Ensuring whole communities are enabling all of their children to shape a better future requires both strong leadership in every area that impacts kids and true partnership between network partner staff, participants, and alumni and the communities where they work. Led by Teach For America alumna and former Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. Public Schools, Kaya Henderson, the Community Impact Lab will work alongside Teach For All partners as they engage with families, local leaders, policymakers and other community members, and share learnings and best practices from these collaborations to both accelerate the network’s progress and inform the global education conversation.

Authentic community engagement, Henderson believes, has four critical features: a jointly created vision for children, leadership strength, leadership diversity (from both ends of the power dynamic), and the creation of spaces and structures for collaboration. “If we’re going to equip our students to change the world,” she explains, “everyone in the community—from grassroots to grasstops—must work together to achieve that vision.”

Launched in 2016, the first phase of Teach For All’s Global Learning Lab captured and spread insights from classrooms across the network. The Community Impact Lab, made possible by generous support from the BHP Foundation, expands the Global Learning Lab’s focus to both classrooms and communities.

Watch the video above to learn more.