Reforming Education and Supporting Educational Equity
A guest post by Damien Howard
Founder | Clever Characters
Damien Howard, M.Div. has two decades of experience as an educator in Urban School settings. His entrepreneurial and mission-driven heart propels him to lead transformative change in urban schools. Damien lives in Chicago with his wife, Sharial, and their daughter, Gabrielle.
Clever Characters empowers adults who impact children—parents, school staff, and community-based mentors. They help these adults support the social-emotional and mental health of students through training experiences and short educational videos.
As a 16-year-old High School student, I didn’t know what I wanted to do post-graduation, except that I was not going to college. I felt as if the “education system” wasn’t for me. It wasn’t “my thing.”
During my Junior, I had an opportunity to volunteer in the Special Education Department of my High School, and it was then that I learned where Dante, our school’s star running back and a boy liked by everyone, spent his time during the school day. As his peers, we lauded his talents, good looks, and charisma. The “education system,” however, prioritized his deficits. Dante spent his days in a different section of the school and even had different electives than the general education population.
Something within me stirred and sparked my interest to pursue a career as a Special Education Teacher. While at the University of Illinois, I learned that there was an over-representation of African-American boys with Emotional Disturbance and Learning Disability labels. Upon graduating in 2005, I set out as a freedom fighter to address that reality.
SEL Plus
During the summer of 2017, I launched Clever Characters, which now operates under the DBA - SEL Plus. The company started as an idea to expose high school students to entrepreneurship by building something with them. By the end of that summer, we were dressing up as costumed characters and visiting kid centers across the city. The content of our engaging lessons included critical social-emotional skills that are proven to enhance life outcomes for children. Our characters—especially Elpi the Elephant—would talk about things like being a good friend, naming your feelings, and peer pressure. Our concept developed, so we started visiting kids’ parties in the Fall.
The high schoolers wisely decided to focus their attention on prom, finishing school, or going on to college. I was left with this company that I decided to leverage in order to commit myself to what God was calling me to at this juncture of my life.
Church Plant
It is important to interject into this story what I perceive as my biggest failure. I had high hopes coming out of seminary (2010) that I would be a part of launching a thriving ministry that would be a catalyst for community transformation. About 20 people started a Bible Study with me on Chicago’s Near West Side in 2013. Three years in, we were told by our denomination that they could no longer support our church plant—and understandably so. By 2016, the plant had morphed into a leadership academy aiming to help community residents overcome life barriers and live out their God-ordained purpose. We continued with Sunday services, but based on my lack of ability to focus solely on growing the Sunday services, we never really grew beyond a core group of 20 people and their friends and family members who would occasionally join us. I am glad to admit that we helped launch two successful entrepreneurs, and we inspired a mom who now holds a top management position at a restaurant. She was out of work when she met us and grew a deep sense of self-worth in our program. This experience was both very exhilarating and very draining. I learned so much with Thrive Covenant Church and Thrive Leadership Academy.
Urban Education Reform
I’ve always had a strong desire to facilitate community impact, including Education Reform. Around the time I helped launch SEL Plus with 4 teens, God inspired me to dream beyond the walls of where I worked—Chicago’s Crane High School. What was put on my heart, without a clear understanding of what it meant, was “Urban Education Reform”—starting with Chicago! My heart desired to fuse who I am as a disciple of Christ with my educational background and to see God move mightily through schools. Move in such a way it would impact the surrounding communities. My teaching positions were all strategically in areas of economic need and with schools going through some type of “turnaround” effort.
And then it happened…
At an event I was invited to, I was asked to speak about what made my heart palpitate. After a quick consultation with Google to research the meaning of the word palpitate, I could definitively respond to the prompt with “URBAN EDUCATION REFORM.”
That reply caught the interest of men from Together Chicago. This collective impact organization was seeking someone with a seminary background (check), with education experience (check), with a heart for education and community impact (check). Providence was fully at work leading up to that very moment.
Since that meeting, SEL Plus has partnered with Together Chicago with an emphasis on Chicago Education Reform. To be clear, when we speak of “reform,” this isn’t an attack against current structures. Contrarily, it is lovingly coming alongside networks and individual schools to help them address their top 1-3 priorities.
Through our efforts in one school year, over 3,000 students were served from 76 schools. 186 parents were impacted through our Parent Champions emotional wellness and leadership development program. 15 Churches collaborated with us to lead impact programs with Chicago schools. With SEL Plus’ support, Together Chicago has raised over $200,000 over the last 2 school years to advance this work. Also, SEL Plus landed $100,000 in investment capital, which was critical to help sustain this work during the pandemic.
At our Family and Community Engagement Event in October 2022, Arne Duncan (past secretary of Education) stated that our mobilization efforts to impact Chicago students and families are a necessary part of a violence reduction strategy for the City of Chicago.
At our November 2022 Awards ceremony, we celebrated 30+ community members and organizations serving students and families. We also toured Doolittle Elementary School’s elective classrooms. In partnership with Willow Creek Church and other partners, Doolittle created elective courses that have increased attendance and students’ sense of belonging in the school. They told their principal what they wanted, and we worked with her to find resources to make it happen.
At our March 2023 event, the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools was one of our panelists. A quote from CEO Pedro Martinez follows:
“Participating in the Together Chicago panel energized me. The collaboration I saw between school leaders, faith-based organizations, and other community partners made me feel confident that our students will be able to reach their full potential through support both from CPS and their broader communities. I am excited to see the Together Chicago pilot sites expand to ensure that more students, especially on the South and West Sides, receive the mentorship and guidance they need to excel academically and develop into the future leaders of our city.”
Dr. Amy Governale of North Park is leading our evaluation work. Her efforts concluded that 88% percent of students participating in a TC program (a program run by us or one of our partners) state they feel a deep sense of belonging and support within their school community. We are leveraging this reality to encourage these young people to grow into who God has made them to be.
We developed our “Village of Support” approach this year. We plan to start the 2023-2024 school year with 25 of our school partners in a room with their support villages. We plan to leverage this event to get clarity on the top priorities of the partner schools and how the Villages of Support will streamline their resources to address these top needs.
We are excited about the Village of Support building around Melody Elementary School. Through our efforts and the efforts of our partners, we are well on our way to seeing a laundry space, clothes closet, and food pantry erected at the school to meet student and community needs. These resources have been stripped from the community, and our activated faith plays a part in bringing this support back to West Garfield Park.
Based on our commitment to collective impact, we have been invited to help lead the Brilliance and Excellence movement. Weekly, this movement convenes over 10 mentoring organizations supporting boys and young men of color. We know this is a critical area to reach for impact in Chicago. Our leadership within Brilliance and Excellence is a strategic part of our larger goal—Urban Education Reform.
Our influence is growing across Chicago, and our heart is that God will be glorified as His children in Chicago are offered an equitable education experience—even on Chicago’s South and West sides. We believe that a sizable impact will be made within this generation!
