Take Five with Jacquelyn Lemon of NewRoot Learning Institute
Take Five is an interview series that highlights Polk Bros. Foundation grantee partners who are taking impressive actions to overcome common challenges and who make a difference for Chicagoans most affected by poverty and inequity. We believe these insights are critical for Chicago’s future.
NewRoot Learning Institute (formerly known as Umoja Student Development Corporation) is one of Polk Bros. Foundation’s grantee partners working to improve student academic success through increasing knowledge, skills, relationships and motivation. Jacquelyn Lemon and her team at NewRoot work to nurture people and cultivate restorative learning spaces. As co-creators, consultants, and coaches to adults, they are champions of equity, radical love, and justice for youth and communities. NewRoot has supported and engaged schools annually through district-wide Restorative Practice Training and affiliative programming, while focusing on whole-school customized support including strategic planning, racial justice professional development, team coaching, and culturally sustaining curriculum.
We’re grateful Jacquelyn has agreed to share her insights in this post.
1. The pandemic and the growing movement for racial justice have prompted a period of deep reflection and action about how we all lived before March 2020, how our priorities are changing or need to change, and how we want to move forward from here. What has changed over this time that you most hope will persist into the future?
Jacquelyn: I believe that the pandemic ushered in a heightened sense of awareness with people doing exactly what your question intimates, wrestling with profound questions. As our priorities shifted and as stark injustices were highlighted and replayed on our televisions, we were forced to grapple with the values that matter most.
With that, there is now a national conversation about race that I’m pleased to witness. People from all walks of life and from all points across the political spectrum are engaged in necessary discourse. Amid disharmony and so many polarizing forces, I am encouraged because healing begins with radical candor and acknowledgement of pain.
There has always been liberatory thought and dialogue coupled with brave actions. However, I think what’s changed since something as catalytic as the pandemic is that more people are willing to have tough conversations, examine their own biases, and work collectively to eradicate injustices that plague us all. I hope that we continue to stay connected and keep conversing, even when it’s hard.
2. What changed for your organization the most since the start of the pandemic, and how has your organization responded to those changes? Are any of these adaptations remaining?
Jacquelyn: Before the pandemic NewRoot (or Umoja) was a direct service delivery model, providing supports to students. In essence, we added (much-needed) human capital to our partner sites. However, the pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequities and exposed the harmful effects of divesting from communities of color to some who in the past had refused to acknowledge disparities. Consequently, our current partners began requesting additional support, former partners wanted to reengage, and new prospects began reaching out. We were poised to collaborate with partners to tend to the wellness of adults while simultaneously integrating socially-appropriate developmental practices within the school curricula, but on a larger scale.
As a result, we began shifting to an adult capacity-building model and are now able to impact more adults and students without significantly increasing the size of our staff. Our current hybrid model enables us to continue to add human capital to schools while transparently working to shift mindsets that transform entire cultures. In this way, outcomes for students are positively impacted in the short-term and long-term and the capacities of the adults in the community are sustained after our partnerships end. All of the aforementioned shifts remain and we continue to refine and improve these newly adopted approaches. Our post-pandemic, adult capacity-building model is designed to sustain the work long after our partnerships end.
3. What’s one thing that continues to stand in the way of your organization’s work to create a more equitable and just Chicago, and what can be done about it?
Jacquelyn: Resources to do the necessary work; financial backing. During the pandemic, individual donors increased their giving and foundations generously and diligently worked to help organizations stay afloat. We are grateful. Now, however, we are feeling funders scale back. Other foundations are understandably shifting priorities. We have also heard from some about receiving an extraordinarily large number of proposals without the capacity to fund as many as they would hope. Still, we are in the nascent stages of escalating our post-pandemic response to partners. The need in the field is greater and I want to respond because I know that we can successfully impact adolescent trajectories with a research-backed approach that is delivered unapologetically with love and in a way that honors everyone’s humanity. I need financial resources to retain and invest in our brilliant staff by making sure they have all that they need to work productively.
4. In addition to financial support, what do you need most from the philanthropic community to advance your mission?
Jacquelyn: Innovation. I would love for the philanthropic community to brainstorm new ways to advance the missions of non-profits. For example, providing facility space, in-kind donations, and introductions to networks or similar organizations could provide great value. During the pandemic we heard calls to “not return to the way things were” and yet many constituents in our communities fail to disrupt the status quo. Since the value of community has come front and center, let’s find ways to work collaboratively across community/school-based organizations and foundations. Let’s use creativity to mitigate the notion of scarcity and competition. What would happen if we worked together to leverage further impact? We must literally change if we want outcomes to change and in my opinion the best way to transform, at scale and systemically, is to do it together!
5. What has given you the most hope recently?
Jacquelyn: Young people. I find this generation to be resourceful and innovative. They exercise agency and demand respect. Young people are starting businesses early and seeking knowledge proactively. They are collaborative and form strong alliances across differences. Our youth are resilient and have a proven track record of successful political and social engagement even through these incredibly challenging times.
Young people give me hope. When I feel discouraged, I spend time listening to and learning from the brilliance of this powerful generation of students. They motivate me and give me the upmost confidence.
Jacquelyn Lemon (she/her) is Chief Executive Officer of NewRoot Learning Institute.
