In May, we hosted our third Lift Every Voice session with Sterling Clinton-Spellman as our keynote speaker.

During this time, women leaders learned about Sterling’s experiences with racism and sexism, turning a blemish into a beauty mark, and what it takes be a black female leader.✊🏾

Additionally, guests learned about the critical tools that today’s students, especially students of color, need to be prepared to use their voices to drive the change that our world so desperately needs!🌎

We are proud to have been recognized for our family engagement work by United States Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, when asked by Congress about successful charter schools serving diverse populations. 🙌

Take a look at your investment in action! 👏

We remained committed through a variety of DEI and Anti-Racist efforts throughout the year. For example…

We hosted anti-racism training and professional development for our entire 110-person team through our partnership with Restore More. Through this critical work, Restore More helped us build our understanding and capacity to better support our Black Indigenous People of Color students.

We also hired a DEI specialist, Mel Rivera, to coach our Head of School as well as the Director Team in following through on our overarching vision of diversity, equity, and inclusion – both at the programmatic and administrative levels.

Last spring, we hosted our first-ever career day speed dating session with our 8th grade students. With the support of our Latino Advisory Committee, students were introduced to a variety of different professions and were able to ask any questions they had. 👥

Our students explored real estate, social work, engineering, DEI, politics, law and more! They enjoyed talking to these professionals and learning about career paths they may be interested in down the line. 👌🏽

To celebrate International Women’s Day, two of our 4th grade students, Zoey and Ashley were invited to attend CF Women’s Day at Central Falls City Hall. 🙋🏽‍♀️

Zoey and Ashley, along with girls from other schools in Central Falls, were able to have lunch with Mayor Maria Rivera, shadow CF city hall employees, hear from a panel of powerful women and community leaders, “chill with CF female cops,” and learn about financial literacy at Navigant.

Ashley shadowed the finance department and Zoey became mini-mayor for the day as she had the chance to speak with women leaders in government such as Secretary of State, Nellie Gorbea and even White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

The young girls were empowered to use their voice to make change happen and to become those strong leaders that they know they can be… and the world so desperately needs.

Did you know that The Learning Community has been nationally recognized for our family engagement? 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Check out what Carnegie Corporation of New York had to say about our family engagement strategies.

Thanks to the generosity of The United States Department of Agriculture, the Simon W. Wardwell Foundation, Ocean State Charities Trust, Navigant Credit Union and other investors, we were able to invest more than $300,000 to renovate our kitchen to support a new hot meals program that now features more nutritious and culturally aligned options.

Special education teacher, Ms. O’Neil, and some LC students went to the statehouse in June to help “Moms Demand” lobby for gun control. They had an amazing experience demonstrating that gun reform is necessary for schools to be safer.

LC students and team members also wore orange to participate in National Gun Violence Awareness. There are many reasons we wear orange, but as one of our students emphasized: “for the simple idea that we should be safe in our everyday lives.” 🧡

Special thanks to everyone who was able to help us get our groove back at last year’s Get Smart! party! It was great to see everyone getting together to support our students’ education and future!💫

In 2022, we honored Marc Greenfield, Sarah Friedman, and Ed Reis for all their tremendous work and support throughout the years. Our student speaker, Princess, spoke about growing up as a black girl, her role in Student Council, and the genuine connections she made at The LC with her classmates and teachers. She discussed how as a student her voice is always heard and accepted, further stating “The Learning Community is a creative, inclusive space that promotes fellowship and uniqueness all at once.”

The Learning Community’s soccer team had a successful tourney run with 5 victories at the First Annual Citywide Middle School Futsal Tournament in Central Falls!⚽

Meanwhile, the LC Girls’ Run Club finished their season by running the Angels Give Back 5k in Johnston! 🏃🏽‍♀️

We hosted alumni reunions for the classes of 2017-2021, as well as for the classes of 2012-2016. There were huge turnouts and it was great to see students reconnecting with their old friends and teachers.

Special shoutout to the class of 2020, who finally were able to get their class picture! We can't wait to see all of these young leaders in action!