City of Boston Joins EdRedesign’s By All Means Community of Practice

The City of Boston has joined The EdRedesign Lab’s (EdRedesign) By All Means Community of Practice, an initiative that harnesses the power of place-based, crosssector partnerships to create integrated systems of support and opportunity for families, children, and youth.

EdRedesign, a university-based initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), advances cradle-to-career, community-based, personalized systems of support and opportunity for all children and champions a holistic model of child development and education that goes beyond schools.

“Our whole-child, whole-community approach means we must support young people within their homes and neighborhoods, creating partnerships for education, health, and well-being that involve everyone,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “To further our efforts to enable equitable access to opportunity, high-quality education, and healthy development for every child, the City is thrilled to join EdRedesign’s By All Means Community of Practice.”

Founded in 2016, By All Means advances place-based, cross-sector partnerships to ensure the social, emotional, physical, and academic development of all children and youth and to disrupt the correlation between a child’s socioeconomic status and their prospects for upward mobility. By All Means members adopt comprehensive, cradle-to-career models to advance social and economic mobility, particularly in under-resourced communities.

“We are delighted to welcome the City of Boston into our national, By All Means initiative which is dedicated to serving communities working holistically to achieve students’ academic success and well-being. At the outset of her tenure, Mayor Wu outlined an ambitious community vision for Boston, one that calls on the entire city to address opportunities and impediments to children’s thriving, learning, and growing,” said Paul Reville, EdRedesign director and Francis Keppel Professor of Practice at HGSE. “Through this new partnership, we hope to learn from each other while strengthening and expanding place-based, cross-sector efforts serving Boston’s children and families.”

Currently, there are nine communities that comprise By All Means: Oakland, California; Louisville, Kentucky; the Partnership for Resilience, Chicago Southland and the Partnership for Resilience, Southern Illinois; Boston, Chelsea, and Somerville, Massachusetts; Poughkeepsie, New York; Chattanooga-Hamilton Co., Tennessee; and Providence, Rhode Island.

"Our mission in the Boston Public Schools is to focus on the growth and development of the whole child, which means taking a holistic approach to educating students and providing them with the resources, support, and guidance they need to be successful," said Superintendent Mary Skipper. "By All Means is a coalition that has experience working at all levels of the system and connecting districts across the country who are focused on whole-child education. We look forward to our continued work with EdRedesign and thank them for their support and partnership to help our students grow and thrive."

HGSE Ed.L.D. alumna Rebecca Grainger will serve as the community lead for Boston in the By All Means Community of Practice. A unique feature of By All Means is EdRedesign’s high-touch support to member communities, including access to national experts, one-on-one coaching, and a peer-to-peer network of likeminded communities and leaders. To accelerate the work, HGSE hosts a series of annual convenings that bring together policymakers, educators, and community leaders to re-envision public education and its governance.