A Reflection of ETGE and What's to Come in 2023!

Dear ETGE Supporters and Friends:

Late 2017, I founded Effective to Great Education (ETGE), driven by my passion for the connection between behavioral science, cognition, and performance in P-12 education. I noticed a gap in education and support for social emotional well-being and mental health still existed since my time in grade school, which I found particularly concerning because of my own student struggles and personal traumas as a young little Black girl. Five years later, my vision for ETGE has not changed; it is still to provide a solution that addresses this gap by developing technology that supports educators, students, and families in ensuring the daily culturally responsive, trauma-informed well-being needs of every child.

Our process has involved school community co-design work in Washington, DC, where we have evolved from focusing on student-facing tools to zeroing in on community solutions driven by school co-design. Our co-design activities involve educators, leaders, families, support specialists, and students to develop sustainable, comprehensive daily well-being education, practice, and support. This has led us to research and develop a platform system to house our community co-design insights, with a focus on centering historically marginalized and underserved Black and Brown communities.

Targeting ETGE’s research around social justices issues has enabled us to ensure that we are building universally impactful solutions. This approach also ensures that we consider the conditions of all people, which helps uncover the social barriers that impact the quality of schooling and social emotional well-being for the entire school community. As we develop our ‘grassroots tech solutions’, we think big while conducting incremental tests and small pilots. This methodology has enabled us to learn a lot and is the reason why our work has intentionally evolved.

I am personally looking forward to seeing what ETGE will do in the next five years. However in 2023, my focus is on improving venture visibility and sharing our story. We will continue to inform and educate about the importance of centering historically marginalized communities as we elevate community co-design for mental health and well-being education, practice, and support with education organizations using our latest prototype, Mindfulness Labs, and Youth-Led co-design.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you're interested in learning more about ETGE, Mindfulness Labs, or any of our other programs, services or research. Also, check out our 5-year anniversary video montage tribute if you have a moment.

Have a blessed 2023 and stay well!

Sincerely,

Laura Thomas

Founder of ETGE