Give heads of households daily support — childcare, tutoring, supervision — so raising children isn’t a solo survival sport.
The following action steps are written in SMART Goal format. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Community members are encouraged to utilize this page to determine if their local community could benefit from implementing these action steps. Consider these as guidelines for further discussion in the direction of tax dollars to provide ideal environments for children and citizens. Take your community’s resources, economic and social strengths, and crime rates over the last 25-50 years into consideration.
Click the small triangle ▶ to see more details about an idea.
Action Steps at the Town Hall Level:
Create Playgroups for Children In Preoperational Stage
- Specific: Establish weekly playgroups for children 5 years or older who are in their preoperational stage of development (typically ending around 7 years old).
- Measurable: Engage 50 children in playgroups within 6 months.
- Achievable: Use community centers, parks, or schools as venues and recruit parents and volunteers to supervise.
- Relevant: In the preoperational stage, children learn to socialize through play and interaction.
- Time-Bound: Launch the first playgroup within 3 months and expand to 5 locations within 12 months.
Organize Community Events for Families and Children
- Specific: Host monthly family-friendly events.
- Measurable: Attract 300 participants per event within 1 year.
- Achievable: Use public spaces and partner with local businesses for sponsorships & food trucks present at events.
- Relevant: Provides opportunities for children to socialize in a community setting.
- Time-Bound: Host the first event within 3 months and continue monthly events for 1 year.
Provide Social Skills Workshops
- Specific: Offer workshops for children over the ages 5-11 years old to develop communication, empathy, and conflict resolution skills.
- Measurable: Train 100 children within 1 year.
- Achievable: Partner/employ child psychologists, educators, and nonprofits to deliver the workshops.
- Relevant: Children ages 5-11 are in a mix of stages of development; by going through workshops together, they can learn to navigate social interactions at different stages and secondarily may naturally develop mentor-like relationships.
- Time-Bound: Begin the first workshop within 3 months and host quarterly workshops thereafter.
Promote Inclusive Socialization for Children With Special Needs
- Specific: Develop programs and events that ensure children with special needs can participate in socialization alongside their peers. This can look like inclusive language and accessibility to programs already rolled out.
- Measurable: Include 50 children with special needs in community programs within 1 year.
- Achievable: Partner with special education professionals and advocacy groups to design inclusive activities. If possible, host 1 or more community events at facilities designed for children with special needs.
- Relevant: Ensures that all children have opportunities to socialize and reduces stigma and ostracization of children with special needs.
- Time-Bound: Launch the first inclusive program/event within 6 months and expand to three programs/events within 12 months.
Action Steps at the School Level:
Adapt Electives
- Specific: Based on community needs, resources, economic and social strengths, and crime rates, customize electives available and students’ schedules to reflect the best school-day flow for their development.
- For example, at-risk students may benefit from starting their day in a physical education class to realign their nervous system and better prepare them for the rest of their school day. Schools in high-crime areas should have electives that support students’ impulse control and defensive skills, such a Tai Chi, Yoga, Karate, and Jiu-jitsu. Communities that have specialized economic outputs should have electives that introduce students to those trades.
- Measurable: Track truancy, class cuts, and graduation rates and aim for a 10% reduction in all three areas over the course of 2 academic years.
- Achievable: Partner with local businesses and recruiters to find, hire, and train people who can lead elective classes.
- Relevant: Red lining has created vastly different environments for children to grow up in. Public schools often pull from zip codes that are reflective of the racial and socioeconomic divisions, hence their curriculum must be adapted to support those students’ healthy development.
- Time-Bound: School leaders will use relevant data to determine electives best fit for their student body within 3 months, use budget, fundraisers, and grants to build appropriate facilities [if applicable], then fill teaching positions over the course of 18 months.
Establish Headquarters for Youth Operations
- Specific: Students who have completed their Formal Operational Stage – typically students in 9th-12th grade – will collaborate with adult staff to piolet community projects, small businesses, and to study fields of interest from a central headquarter that offers a 1:12 adult to student ratio.
- Measurable: Reduce rates of homelessness, food insecurity, theft, domestic violence, violent crimes, and suicide by 15% over the course of 3 years as result of projects and services provided by youth.
- Achievable: Convert local spaces such as high schools to youth headquarters.
- Relevant: Adolescence, a stage of puberty that typically launches at or around the conclusion of the Formal Operational Stage, is marked with a need for independence and purpose. Rather than fighting biology by forcing adolescents to continue compliance-based education, the youth headquarters would create a safe and structured environment for teenagers to apply/develop their academic and social skills to bring their ideas to life and fulfil their Esteem needs while simultaneously increasing availability of resources for community members to attain Physiological and Safety needs.
- Time-Bound: Establish a timeline to identify a space for Youth Headquarters, fit it with necessary equipment, and to screen and higher staff with a wide variety of skills and expertise within 6 months. Update families on execution of goals set in the timeline on a monthly basis.