WE’D LOVE TO PARTNER WITH YOU!
Our partners are committed to deeply evaluating their own systemic, policies, and practices, to determine which conditions hinder and advance equity. Our customized services equips you with processes and tools for examining your status quo, leveraging existing and developing new resources, and refining and redesigning those aspects of your system that need improvement. As “critical friends,” we partner to support personal and professional growth, honor identities and expertise, and seek solutions that benefit all.
Our Services
Review of organizational policies, curriculum, and procedures, along with actionable recommendations for innovation and improvement
Data collection and analysis of organizational constituents’ experiences of inclusion and belonging, including survey instrumentation and implementation, and focus group facilitation
Equity-oriented strategic planning and executive leadership coaching
Development and facilitation of customized virtual and face-to-face equity-focused professional learning
Featured Projects
The Council for Economic Education ensures that children of all backgrounds have equitable access to the economic and financial education they need to succeed in life. The Great Lakes Equity Center reviewed the Council's national economic education standards, and suggested research-based revisions to ensure that standards comprehensively considered social, environmental, and cultural factors relevant to financial education and underlying financial and economic inequities, more broadly. This revised set of standards will inform the Council's national approach to financial and economic education into future.
The American Financial Services Association is the national trade association for the consumer credit industry. The Great Lakes Equity Center conducted a review of their personal finance curriculum, which, since its inception in 2002, has been utilized at no-cost by over 1.3 million teachers and students. The Center's review and suggested revisions focused on ways in which diversity, equity, and inclusion were addressed in the curriculum, and on the accuracy of personal finance content.
Participant defines themselves as a leading global media company dedicated to content that unites art and activism to create positive change, and whose films have secured 86 Academy Award® nominations. In Participant's multipart unscripted documentary series, "America to Me," Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself) and his team followed a diverse selection of the school’s 3,400 students, wrestling with crucial issues, including the effects of race and privilege on education as seen through the eyes of young Americans on the precipice of adulthood. The Great Lakes Equity Center provided guidance to Participant in the development and revision of "Real Talk" guides that are to accompany the film for classroom use by educators and students, and on the development of a pilot assessment to ascertain student learning related to their engagement with the film.
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community
The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community (IIDC) is Indiana’s University Center for Excellence in Disabilities and has fostered a foundation of excellence for community investment in developmental disabilities since 1970. Their mission is to work with communities to welcome, value, and support the meaningful participation of people of all ages and abilities through research, education, and service. The Great Lakes Equity Center reviewed and recommended revisions to a series of courses designed by the IIDC for Indiana vocational rehabilitation.
Starbucks and Arizona State University provide free educational experiences for all through Starbucks Global Academy (SGA). The Great Lakes Equity Center collaborated with scholars and activists in disability studies, special education, and disability justice to develop the SGA course, “Welcoming Dialogue on Disability Bias.” The course considers how ableism affects society and centers personal experiences of people with disabilities/disabled people.
The Henry Ford’s Invention Convention Worldwide is an invention education program where K-12 learners invent their own futures. Invited by The Henry Ford and funded in part by the Lemelson Foundation, the Great Lakes Equity Center assessed student and other constituent perceptions of the ICW’s commitments and experiences related to its stated values of equity, justice, inclusion, and diversity.