Evolve Initiative: A partnership between College Spark Washington and SBCTC

College Spark Washington supports the postsecondary dreams of students and their communities through grantmaking focused on dismantling racism in the education system. They envision an education system that encourages learners to be their authentic selves and is eager and equipped to guide them towards realizing their dreams.

There has been overwhelming feedback from listening to system partners that supporting leaders of color (students, faculty, and staff) and the systems they are a part of is the most frequent topic encountered by College Spark Washington (CSW) in their 18-month conversations in and around the CTC system.

Additionally, this partnership finds alignment among the CSW mission, SBCTC vision and many community and technical colleges (CTCs) as we embody and realize the shared vision of leading with racial equity. 

As we listen and couple leadership development strategies and supports and answerability for institutional change while building the EDI competency of CTC leaders and our system, we are strengthening the capacity of our CTC system to recruit, grow, and sustain leaders of color and move the CTC system toward their stated racial equity goals.

Build the capacity of CTC leaders to advance equity-focused system and institutional change and support and sustain leaders of color at the student, staff, faculty, and administration levels.

• Responsive to BIPOC voices (realities, challenges, needs) as they lead throughout the system and improve the institutional culture in which they are trying to lead;
• Engaging leadership from multiple levels, positions, and people, to align efforts to becoming anti-racist leaders and institutions;
• Support and answerability to help make equity-focused mission statements and DEI plans actionable and measurable;
  Advance BIPOC student retention and completion rates by centering on students priorities, passions, needs, and sense of belonging; and
• Move toward positive culture change that reduces BIPOC leadership burnout and churn, with respect for human dignity.

This work is not done in isolation but lives within a growing ecosystem of leadership development efforts, formal and informal, that advances the work of leading with racial equity and becoming anti-racist institutions of higher education. The hope is that this Initiative can be the connective tissue among these efforts.

Some existing leadership efforts include:

• Social Justice Leadership Initiative
• Faculty of Color Mentoring
• Faculty and Staff of Color Conference
• Students of Color Conference
• Initiative in Diversity, Equity, Antiracism & Leadership (IDEAL) fellowship program
• Administrators of Color Leadership Program
• Diversity and Equity Officers Commission
• Multicultural Student Services Directors Council
• Washington Equity in Leadership Systems (WELS)-launching Fall 2024
• Legislatively supported, equity focused systems change efforts at the college and SBCTC levels such as Guided Pathways and various laws that advance equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts in our CTC.

• Listening: connecting with commissions/councils, equity-focused groups, and individuals engaged in aligned work to gather feedback and ideas, and learn about opportunities to support related efforts;
• Data gathering: a third-party researcher will review data and gather perspectives on the ‘State of BIPOC Leadership’ in Washington’s CTC system;
• Forming an advisory group to contribute to and be a sounding board for initiative planning; and
• Finalizing initiative details based on feedback gathered during the planning year.

Building Colleges’ EDI Leadership Capacity
A central focus will be to provide resources, training, and support to a cohort of colleges working to build the EDI capacity of college leaders, formal and informal, engage in equity-focused institutional change, and better support and sustain their leaders of color.

Growing Student Leadership 
Expanding and sustaining strategies that support the growth and voice of BIPOC student leaders.

Supporting Aligned Strategies
Additional strategies may be identified during the 12-month planning period as we learn about opportunities to support existing and in-development equity-focused leadership development strategies throughout the CTC system.

• Cultivate a culture of inquiry that prioritizes space to examine decisions and practices, unlearn anti-blackness and anti-indigeneity, and adopt new ways of knowing, being, and doing.
• Build understanding among CTC leaders in what it looks, sounds, and feels like to lead with racial equity.
• Develop opportunities for individuals within the CTC system to understand how their individual role or position intersects with a CTC system that is in a state of change, and to examine and adjust practices so that actions align with beliefs in ways that advance equity, justice, and love.
• Hold space for healing and liberatory thinking for BIPOC members of the CTC community who are experiencing the tension of working to change systems that continue to cause harm.
• Improve conditions in colleges so leaders of color can thrive and do what they are hired to do.