CATALYZE CO:LAB
The Catalyze Co:Lab creates and connects communities of practice—teachers, museums, and cultural institutions—to ignite the development of humanity-centered learning ecosystems with. Our relationship-driven approach drives transformative systems change in education.
The CATALYZE Co:Lab’s PROJECTS:
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Learning Ecosystem Development in Kansas City
Since 2021, with funding from the Hall Family Foundation and the Ewing and Marion Kauffman Foundation, we have collaborated with individuals and institutions in the Greater Kansas City Area to build a community-connected, youth-centered learning ecosystem in the humanities. Through co-design with young people, we support real-world learning via professional development, cross-sector relationship-building, and digital networking.
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Civic Learning Ecosystem Development in Pittsburgh
In partnership with Remake Learning, we co-lead the Civic Learning Ecosystem in Pittsburgh, PA, a working group of educators, organizations, young people, and community partners reimagining K-12 civic learning. We’ve hosted youth co-design sessions for vision-mapping, established a core steering committee to activate civic learning across the region, and held a youth workshop on the future of democracy.
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Youth-Centered Learning at Museums
Since November 2023, we’ve partnered with museums to create youth-centered learning experiences. As co-leads of Educating for American Democracy (EAD)’s Community Partnerships Taskforce and the LEGO Playful Learning Museum Network, we've brought play-based and co-designed solutions to hundreds of museums. In spring 2024, we launched the Museums for Humanity virtual series to help museum professionals amplify their role in supporting youth and democracy.
Youth-centered learning requires relationships and real-world, community-connected experiences that transcend classroom walls. Through our Catalyze Co:Lab, we work to build the relational infrastructure needed to support youth-centered learning ecosystems.
What is A Learning ecosystem?
A learning ecosystem is a networked system that harnesses the community connections and resources that have widely been left out of the traditional public education experience to help young people find, build, and navigate their learning journeys.
Learning ecosystems support more equitable access to learning opportunities while fostering a sense of belonging and exploration in learners.
PARTNER WITH US!
With partners like the LEGO Playful Learning Museum Network, the Ewing and Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Educating for American Democracy (EAD)’s Community Partnerships Taskforce, we’ve used our experience design expertise to host and co-host communal events that support the scope and strength of learning ecosystems. In the spaces, we’ve helped curate, knowledge is built, shared, and amplified in a way that fosters collaboration, deepens connections, and drives meaningful, lasting impact for learners and communities.
HOW THE CATALYZE CO:LAB WORKS:
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We actively engage with others who are just as committed to reimagining and modernizing local, regional, national, and global civic learning systems in the collective exploration and generation of new transformative solutions. Our synergistic partnerships weave tapestries of possibility and purpose, co-creating initiatives and spaces where knowledge, perspectives, and resources are shared to make and steer systemic change.
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We envision dynamic and evolving civic learning ecosystems that have the relational infrastructure to create humanity-centered learning solutions that effectively respond to present-day societal challenges, like polarization, mis/disinformation, and youth disengagement, and future ones. We are continuously learning and adapting in the realization of this, often iterating for impact and adjusting strategies and approaches based on changing needs, conditions and circumstances to make systems change.
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We enlists a humanistic lens in its community-building work, approaching the process of building and nurturing communities with emphasis on empathy, compassion, inclusivity, and respect for diverse needs, perspectives, and experiences.
Alongside partners like Re-Imagining Migration and the Center for Whole Child Education at ASU, we also advocate for humanity-centered education in civic learning ecosystems that prioritize and advance empathy, belonging, and the well-being of young people and their communities.
