About Next Steps

Next Steps for Transformation NFP started as a group of Evanston/Skokie District 65 caregivers who came together to address the role caregivers can play in closing the opportunity gap in our racially diverse schools.

We hold the belief that caregivers and staff can impact racialized gaps in opportunity and in discipline as well as promote antiracist environments in the schools. Through a cohort model, our goal is to broaden caregivers’ understanding of racism; how it impacts children in our schools; and how, individually and through our children, caregivers can proactively and reactively contribute to an antiracist school and community.

Our planning for the 21-22 school year builds on two hugely successful series and the first year of a cohort model. In the 18-19 school year, Next Steps offered a series that was grounded in the book Despite the Best Intentions: How racial inequality thrives in good schools, in which the authors facilitated four of the six sessions. During the 2019-2020 school year, we used the book, How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi to guide a year of programming focused on his idea “…there is no such thing as a not-racist idea, only racist ideas and antiracist ideas.” During this year, action groups formed to address racist policies in their schools.

We moved to a cohort model in the 2020-2021 school year, introducing The Next Steps Antiracism Learning Studio. Building upon the last two years of programming, a cohort of participants develop a framework of collective knowledge and strategy to strengthen collective power in order to impact systems change in their spheres of influence through group-identified projects supported by coaching and incorporating the use of affinity and accountability groups.

Who We Are

We are a group of 8 planning committee members. Click our photos to learn more.