AURORA | Several Aurora nonprofit groups have been included in a series of grants the Rose Foundation announced earlier this school year focused on social-emotional learning.
The foundation is distributing $1.37 million in grants to 33 community organizations across the Denver metro area working to advance social-emotional learning in schools.
Both APS and the Cherry Creek School District have devoted portions of their federal pandemic relief funding toward social-emotional programs, which administrators say help students build up social skills that may have atrophied or failed to develop during remote learning, when students weren’t interacting in large groups.
Both districts joined schools across the country in reporting an uptick in behavioral issues among students last school year, though by the spring APS officials said the problem had begun to stabilize.
The district has integrated into classrooms a number of programs focused on social-emotional learning, including starting a partnership with Playworks last year, a nonprofit group that partners with school districts to help get students more physically active during recess.
While playing games, the students also learn skills such as teamwork and conflict management.
During a school visit, Playworks Colorado executive director Andrea Woolley told The Sentinel that during the pandemic “kids have kind of forgotten how to play together, especially in large groups.”
Rose grantees include Aurora-based Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism, the ROCK Center, Vega Collegiate Academy and the Aurora Public Schools Foundation.
According to the educational nonprofit group CASEL, social-emotional learning is defined as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”
School districts across the country, including in Aurora, have increased their focus on social-emotional learning skills in the wake of the pandemic, which led to an increase in behavioral issues and mental health concerns among young people
Christiano Sosa, the foundation’s vice president of community impact, said that Rose chose to focus on social-emotional learning after doing an analysis of what people in the education field thought they should be focused on as part of ongoing pandemic recovery.
“It was clear that (social-emotional learning) was really top of mind as a precondition for learner advancement,” he said.
Sosa said that in deciding what organizations to award grants to, applicants that had a direct connection to people most affected by the issues rose to the top. Equity is also a core focus of Rose, and Sosa said about a third of the grantees are helmed by people of color.
In Aurora, both The ROCK Center and Vega Collegiate Academy received grants from Rose for the first time.
The ROCK Center is a community organization based in the Del Mark Park neighborhood of Aurora that provides arts programming to young people and their families. Vega Collegiate Academy is a charter school in north Aurora that serves a high percentage of low-income students. The grant will go specifically towards the school’s multidisciplinary social wellness team.
Rose has worked with YAASPA and the APS Foundation before, and Sosa spoke highly of both. YAASPA is a youth-focused organization that helps young people of color in Denver and Aurora become politically active in their communities
Sosa said he has “deep and profound respect” for the organization, and praised the intergenerational work it does.
The APS Foundation supports Aurora Public Schools in a number of ways, and the grant will go towards supporting behavioral health programs in schools.
“This was an easy acceptance for us,” Sosa said of supporting the APS Foundation.
Across organizations, Sosa said Rose heard from many people about the need for increased mental health support for youth as well as workforce shortages in the education field. The foundation hopes the grants will help the organizations to leverage their resources.
“Anything we can do to build capacity, we’re all in,” he said.