Here’s the Secret Ingredient to Sustaining SEL

Key Points

• Through our work at CASEL with our partners, we’ve learned that community is the secret ingredient that sustains this work.
• Community, collaboration, and meaningful connection is a source of strength and collective momentum toward this complex and important work.
• A leader of CASEL’s SEL Fellows Academy shares the community-building strategies used to support collaboration and communication.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) work is often spearheaded by people who work by themselves, in small teams, or in silos. This is challenging work, and it’s common for feelings of isolation or burnout to bubble up. Through our work at CASEL with groups like the Collaborating Districts Initiative and the SEL Fellows Academy, we’ve learned that community is the secret ingredient that sustains this work.

Research confirms that deep learning happens in community. For those immersed in SEL work, learning communities and partnerships provide a level of collaboration that most people don’t get on a daily basis: talking to others who understand their day-to-day and what works, what doesn’t, and why. 

It would be impossible to overstate the impact of having connections that strengthen your resolve and the ability to tap into the knowledge of other leaders. Authentic community is a source of inspiration, motivation, and support that gives people renewed energy for this transformative work, making it possible to sustain through challenges and setbacks.

From the very conception of SEL Fellows, building community and a space that embodies SEL was essential. We created an intentional structure to embed community and relationships into every aspect of our program design. But we’ve also seen community emerge organically, in the way that many Fellows go above and beyond program requirements to continue building relationships with one another. 

Here, I’ll pull back the curtain on some of the strategies we’ve used to intentionally build community among our SEL Fellows, plus a few of the ways Fellows have continued to enrich these relationships.

Community-Building Strategies

From the structure of the Academy to the design of workshop sessions, community is at the forefront of the SEL Fellows Academy. In every session, we create time for personal connection, we laugh, we take meaningful breaks to honor the humanity of each individual, and we strive to meet people where they are. Throughout the program, we foster relationships through intentional matching of journey partners, the formation of smaller peer inquiry circles, and 1:1 CASEL team calls with Fellows.

We’ve often heard from Fellows that this sense of community is one of their most valuable takeaways. One recently said, “If it wasn’t for Fellows and this community, I would have left. This gave me what I needed to stay in this work.”

Journey Partners

At the start of the program, each Fellow is matched with Journey Partners—one or two other Fellows who are similar in meaningful ways, whether in their work, roles, or context. We aim to match people who will have a strong foundation on which to build a deep partnership. 

We provide prompts and topics for Journey Partners to discuss at least monthly, between each formal gathering, as thought partners, collaborators, and co-learners.

Peer Inquiry Circles

Every other month, we come together in small groups (8-12 Fellows) called Peer Inquiry Circles for conversation, thought partnership, and learning. These Peer Inquiry Circles are facilitated by a CASEL team member and hosted on the Circl.es platform. We chose this platform because it includes technical features that promote community and equity of voice, and our hope is to support the same kind of human connection, virtually, that we experience in person.

We anchor the Peer Inquiry Circles in storytelling and genuine sharing of experiences, encouraging as much vulnerability as Fellows are willing. We often hear that this is the most powerful experience within the program.

1:1 Calls 

Before our first full group Fellows gathering and throughout the month of December, the CASEL Fellows team connects individually with each Fellow. These one-on-one calls serve many purposes: 

• Create a sense of feeling known. 
• Provide an opportunity for the SEL Fellow to ask questions and come into the experience more prepared (August calls) and share feedback or challenges (December calls). 
• Provide valuable insight for the CASEL team about the SEL Fellows. We strive to center the individual—meeting people where they are and honoring the humanity of each person necessitates that we truly know what each person is dealing with and where they are at currently.

Beyond the Fellows Academy

Fellows have gone above and beyond to meet up at conferences, host regional meetups, and even drive long distances just to grab coffee together. Some call each other “brother” or “sister.” It’s incredible to see such affinity between people who, in some cases, have never even met in person.

To name just a few examples:

• Two male leaders of color from Cohort 1, matched as Journey Partners, are close collaborators to this day. They’ve found connections around how they use social and emotional skills and focal constructs while centering their identity.

• Three Fellows from the Northeast meet up in-person regularly to connect and collaborate, sharing ongoing challenges in their work, learning from each other’s successes, and gaining a sense of camaraderie that’s missing when working as a department of one.

• A Cohort 2 Fellow connected her mother, a New York State Education Department regent, with another Cohort 2 Fellow leading SEL work in a New York school district. Her mother visited a school in this Fellow’s district to see the power of their SEL work firsthand. The Fellow and her team created a Broadway-themed SEL day, highlighting the strides they have made for creating “wall-to-wall” SEL experiences for all students.

• We host quarterly virtual convenings for alumni that, while optional, are well-attended and bring together SEL leaders from all regions. Alumni input shapes these sessions, which are primarily time for sharing innovative work and conversations around common challenges.

When you feel like you’re “going it alone” with SEL, it can be challenging to sustain progress and your own will to lead the work. Community, collaboration, and meaningful connection is a source of strength and collective momentum toward this complex and important work. How are you cultivating your community of supportive thought partners, both within and outside of your work environment?

Related Posts:

• Community Schools: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
• Expanding the Vision of SEL to Cultivate Beloved Community 
• My Commitment to Building a Connected Community in Middle School

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