Dear Acknowledge Alliance family,
Happy New Year! As we kick off 2025, I am excited to share some of Acknowledge Alliance’s special accomplishments in 2024.
This past September, Acknowledge Alliance celebrated our 30th anniversary of providing vital mental health services and resilience support to local schools and community organizations. Last year, we reached 2,014 youth and educators across 34 schools and organizations. Our youth engaged in 10,965 hours of counseling, leading to decreases in anxiety, improved behavior, and more positive relationships. We also served more educators than ever before - holding 3,350 one-on-one tailored consultations promoting professional resilience. This was a remarkable 300% increase from three years ago! Although the numbers alone are impressive, the countless comments we receive from teachers truly illustrate the magnitude of our impact. As one teacher put it, “[Our resilience consultant] has helped me balance work and personal life. She’s given me helpful tips and strategies on how to set boundaries, work through crises, and manage stress and anxiety. She’s always positive and finds ways to connect and bring our school together even when some days felt hopeless.”
In fall of 2023, we broadened our scope to serving PreK and early childhood professionals who work with younger students. We continued that work this year by partnering with two Mountain View preschool locations, both of which are state-funded and tuition-free for eligible families. There is often very high turnover in early childhood education staffing, with preschool teachers and instructional aids receiving the lowest pay and lowest appreciation in comparison to other educators. Despite these trends, Mountain View preschool staff have long tenures and are an incredibly dedicated and caring group of early childhood educators. Like other PreK teachers, they have faced a recent increase in preschool students with behavioral challenges and other special needs. Student behaviors such as biting and “elopement” (also known as wandering away) impact other classmates, and result in additional stress on classroom teachers. These are just a few of the challenges preschool staff are dealing with on a daily basis. Our resilience counselors have been supporting these amazing preschool educators in areas such as:
Personal coping skills for teachers who are 'sandwich generation' caregivers at home, caring for children and their aging parents
Real-time strategies for managing difficult moments with students, to increase teacher
self-awareness and self-management
Communication frameworks for stressful conversations at work, and understanding impact vs. intent
Witnessing and acknowledging the amazing job each Mountain View preschool teacher is doing in their fast paced, high-need, never-a-dull moment environment
We also continued to explore working with new community partners by participating in the Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley’s Wellness Day 2024. BGCSV offers innovative and effective afterschool and summer enrichment programs primarily for low-income, at-risk Santa Clara County youth ages 5-18+. On Wellness Day, over 230 of BGCSV’s youth development staff gathered to embrace the day’s theme of Holistic Wellness: nurturing the mind, body and spirit. Acknowledge Alliance Program Manager Poonam Raj Singh, Ed.M, PCC gave the keynote address titled “Collective Resilience: How can we be well TOGETHER?” Poonam shared her own wellness journey as a youth development professional, and guided attendees in figuring out what wellness means together by discussing concepts around collective resilience. The group learned how we can draw from our own stories, nature and indigenous wisdom, Black feminist thought, and radical imagination to anchor our definitions of collective resilience. Our Resilience Consultants Cheyenne Berry, Cheree Clark, and Cortney Richardson were also on hand providing wellness check-ins and self-care resources. From having confidential conversations about work-related or personal issues, providing mental health resources, or sharing fun Self-Care Bingo cards, our staff loved meeting members of the BGCSV team.
I am thrilled that we were once again selected by BoardLead, a selective board-matching organization available to successful nonprofits at no cost through a competitive application process. This year’s round was especially competitive with over 20,000 applications; Acknowledge Alliance was 1 of only 400 organizations selected. I am grateful that our partnership with BoardLead has resulted in matching with several of our Board members, including our newest Board member, Neha Narang, a Senior Management Consultant at PwC.
Although 2025 has started with a long list of challenges and disappointments for our communities, I find myself continually inspired by the courage and dedication our students, educators, and staff bring with them each day. As we look to the year ahead, we remain deeply committed to helping to create safe, compassionate and nurturing education settings where everyone feels cared for, competent and resilient. Thank you for joining us in this work, Acknowledge Alliance family.
I wish you and your loved ones health and peace in the new year.
With gratitude,
Sharon Navarro
Executive Director
P.S. Every year I make a promise to myself for the New Year. For 2025, I’m leveling up my social justice advocacy, and will reach out to community partners to maximize advocacy and share resources. What promise or hopes do you have for yourself in 2025? I would love to hear from you, so please let me know!