The Kaleidoscope Project is an intermediary of John Rex Endowment. We work with community agencies to improve places and spaces where children live, play, and grow. We focus on capacity building of partner organizations to concentrate on systemic issues that increase vulnerabilities specifically for black and brown children in Wake County.
We seek to: Create racially equitable environments for children to support their social-emotional health and foster relationship building with adults and other children in those spaces.
We seek to: Mobilize a network of organizations and groups working directly with families most challenged with structural racism to create places that strengthen child mental health.
We seek to: increase positive change in Wake County systems that affect racial equity, young child mental health, and the places children spend time.
Together,
We’re turning the places kids go into places, kids grow.
Our Work
For a number of years, The Kaleidoscope Project has been making a difference in the social emotional well-being of children and families in the places where they spend time. We know, structural racism, barriers are created that prevent black and brown children from living their best lives socially, emotionally, and mentally. Building on previous work, the project will use a lens of racial equity to examine its best practices and interventions.
Action through Partnership
Acting as a facilitator and funder, The Kaleidoscope Project is seeking a Partner Organization to connect us to authentic community expertise and leadership. The Partner would not necessarily implement changes; they would help develop the trust they have built over time, help us connect with the right people, and participate in grassroots committee decision making.
Funded by the John Rex Endowment, The Kaleidoscope Project works in partnership with:
CounterPart Consulting, LLC
Partners for Impact
The Need
We are fortunate to live in a community with extensive resources to nourish, support, and enrich our children’s lives. But thousands of our children still need more help.
Many Wake County kids face tough daily realities like poverty and food insecurity. As they get older, many of our children face serious underlying mental, social or behavioral issues, yet only 1 in 3 receive the mental health services they need in Wake County.
According to a Duke psychiatrist, youth mental health crisis is “the next wave of the pandemic.” The pandemic has magnified how fragile mental health is for many children and adolescents. Read the article by Anne Blythe.
Upcoming events
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Essentials for Collective Impact
Join Next Week's Online Workshop
Navigating the Dangers to Collective Impact
Oct. 13 2023 - 1pm - 4:30pm ET
If you are looking for resources and guidance on how to work through the variety of challenges that can affect collaborative work, we invite you to join us next week for our online workshop, "Navigating the Dangers to Collective Impact," the third workshop in our Essentials for Collective Impact fall workshop series.
About this session: This workshop will go through 10 challenges that often hinder a collective and share some practices and principles to navigate through them and help set (or reset) your initiative on a path forward. From steering away from strategy drift to setting up a culture that encourages accountability, this session will provide candid, practical advice on many of the real-world challenges that pop up (or explode) when doing complex, long-term collaborative work.
Registration Closing This Week: Registration for this session closes Friday, October 6. If interested in this session, please register by then to save your spot.
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Building a Culture of Trust in Collective Impact
Building a Culture of Trust in Collective Impact
Date: Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023
Time: 1pm - 4:30pm ET (US & Canada)
Session Leads: Dominique Samari (P3 Development Group), Paul Schmitz (Collective Impact Forum)
About this Session: The final session in our 2023 Essentials series, this workshop will focus on practices that build and repair trust both interpersonally and among community members and partners.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/essentials-for-collective-impact-2023-workshop-series-registration-680266484367?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%20Building%20a%20Culture%20of%20Trust%20in%20Collective%20Impact%20&utm_campaign=20231003NavigateInvite
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Supportive the Condition to Advance System Change
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023
Time: 1pm - 4:30pm ET (US & Canada)
Session Leads: Jennifer Splansky Juster and Courtney W. Robertson (Collective Impact Forum), John Kania (Collective Change Lab)
About this Session: The first session in our Collaborating for Systems Change series, this workshop will introduce a framework for concretely thinking about different strategies for systems change and support participants in assessing system change opportunities within their own work.
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Who are we
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What we do
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How we do it
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21,552
Children living in poverty
Kids Count Data Center -
13.1%
Children in food insecure households
NC Child -
5,373
Child abuse and neglect reports
Kids Count Data Center -
1,895
Juvenile Justice complaints
NC Dept. of Public Safety -
644
Students Suspended
Wake County Public School System -
6,500
Children who are homeless
Families Together -
4,747
Children who are experiencing homelessness
Wake County Public School System -
70%
Students bullied at Middle School
Wake County Public School System
