Empowering Ecosystems: Strategic Doing as a Catalyst for Action-Oriented Collaboration
By Amber Ravenscroft, M.S.Ed. Manager of Innovation, The EdVenture Group, Inc. 304-296-9021 ex. 17 aravenscroft@advgroup.org www.theedventuregroup.org 
November 3, 2021
Calhoun County, WV – On Tuesday, October 26th, a group of stakeholders from across Calhoun County convened at Calhoun Gilmer Career Center to participate in the first Strategic Doing™ session of the Empowerment Districts initiative. Led by The EdVenture Group’s Manager of Innovation, Amber Ravenscroft, this complementary effort supports the development of a robust network of engaged community stakeholders prepared to support educational goals and attainment for Calhoun County students.
Strategic Doing™ is a framework that helps motivate groups beyond planning to action. The process helps teams answer four questions: 1) What could we do? 2) What should we do? 3) What will we do? 4) What’s our 30/30? Centered around a framing question, the process looks at what assets individual members have available to link and leverage and create innovative approaches to problem solving with limited resources, capacity, and time.
The Calhoun County session uplifted the voices of local economic development leaders, leaders in the healthcare and finance industries, philanthropy, educators, and middle school students. The framing question focused on real-world application of learning: “Imagine education collaborating locally to implement community-embedded, student-driven projects. What would that look like?” Engaging conversation and collaboration led to a natural connection to Calhoun County’s Dark Skies initiative, which builds on the county’s rural nature as an asset for astronomy and tourism.
The team focused their “Big Easy”, or the most impactful and easiest to implement idea, on the using the Dark Skies initiative as an economic development catalyst through student-led projects. Students will create and conduct a calendar of Dark Skies related activities and events throughout the academic year, with the goals of 1) increasing student mentorship opportunities with professionals, 2) integrating teacher integration of the Dark Skies initiative into their academic classrooms, and 3) increasing awareness of Calhoun County’s Dark Skies initiative to outside stakeholders.
To begin, middle school students will collaborate with the local community to host a kick-off event for elementary & high school empowerment district schools. Calhoun County’s middle school has been actively engaged in the Empowerment Districts effort as one of the state’s first Empowerment Academies and are a natural starting point for the effort. The kick-off event will engage all grade levels broadly to demonstrate the power and potential of student voice leading educational decisions. The event is tentatively scheduled for April 2022.
With an emphasis on experimentation and rapid pivots, Strategic Doing™ is designed to change and adapt to the needs of the community. To stay up to date on the latest in Calhoun County’s efforts, connect with us on Twitter at @WVEmpower. To learn more about Strategic Doing, contact Amber Ravenscroft at aravenscroft@edvgroup.org.
EAD Protocol 3: Teachers, students, and administrators make decisions collaboratively.
EAD Protocol 5: Teachers and students collaborate with school and community members to implement place-based, student-driven projects.