Building More Equitable and Healthy Systems for Learners and Their Families

Ever since Imaginable Futures

—and even prior—we’ve been working with our partners to build more equitable and healthy systems so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive and reach their fullest potential.

Setting out with the goal to create more positive and sustainable change, we’ve spent the last year and a half listening to and learning from our partners, communities, learners, teachers, policymakers and more to reevaluate our past work, reimagine our philanthropic efforts and explore new strategies that might create even deeper long-term change. From this, we’ve learned a lot, including the critical need for us to more intentionally anchor our work in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion and to support whole-person approaches—particularly those that are rooted in community and are racially and culturally affirming.

We are excited to share how we are evolving our strategy and going deeper to better address the underlying patterns of inequity that undermine learning.

While our previous work will remain a critical piece of the puzzle, we are broadening our focus from social entrepreneurship and innovation to solutions that take on systemic inequities, are informed by both global and local insights and foster holistic models of learning. Our work will now be more concentrated in three specific geographies: Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa (primarily in Kenya and South Africa) and the US.

Watch Amy Klement talk about our systems approach across Imaginable Futures:

Expanding Opportunities for All Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa, Imaginable Futures is broadening our work from increasing access to quality education through solutions like affordable private schools to supporting holistic education models that provide students with access to, and support in pursuing, diverse learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. By 2035, Africa will have more youth than the rest of the world combined. In order to support a generation of youth facing high unemployment and uncertainty, Imaginable Futures works with partner organizations to nurture initiatives that offer young people flexible learning pathways, democratize access to networks that enable youth to build their social capital and increase access and affordability to quality child care for mothers. Much of this work will have a focus within Kenya and South Africa. Learn more about our work in Africa: https://imaginablefutures.com/focus-regions/sub-saharan-africa/

Watch Teresa Mbagaya talk about how our strategy has shifted in Africa:

Focusing on Equity-Centered Education in Brazil

In Brazil, Imaginable Futures works with partners to bridge social divides, elevate the voices of those marginalized and shift underlying systemic patterns that perpetuate intergenerational inequities. Brazil is one of the most unequal countries in the world, and the impact of COVID-19 has only exacerbated disparities. By expanding our original investments in edtech solutions to investments that focus on holistic models of learning, Imaginable Futures seeks to increase learning outcomes and opportunities for all. Learn more about our work in Brazil: http://imaginablefutures.com/focus-regions/brazil/

Watch Fabio Tran talk about how our strategy has shifted in Brazil:

Creating a Pathway to Generational Equity for Families in the United States through Education

In the United States, Imaginable Futures’ strategy is driven by the knowledge that impactful innovation must be married with a strong and intentional anchoring in racial, gender and economic equity and connected to equitable research, policy and public infrastructure. Our organization will continue to take a two-generation approach in the US, investing in early childhood to ensure that learning and care is accessible to all families and supporting student parents—an often invisible and forgotten population of nearly 20 million postsecondary learners with children of their own—to create additional pathways for economic prosperity and advance racial and economic equity in postsecondary education. Learn more about our work in the US: http://imaginablefutures.com/focus-regions/united-states

Watch Vinice Davis talk about how our strategy has shifted in the US:

As an organization, we are committed to using our resources and privilege to work together in removing systemic barriers and increasing equity, so that everyone has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. We’re excited to continue on our journey of growth with our partners and are looking forward to moving closer to the future that we imagine together.

Read more in our press release.