Past Champions

“With a $35,000 grant from the EALA New Champions Fund, Extreme Kids & Crew will continue our partnership with NYC public libraries to develop bilingual programs for neurodiverse girls and teens.  These programs will profoundly impact under-resourced neighborhoods and create brave spaces for girls to be.”

-Lovisa Brown

“This September, Start Lighthouse’s Literacy Hub model will extend its services to District 75, providing specialized literacy support for students with significant challenges such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, cognitive delays, and sensory impairments. The funding will enable us to expand our reach and enhance our programs, ensuring every child can experience the joy of reading. By opening our third Literacy Hub equipped with multicultural books, adaptive learning materials, and technology, we aim to address the critical literacy needs of the Bronx and NYC. Additionally, we will invest in comprehensive training for our educators to deliver inclusive and culturally responsive teaching. Our goal is to close the literacy gap and provide every child with the opportunity to succeed academically and beyond.”

-Rina Madhani, Start Lighthouse

“There are 7.3 million public school children with identified disabilities. More than 52% are BIPOC. By forming a community of critical supporters that values the culture and the voices of these students and their families, we have an opportunity to re-imagine special education advocacy and eliminate educational inequalities experienced by generations of children with disabilities.”

-Erika Watson, Intersection Collective

“We plan to use the EALA New Champions award to purchase career discovery assessments designed by special education teachers that have photos of work skills in action and require little, if any, reading skills. We will pay teachers, who designed the assessments, to train us and purchase their assessments. We will also use funding to pay stipends to black men who are recently or semi-retired to serve as program specialists. Black boys are overrepresented in special education, but rarely interact with black teachers. We want to fill this gap by connecting them with black men who will teach hands-on job skills and serve as mentors.”

-Kim Riley

“With this funding, Expert IEP plans to produce marketing videos in English and Spanish, expanding our reach and promoting our mission to a wider audience. We also aim to onboard 1,300 families from our waiting list by hiring a part-time neurodivergent support technician. By doing so, we can provide personalized support, bridge the achievement gap, and promote equity in education for students with learning differences.”

-Antoinette Banks

“I am so incredibly grateful for this honor and privilege! I plan to use this funding to as partial scholarship funding for 10-15 marginalized families with students with disabilities to receive one year of advocacy, training, and guidance in engaging their children with disability at home through monthly coaching, IEP advocacy and support, developing a Home Engagement Plan (HEP), as well as our family engagement app.”

-Nekia Wright

“We plan to use this funding to support the inaugural Youth Leaders Program this fall. For this particular project, we will recruit youth leaders from the New England Region and New York City, host the Youth Leaders Program, and engage in reflective analysis to develop subsequent youth leaders programs and the LiberatED curriculum. The LiberatED Youth Leaders Program is a 8-month fellowship that provides youth activists an opportunity to partner with LiberatED educators and researchers committed to creating culturally affirming school programming and evaluation.”

-Dena Simmons Ed.D

“With this funding, we plan to leverage current STEM4Real partnerships, particularly focusing on the access of special education students. Through our facilitated Lesson Study Process (LSP), we hope to empower teachers with the tools and resources to meet the needs of diverse learners, especially those with disabilities and who come from underrepresented and under-resourced communities.”

-Dr. Leena Bakshi McLean

“We have one major goal and reason for this funding–Build and execute our expansion plan worthy of our end-users.

I built this organization to serve youth like me. Youth that may have been homeless, grew up in poverty, watched their friends murdered, etc. that were tired of waiting on systems that never served us. We continue to grow this work because our team understands with profound clarity that no one or no entity is coming to save us.”

-Dr. Charles Cole III