Speaker: Deborah Parizek
What about your work with HFLI brings you joy or value personally?
Deborah Parizek: In my work at HFLI In my work at HFLI I am most inspired by the opportunity to engage with amazing educators, young people and youth serving nonprofit leaders from across our city, across our country and in some cases around the world, there are opportunities that they see to take advantage of design, thinking, to take advantage of learning in the community, serving people in their immediate surroundings in their immediate neighborhoods, inspires me to take risks to work harder to lean in resolve challenges, look for funding and really seek to make a positive difference as we work to advance equity and empowerment with our, with our young people.
What is a signature HFLI program or story that you can share in which HFLI’s work makes a difference in our world? Tell us about it.
Deborah Parizek: Currently one of the programs I'm most excited about is H. FLS new allies for radical collaboration. It's our effort to work with Detroit area educators who identify as white and help them think about how does their identity show up in their teaching in their schools and their classrooms? How does it impact the way that they engage with young people and how can they learn with and from the young people and their families in order to better serve them in order to create and facilitate learning experiences that are meaningful, powerful, help them achieve their own ambitious outcomes and really strive to make a positive impact in their world.
Imagine HFLI is on the cover of a major publication 5 years in the future. What would be the headline? What would be the story?
Deborah Parizek: So my headline would be H. Fl eyes educator allies, make a difference in the lives of their students every day. I think the story behind it would be that we have worked with a large number of white identifying educators to really think about their practice, think about how they show up for their students and their families and their communities, in ways that allow them to really serve in a culturally responsive way. They have activated projects that support youth voice. They have leaned into having a connection to the community and which their school exists. They've learned from their students about what means, what matters to them, what they care about how to best reach them as young people, as learners and how they can really see and hear the expertise that a young person and their their family has for what's the best way to learn. What will really help me achieve goals that matter in my life. How can I how can I serve the community that that collection or that cohort of adults is really banded together, bonded together is a support network, hold each other accountable for doing better every day and is recognized broadly as making a positive impact piloted in Detroit extended to other communities across the country. They are now a powerful force for good, inside and outside of schools
