Overview
About The Company
Community Change, Inc. (CCI) is a New York-based educational organization committed to supporting the survival and success of youth, adults, and the agencies that serve them. With four subsidiaries (namely, CareerVisions, Ltd., CareerVisions, NY, Professor A.I., and Community Change-Africa), CCI provides real-world, culturally affirming educational services that address academic, personal, and community-based challenges. Since 2009, CCI has impacted over 25,000 students and families, and trained more than 900 educators across nearly 50 agencies. To elaborate, click here!
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many youth, families, and communities—particularly Black, Latino, immigrant, and low-income populations—continue to face systemic barriers to high-quality, culturally affirming, and real-world-connected education.
Schools and agencies often lack the resources, tools, and approaches to fully engage students, support educators, and deliver programs that build both academic and life success.
Community Change, Inc. and its subsidiaries—CareerVisions, Ltd., CareerVisions, NY, and Professor A.I.—exist to close these gaps. Together, we provide dynamic, project-based, and technology-integrated solutions that empower youth, support families, and build the capacity of schools and organizations to create meaningful change in the lives of those they serve.
APPROACH - THE COMMUNITY CHANGE PEDAGOGY
The Community Change Pedagogy is CCI’s educational approach that cultivates autodidactic (self-directed and self-motivated) learners, blending academics, personal interests, and real-world content. The Community Change Pedagogy is designed to develop students’ critical thinking, research, and executive functioning/management skills.
Each lesson follows a six-step format—welcoming, icebreaker, exploration, expression, review, and reflection—moving students through six phases that build toward real-world action. Whether used in classrooms, afterschool programs, or adult learning settings, this pedagogy is designed to empower individuals to survive and succeed. To elaborate, click here!
SERVICES
CCI offers six adaptable services: 1. Youth Programs, 2. Parent/Family/Community Engagement, 3. Staff Development, 4. Curriculum Development, 5. Strategic Planning, and 6. Grant Writing. These services are available individually or bundled. For instance, the Comprehensive Youth Program Services package provides afterschool programming, staff coaching, family workshops, custom curriculum using Teacher PAI, student showcases, and community action projects—delivering holistic support to districts and agencies seeking sustained impact. To elaborate, click here!
PROGRAMS
CCI has three types of programs:
- Program Models (9): These core models explore real-world themes such as career development, civic engagement, cultural heritage, financial literacy, and more.
- Focus Activity Programs (3): These offer enrichment through arts, STEAM, and academic support. Focus Activity Programs are integrated with any of the nine Program Models.
- Focus Group Programs (3): These provide affinity-based support for boys (Brotherhood), girls (Sisterhood), and students in temporary housing or foster care (Pathway to Power). Focus Group Programs are integrated with any of the nine Program Models.
Each program is project-based, age-appropriate, and suitable for use in school-day, afterschool, or summer settings.
To elaborate, click here!
SPECIAL EVENTS
Community Change, Inc. hosts four signature special events throughout the year at our comprehensive youth program sites. These are showcases of learning and community impact by participants. Each event offers a platform for students and families to share what they’ve learned and accomplished in our programs.
- The Bazaar – A marketplace-type event where students display the findings of their explorations and community partnerships.
- The Expo – A creative showcase where students deliver artistic performances about the things they learned in the program.
- The Convention – A youth-led conference for students to present social justice, civic action, or legacy projects and lead peer workshops.
- The Day of Action – A public rally and community service event where students lead a demonstration through their school building and/or community to raise awareness about the prevalence, causes, effects, and interventions of their neighborhood concerns.
PARENT & FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
To strengthen school-family partnerships, CCI offers seven engagement activities, including in-person/virtual workshops, resource sessions, advisory councils, special events, and action projects. These services are designed to build parent knowledge and involvement using the same pedagogy applied with youth. CCI also offers professional development for parent coordinators and AI-powered tools to generate customized family workshops and literacy curricula. To elaborate, click here!
The Community Change Pedagogy is our educational approach that cultivates autodidactic (self-directed and self-motivated) learners by blending academics, personal interests, and real-world content with classroom, school and community learning experiences.
The framework of this approach features three key elements: questions for inquiry; references for research and information; and exercises for creative explorations and expressions. This framework helps to deliver an engaging and effective learning experience. The recommended minimum frequency for implementing this pedagogy is twice weekly over 14 weeks, which is roughly one semester.
Each lesson begins with a welcome and icebreaker to introduce the focus question. The lesson then progresses with exploratory and expression exercises that engage students with various references and encourage them to creatively apply what they have learned. In the exploratory exercise, students use articles, videos, and guest speakers to explore and analyze information related to the focus question. Following this, the expression exercise allows students to creatively share their findings from the references through activities they enjoy. Each lesson concludes with a review and reflection segment, allowing students to summarize their learning experience and to share their feedback.
The Community Change Pedagogy includes nine project-based units or models that organize students’ exploration around specific themes:
- CareerVisions for career exploration.
- Community Change for civic engagement.
- Foodpreneurs for culinary arts.
- Legacy for cultural education.
- The Black Experience for Black Studies.
- The Latino Experience for Latino Studies.
- Mastery for 21st-century skills.
- Money Move$ for financial literacy.
- Peace for conflict management, relationship education, and restorative practices.
Each unit promotes personal growth, career explorations, cultural awareness and social responsibility.
Each unit includes one special event and one action project. Special events are presentations or performances where students creatively showcase the things that they learned to an audience of their peers, family, and community members. During special events, community members are the audience, observing and appreciating the students’ work. In contrast, action projects allow students to address real-world challenges by getting community members directly involved in planning and implementing an intervention to a local issue. This collaborative approach ensures that community members are active participants, working with students to develop and execute an action plan that combats neighborhood concerns.
The Community Change Pedagogy makes education engaging and relevant. It encourages students to take ownership of their learning while developing problem-solving, research, and management skills. The consistent and continuous application of the Community Change Pedagogy with fidelity allows for the cultivation of self-directed, autodidactic learners.
Four Characteristics of the Community Change Pedagogy
1. Integration
- Blends academics, interest-based activities, and real-world content to create meaningful, engaging lessons.
- Lessons explore real-world themes including career readiness, civic engagement, identity, financial literacy, and conflict resolution.
- Exploratory exercises connect ELA, math, science, social studies and other academic subjects with culturally relevant, project-based sequential lessons.
- Expression exercises can incorporate any interest-based activity, including but not limited to such as coding, swimming, fashion, culinary arts, debate, poetry, and dance.
2. Customizable
- Lessons can be modified by educators using the AI-powered Teacher PAI platform.
- Designed to address all age groups, academic subjects, interest areas, and real-world topics.
- Schools, districts, and agencies can choose from 15 program options, including models focused on career readiness, financial literacy, civic engagement, restorative practices, multicultural identity, entrepreneurship, and Black or Latino studies.
- Exploratory exercises use articles, videos, and primary sources to spark critical thinking and connect students to real-world perspectives.
- Expression exercises are tailored to student interests, making every lesson personally relevant.
3. Adaptable
- Effective in K–12 classrooms, afterschool programs, family literacy settings, shelters, and adult education environments.
- Appropriate for diverse populations, including students in temporary housing, foster care, and emergent multilingual learners (EMLLs).
- Works in both in-person and virtual environments across a wide range of program settings.
4. Structured
- Each project follows the six-phase Community Change Pedagogy, guiding students from identity exploration to community action.
- Each lesson includes six sequential components: Welcome, Icebreaker, Exploratory Exercise, Expression Activity, Review, and Reflection.
- Curriculum is aligned with academic standards, social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies, and 21st-century skills.
- Project-based learning that culminates in student-led action projects and special events.
The Models
- K-12 Lessons
- Parent Workshops
- Community Action Projects
- Special Events
- Professional Development
Below are sample age-appropriate lessons/workshops from each of our educational programs that demonstrate the amazing power and creativity of Teacher PAI. Based on the Community Change Pedagogy, each one-hour lesson can cover up to two content areas and include two to three types of activities.
- Elementary School
Civic Engagement
- Elementary School
Culinary Arts
- Middle School
Black Studies
- High School
Relationship Education
- High School
Black Studies
- High School
Latino Studies
- Parents/Adults
Career Explorations
- Parents/Adults
Relationship Education
- Parents/Adults
21st Century Skills
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