Assessing our impact for the 2021-22 school year

The 2021-22 school year required a level of grit and tenacity that we don’t think any of us expected. As we forged into the program season we were hit with unexpected challenges that only the Omicron variant could have brought. Our teachers were exhausted and navigating impossible circumstances, our volunteers were working more hours than ever before due to demands and virtual/hybrid work environments, and our students were challenged with all that returning to the in-person classroom presented to them.

And still - we did it. All of us together. We moved through the messiness of the world, we showed up, and we made a difference.

Last year, In4All partnered to bring 23 elementary STEM connect programs, five middle school design thinking programs, and our first high school pilot program to schools in eight districts in Oregon. The addition of the high school pilot in Beaverton was a first step to fully realizing our unique engagement model that seeks to engage our students multiple times over their K-12 continuum. Overall, we reached over 2,700 students because 127 classroom teachers invited In4All and our 218 volunteers into their classrooms!

The In4All team had a busy year navigating the challenges and growing as a team, but we were really pleased with the impact we made in the community. Here are just a few areas where we focused last year:

Investing in the metro area

The ongoing pandemic and lack of corporate volunteer capacity hit our non-metro programs especially hard. This year, In4All refocused our energy in our core locations throughout the metro region and hope to someday rebuild our Salem and Bend impact communities as volunteer capacity within those regions reinvigorates and In4All staff capacity grows.

Growing in existing communities

We added three new business partners and expanded into two elementary schools, two middle schools, and our first high school pilot. Additionally, we have expanded the number of students who participated in program feedback from 30 to 250!

Building our internal capacity

Similar to many nonprofits, schools, and businesses, In4All experienced a year of staff transitions and now, in addition to our two amazing program managers, we’ve added a new position of Impact Coordinator to tell our story, and brought on an amazing Operations Manager.

Iterating our programs for the coming year

We wouldn’t be In4All if we were not iterating our programs. This coming year our STEM Connect program will see less plastic by keeping individual activities contained in classroom kits, volunteer activity guides with timing suggestions, and presentations that focus on more doing and more local connections in our curriculum and activities. Our design thinking program will include updates to focus on more doing and introducing problem spaces to help support students. In high school, we will continue to listen and reconsider what’s meaningful for our students.

We went into this program year hoping it would be easier and found - like everyone - that the challenges and uncertainty continued. What we know for sure is students, teachers, and volunteers overwhelmingly told us that getting back to in person classroom visits was appreciated and meant a lot to everyone. Students remarked the best thing about the experience was, “Being able to solve a problem we cared about”. Our volunteers were blown away by student engagement and shared, “They are so creative! They had 19 plus ideas for how to build a ramp. The ingenuity was amazing.” While our teachers were loving the career-connected learning aspects and said, “The real life expertise brought by the volunteers was wonderful.”

As we leap into the 2022-23 school year, we are excited at the potential represented in each of our business and school partnerships. Here’s to growing and deepening our impact as we mobilize community to realize a future of limitless possibilities for In4All students!

In solidarity,

Elaine Charpentier Philippi, Executive Director and
Kristin Payne, Impact Director

(PS: To learn more about our impact in the 2021-22 school year, visit our impact page)