S.T.E.A.M. Wins with Representation
Legends Academy is a Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEAM) focused charter school located in a legacy African American community in Orlando, Florida. An innovator in serving children from kindergarten through the 8th grade, Legends Academy provides learners with teachers and staff who are innovative and highly skilled.
As an innovative charter school, Legends Academy partnered with POLIS Institute to implement a public awareness and enrollment campaign focusing on African American, Haitian American, and Hispanic and Latino American families. The goal was to achieve 100% enrollment while raising community awareness about the school.
POLIS Institute designed an enrollment and awareness campaign in multiple languages. Next, POLIS collaborated with the Legends team to recruit, hire, and train local residents as Community Engagement Ambassadors.
The Community Engagement Ambassadors successfully engaged over 6,000 households in fourteen historically underinvested neighborhoods. Interested parents were then given step-by-step guidance on completing the enrollment process to secure their children’s place and advance their STEAM education.
What Changed
Legends Academy successfully filled its seats through the collaboration with POLIS Institute. As a result, more children from diverse backgrounds gained access to STEAM-based educational pathways. At the same time, local residents improved their career paths through training and experience as Community Ambassadors, and Legends Academy raised awareness about the school’s services and opportunities.
As POLIS Institute’s CEO put it: “Education plays a major role in driving lasting change, and this campaign allowed us to give local residents in under-resourced communities the awareness, access, and ability to provide high-quality education for their children.”
Solutions Applied
- Community engagement campaign
- Paid community engagement ambassadors
- Grassroots capacity building resources