Plural Connections Group (PCG) is a research lab based at Northeastern University with a mission to use data and design tools to foster pluralism: an inclusive response to diversity in society. Much of PCG’s work explores how school districts might factor in a wide range of community perspectives and considerations in order to increase access to quality and diverse schools. Learn more here: https://www.pluralconnections.org/.

PCG's Role:  PCG’s role will primarily involve analyzing and sharing back community feedback throughout the Fostering Diverse Schools Project. This will include analyzing data from surveys, facilitated community dialogues, and other channels. PCG will then factor in this community input to produce possible changes to boundaries, and iteratively surface these possibilities for further community feedback and refinement. It anticipates that this iterative feedback process will help identify boundaries that reflect the community’s preferences while also advancing the overall aims of the project. Towards the tail-end of the process, PCG will work with community and district stakeholders to produce a final set of recommendations for potential policy changes, to be presented to the School Board. 

Urban Strategies Inc. (USI):  Operating for over 40 years, Urban Strategies, Inc. is a national nonprofit with expertise in designing and delivering innovative place-based human capital and community development strategies in communities that are undergoing housing and neighborhood transformation.  Working at the intersection of housing, community, and economic development, USI champions Equity and Innovation across 45 communities in 28 metropolitan areas, including two territories. For more information: https://urbanstrategiesinc.org/

USI's Role: Serve as Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ (WS/FCS) Stakeholder Engagement partner for the Fostering Diverse Schools (FDS) grant. USI will engage and facilitate thoughtful in-person and virtual sessions with parents/guardians, students and staff using mixed-method engagement strategies. The goal of stakeholder engagement sessions is to ensure that stakeholders’ perspectives are shared, captured and used to inform decision-making relative to residential school zone changes and socioeconomic diversity across the school district.  The project’s goal is to engage 8,000 stakeholders.