This project was a conversation using Design Thinking (DT) to answer the question, "How do we engage and motivate our middle school and high school students as we reopen the schools?" The project is a collaboration between the Social Innovators of the Americas Association (SIAA) in partnership with the Student Global Ambassador Program (SGAP Leaders) .  The project led to instructions and a sample design for teachers in DMV to use for developing courses.

The ASSIST-VA project was a 4-Month series of Social Innovation Collaborative Impact (SICI) workshops to develop a plan, goals, and responsibilities to address the complex systemic social problems of matriculating more African-American youth from secondary school to careers in the STEM. The SIAA's SICI included twelve (12) collaborators to do this goal by designing community-based solutions to systemic social issues that influence AA learners' matriculation into steam. 

This is a 2021 Project where SIAA held several public interviews to characterize the needs and experiences of various stakeholders in the public charter, and private school systems in DC, MD, and VA.  The public interviews include panels on education technologists, school counselors, social workers, and classroom educators.  The videos are on the SIAA YouTube Channel and the page for this project.   

The Social Innovation Facilitator Certification process assesses you against five (5) competencies,  assessments for each competency, and completing a Certification Project with fellow cohort members. The SIAA’s Associates chose the competencies because of their practical experience and the success factors for our Community-Driven Social Innovation (CDSI) approach.