Due to the precautions our district took in the prevention of COVID-19, we hosted our first virtual Community Conversations in April with school and district staff and community members from across our network. In one short hour, we covered a lot of information and recentered ourselves in our mission to support the children and families in the northeast Austin community. Through this virtual meeting, we engaged our network to identify needs (e.g. technology, online learning, food access, parent/caretaker communication) and innovative ways to meet them as a network. We have now hosted 4 community conversations and they have continued to address timely school and community needs.

We curated a collection of information most helpful to our community during the initial phases of the pandemic. The Resource Board helped facilitate conversations with families and students. Since then, we've transitioned to listing these resources directly on our website. Our partners keep the information relevant and up-to-date.

Although we had to get creative with how we acknowledged our students' successes this year, we were excited to see how our NACER schools celebrated graduations and promotions!

On August 25, 2020, nearly 600 educators and district and community leaders in the Northeast Austin Vertical Team participated in an Equity Summit to reflect on why we believe in an equity approach in our schools and introduce a Community-Building restorative circle process learned from Dr. Lang.

We've worked hard to provide resources, access, or assistance to our families and students. Our partners have been present every step of the way assisting with technical assistance, food distribution, virtual learning kits and so many critical resources that are needed now. The hard work that we've done as a network prepared us to respond quickly to our community needs when the pandemic began and throughout.

We would not be making as much of an impact without the assistance, positivity, and perseverance of our partners who commit many hours every month to support our mission. Thank you!