At WestEd, we promote a whole-person, whole-systems approach to building resilient and healthy schools and communities across all levels of K–12 education and other child- and youth-serving systems.
What We Do
We help partners create responsive, safe, and equitable learning environments, improve school climate and culture, and lead with trauma-informed, healing-centered, and restorative practices.
When conditions are in place to support equitable learning and development, individuals thrive in important ways—by cultivating a sense of purpose, building healthy relationships, and engaging as active citizens within their communities.
Our team of experts can provide technical assistance and professional learning, surveys and measures, product and resource creation, and research and evaluation supports.
We work with our clients to
- Create the conditions for learning, human development, and well-being so individuals, communities, and systems can thrive.
- Center the experiences of the communities they serve to make data-informed decisions that create meaningful and lasting change.
- Develop the mindsets, relationships, policies, and practices that result in liberated, equitable, and just systems.
Our Approach
Drawing from research-based best practices and an ecological model of development, we organize our services with alignment to three categories of conditions for learning and development.
- Personal: Ensuring health and well-being for individuals in schools and learning communities—for students and the adults who care for them.
- Collective: Supporting safe, responsive, and equitable environments.
- Systemic: Informing how child-serving systems develop processes and policies to serve the whole person and supporting collaboration between those systems and sectors.
When conditions are in place to support equitable learning and development, individuals thrive in important ways—by cultivating a sense of purpose, building healthy relationships, and engaging as active citizens within their communities.
Our collaboration with the Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities at WestEd has allowed us to deepen our understanding of school climate, to have a direct line to experts who can support and push our thinking, to offer a strong connection to research, to connect us with peers who are grappling with the same concepts, and to provide both human and learning resources.
— Melissa Spadin, Director of System Supports, San Diego County Office of Education
More Related to this Focus Area
Featured Services and Projects
Systems Alignment to Serve the Whole Person
California School Climate, Health, and Learning Surveys and Data Workshops
Conditions for Learning and Development: Peer Collaboratives for Educational Leaders
Safe and Supportive Learning Environments
Community Schools Development and Implementation
Insights & Impact
Resources
Browse our high-quality publications and resources designed to inform and engage professionals in a variety of fields including K–12 education, early childhood, and health and justice.
Featured Experts
Rebeca Cerna
Christina Pate
Thomas Hanson
