The University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) has received a $1.7 million award from Porticus to support the implementation of a safe and inclusive schools initiative in Haiti, aiming to transform Catholic school communities to support Whole Child Development and improve Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills through providing a safe and positive environment for learners to thrive.

The new initiative, titled Tout Moun Ladan I (Everyone is in it) (TML), will serve as an expansion of Strong Beginnings, a four-year program by GC-DWC Haiti that has worked to ensure that children grow up in safe, stimulating home environments and receive a strong foundation in language development, early literacy, and math before they enter formal school. Culminating this month, Strong Beginnings has integrated early childhood development intervention packages developed by the GC-DWC into Haitian communities through its most central networks—the home, school, and church.

"Education has the potential to be a catalyst for change in Haiti,” shared Kate Schuenke-Lucien, GC-DWC director for Haiti and senior associate director for strategic planning. “Together with our partners, the Center has developed a multidimensional approach to education; and, amidst Haiti's resource scarcity and instability, creating safe, inclusive learning environments is absolutely crucial.”

The GC-DWC’s approach to implementation science allows for rapid, iterative improvements, where research shapes program design, and program implementation determines the next phases of research. Rapid Evaluation Assessment and Learning Methodologies (REALM) will be embedded within the overall TML program—which involves short-term quantitative or qualitative methods of data collection—and virtual learning workshops will be conducted, allowing for analysis of and response to what is working well, and what needs to be improved in the programming. Additionally, to complement added qualitative focus groups and interviews, the team will conduct surveys with school directors to understand their perception about school culture change as the leaders of their respective schools. This allows the team to test out program components to see what is working; then, they invest in what works, and gradually develop its depth and scale.

TML will be piloted in 20 schools in the 2024-2025 academic year, and then scaled to all 85 catholic schools in the 2025-2026 academic year to ultimately impact 23,966 students, 800 teachers, 85 school directors, 75 parish priests, and 10 Diocesan Bureaus of Education (BDE) staff. The new SEL classroom and school routines build on existing activities from Strong Beginnings, and will include comprehensive training materials for teachers and school directors. Teachers will receive training and guidance for implementing activities, while school directors will get training on leadership and integrating SEL into the school culture; additionally, personal transformation exercises for educators will focus on self-awareness and its connection to their teaching roles.

The cooperative agreement, Renmen pwochen w menm jan w renmen pwòp tèt ou (love others as you love yourself), will be applied at the diocesan level based on the program knowledge and experience gained through the GC-DWC’s Project Sampoorna in Telangana, India, and its safe and inclusive schools intervention. TML will engage leadership at the national level to support the entire diocese of Cap-Haïtien in a “whole diocesan approach”, which shares the same message, tools, and goals for the Catholic school system at all levels.

“The Catholic Church is Haiti's largest education provider and offers the greatest potential for systemic, sustainable educational improvements,” Neil Boothby, professor and director of the GC-DWC explained. “Our collaboration with the National Office for Catholic Education and local Diocesan Bureaus of Education in Haiti proves to be a strategic partnership for long-term development; this approach provides an economy of scale, and delivers clear and consistent messages about what it means to be a safe and inclusive school, shared at every level of the system for maximum impact throughout the diocese.”

To learn more about the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child’s work in Haiti, please visit: https://iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc-haiti