Voices of Pathways
Voices of Pathways is a five-part documentary film series about colleges in the process of implementing guided pathways. Next Chapter worked with Meridian Hill Pictures to create the film series, and Andrea Sussman was the executive producer.
Filmed at five community colleges in different regions of the country, the series shows transformational change from the perspectives of faculty and staff members undertaking the day-to-day work as well as the students these efforts aim to serve.
By telling the stories of faculty, staff, and students, the Voices films offer a different way to look at pathways — and to introduce conversations about how to engage in this critical work.
The Voices of Pathways films do not aim to show the “right” or “best” way to implement pathways. They show five colleges’ approaches to this complex work. They aim to show what is possible, provide insights, and encourage the courageous conversations that lead to improvement.
DC Public Schools
The DC Public Schools (DCPS) Families and Youth in Transition Program provides free resources and support to students who are displaced from their homes. Eligible students can receive assistance with school enrollment, transportation, school uniforms, school supplies, and more.
Produced with Patchbay Media, this award-winning animated video introduces the program and the dedicated professionals at each of the more than 100 schools in the DCPS system who support eligible families and students. With a conversational voiceover, light music, and vibrant design, we aimed to create an accessible video for an audience that is often skeptical about government assistance. In addition to English, we created versions in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Amharic to reach as many families as possible.
Simplify
Simplify is an initiative that promotes using technology to streamline the grantmaking process. Its first effort focuses on automatically populating standard fields of grant applications. Our work began with branding and messaging for the initiative. We focused on the goal of making things easier for all parties. The tagline and messaging grow from the reason foundations fund nonprofits: to help the nonprofits support those in need. The new system became Simplify, with the tagline Less process. More purpose.The video explains that foundations should support Simplify because it streamlines the grant application process so nonprofits have more time to advance their missions.
Smarter School Spending
The Smarter School Spending initiative provides processes and tools to help school districts use their resources to improve student achievement. This video makes the case for why districts need to implement Smarter School Spending, including lessons learned and results from pilot districts, and provides an introduction to the process.