Hard as it is to believe, many Americans in the early 1900s viewed automobiles suspiciously. After all, those new contraptions were no match for horses.

It can take major disruptions to alter entrenched perspectives, but necessity is a powerful change agent. 

This was the case in San Francisco in 1906 when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake and subsequent fire devastated the city. With horses injured or unwilling to venture down cracked streets lined with burning buildings, the power of automobiles to reach injured people—to help save lives—came into focus. Views changed. 

It's an old story: Innovators and early adopters of change sometimes face ridicule, or worse. Yet, as we know well, history tends to vindicate—even celebrate—the nimble thinkers, risk takers and dreamers.   

Two-plus years into a pandemic, our nation has been jolted by the stark realization the pandemic didn’t cause seismic shifts in our culture and demographics so much as reveal widespread underlying fault lines occurring, albeit less visibly, over a generation or longer. No segment of our society is more sensitive to or reflective of these fast-moving changes than education. 

Just as people must embrace agility and adaptability to succeed in a landscape that seems to shift at whiplash speed, so must the larger systems that support our society. 

That includes K-12 education, which presents a pressing need for an innovative that is model-focused, yet flexible, to effectively and productively manage today’s serious challenges. 

We face a mental health crisis among K-12 students. We face persistent achievement gaps. We face a teacher shortage. (A January 2022 poll by the National Education Association finds 55% of teachers intend to leave the profession earlier than they planned.) 

We face a changing economy that requires young people to graduate with new skill sets and ways of thinking. We face shifting perceptions that sometimes lead to contentious debates over institutional authority versus individual rights in educational settings.

Today, the traditional status quo isn’t working. 

Needed are innovative thinkers willing to take risks and symbolically drive down unhospitable streets to reach struggling students and teachers, families and school leaders.  

One avenue to initiate necessary change is the education foundation model, which connects innovative thought leaders, invested stakeholders and philanthropists, and school districts to support students and teachers—and to test new ideas, innovate education and take risks. 

I see innovation in action through my roles as president and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and as membership chair of the Florida Consortium of Education Foundations. The most effective foundations have the ability to power innovation and address urgent needs so students and teachers can thrive. 

One of our state’s education foundations did trail-blazing work to close the literacy gap between elementary school girls and boys. Abandoning a one-size-fits-all approach, educators adopted different strategies in teaching boys and girls. The successful pilot program now reaches 10 schools. 

In Sarasota County, the Education Foundation, recognizing the urgent need to prepare high school students for college, career and life, in 2018 collaborated to open our first two Student Success Centers. Since then, we’ve opened three more. The yearly increases in visitors at the centers and the level of preparedness with which many underserved students graduate is a testament to our innovative solution to an issue of access and a need to foster relationships that make a difference.   

Education foundations understand the challenges that face local school districts and communities without losing sight of nationwide issues. They can mobilize quickly and test new ideas. Sometimes these tests don’t go as expected, but much innovation has sprung from so-called failed ideas. 

Unfortunately, as demands of some groups and individuals grow louder and more vitriolic, the pressing needs and valid core reasons for change can be drowned out. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to discuss ideas that lead to productive change when invested parties are on either side of a widening chasm and shouting accusations at each other. 

To bring about extensive innovation and change, all participants need a forum where ideas can be presented, challenges and barriers can be identified, and solutions can be devised in a respectful environment. 

I’m not naive enough to believe that any single organization can find the perfect solution to the confrontational atmosphere that has developed in education, but I am convinced we can achieve more productive change if we join in unity to improve the educational model, as opposed to tearing down people who work every day in education. 

In the automobile industry, hybrid and electric vehicles are helping to address fuel and climate crises. Skeptics scoff, just as in 1906 right before the ground began to shake in San Francisco. Yet, new ideas continue to emerge that create solutions and hope. I have faith in the power of education innovators to catalyze change and create solutions that best meet the needs of students and teachers. 

To our neighbors, friends and all community members who believe in the power of innovation and recognize the dynamic effect when innovation and education intersect: We are looking for people who want to make productive change. If that describes you, we invite you to contact us. 

Jennifer Vigne is president and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County. 

Most leaders know of Stephen Covey’s maxim that “change happens at the speed of trust.” The award-winning author wrote the book titled “Speed of Trust” to help transform business teams. Much of that best-selling book positions trust improvements with cost savings. In my experience, however, trust gained in small groups of social networks not only improves savings but also helps develop long-term stability through access to higher incomes and individual agency.

For more than a decade, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County has been building trust among small cohorts of parents to improve the lives of their children and grandchildren. We strive to help children by supporting adults in their lives, enriching our entire community. Through intentional partnerships among local preschools, public schools, nonprofit organizations, parents and state colleges, we are seeing measurable growth in credential attainment, increased wages and household incomes and a reduction in poverty rates. This is the core of our 2Gen approach and the foundation’s impact strategy.  

I recently had the honor to share successes from our community foundation’s focus on parents as students at the statewide Florida College Access Network Summit, an initiative to increase postsecondary completion rates in Florida. Two important partners joined me to share their stories: Mary Tucker, parent education navigator at Alta Vista Elementary School and Rokia Ramos, the parent of Alta Vista students who recently completed her LPN. Their perspective deepened the audiences’ understanding of the unique needs of student parents, a demographic that most post-secondary programs are just beginning to recognize.

We were invited to share these stories because our intentional focus on parents as students has shown concrete results and since 2013: 

• Some 80% of adults we work with completed their college programs

• Of those, 85% received wage increases

• The average annual wage increase has been $7,100

This work didn’t happen through any one individual organization or program. With local 2Gen partners such as the Women’s Resource Center, Horizon’s Unlimited Preschool, Sarasota County Schools, Literacy Council of Sarasota County, UnidosNow and State College of Florida, parents are receiving holistic support that benefits them, their children and, ultimately, our community overall. 

One unmeasurable, but critical component of this success was built from within the group of parents we have gotten to know. Now known as the “Parent Advisory Council,” trusted bonds have been built by this group of mothers sharing challenges of being a parent, achievements of academic success and questions about how to continue moving forward with huge life changes. 

This is vital to enhancing our community; when parents possess the agency and social capital that allow them to move through the world with more confidence, their children reap the reward of access to sustaining success. Through these parents, the work of the Community Foundation is being improved as well; Several parents take part in reviewing grant applications, offering insights about how the work of our nonprofit partners can make a difference in the lives of their families and neighborhoods.

None of this happens without trust. The trust built among parents seeking a better life for themselves and their children, along with the trust built in these different relationships between people and organizations help bring about a better tomorrow.

So, while Stephen Covey is focused on quarterly improvements to profit and loss statements – all very important goals – our speed of trust is taking a longer-view of building trust to change the trajectory of individual lives, families, and our community.

Kirsten Russell is vice president of Community Impact for the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.