Hero School

I am the Executive Director and founder of Long Way Home. For the last 16 years my primary residence has been the small, rural town of San Juan Comalapa in Guatemala’s western highlands. In Comalapa I served first as a Peace Corps volunteer and then founded a U.S. registered 501c3 nonprofit, Long Way Home (LWH) in 2005. I have worked tirelessly since LWH’s founding to collaborate with the local and international community to create pathways to justice and equity for a majority indigenous Maya Kaqchikel community marginalized by a history of colonization and civil war, unemployment and low wages, and the building environmental crisis. Key to this pursuit is LWH’s flagship school, Centro Educativo Tecnico Chixot (CETC). I led the construction of CETC, assemblage of local teaching staff, and later the development of an innovative project-based learning curriculum and whole school sustainability model, Hero School.

I am focused on mobilizing people to actively participate in democracy and create innovative pathways to economic and environmental justice. Marginalized communities reacting to an overwhelming lack of resources will rightfully focus on survival, rather than on cultivating the involvement, mobilization, and direct action required to develop a democratic framework for enduring welfare.

In order to build a democratic society, barriers to civic engagement must be removed - poverty, disease, environmental devastation, and warfare. Hero School provides education that fosters understanding and empowerment for youth and communities to deconstruct those barriers. It seeks to cultivate heroes with purpose, acting in intergenerational and intercultural solidarity, and implementing compassionate solutions to real local and global challenges. Such heroes can elevate equitable democratic systems for humanity. 

I propose that MIT Solve and the Elevate Prize support Hero School in refining its model locally and extending it for adaptation in communities around the world.

I firmly believe what the Elevate Prize suggests - we must elevate humanity, inspire movements towards actual equity, mobilize people to generate change locally, and catalyze positive, transformational change.

Building actually democratic systems is my problem focus. This problem is complexly rooted in economy, environment, and society. It is global. Yet, Guatemala presents a critical case study. Spanish colonizers enslaved indigenous peoples and forcibly removed them out of fertile areas and into physically unstable lands with low quality soil. After achieving national independence, realities of indigenous Guatemalans largely remained the same, only now oppression meant lack of access to livable wages and dignified working conditions. A 36-year civil war still failed to provide equality for indigenous peoples, ending in 1996 with over 200,000 (majority indigenous) murdered. In 2013, more of the same, 2% of the population owned 75% of the nation's productive farmland. This 2% grows cash crops for export rather than nutritious crops for local consumption, thereby requiring food crops to be imported and driving the price up for low-income families already struggling with the cost of education, housing, energy, water and natural disaster response. Hero School elevates local heroes to solve this reality of non-representation and oppression.

Recommendations to drastically improve living conditions in Comalapa and its surrounding villages include: 

• Build ventilated stoves to reduce respiratory illness; Implement waste management systems to reduce gastrointestinal illness; Improve access to potable water; Build retaining walls to prevent property destruction from landslides; Replace adobe walls with earthquake resistant construction; Increase participation in secondary education; Improve employment opportunities; support environmental health when addressing all of the above.

In responding, CETC developed the project-based Hero School curriculum for grades 7-11. In 2017, students and teachers built stoves, latrines, and water tanks in Comalapa and presented these projects to a neighboring community. With the permission of the community, CETC students conducted a survey in Social Studies class to evaluate living conditions from home to home. In math class, they then designed their assigned project - stove, water tank, latrine, or retaining wall. At the end of the school year, the students went to the community to construct their project for a family identified in the survey. Now into 2020, students work with teachers, builders, and volunteers to actualize their projects. Students graduate with tangible work experience relevant to community-driven development. The education process integrates project-based learning, democratic education principles, and green building methodology.

Broadly, LWH serves Comalapa, a town of 42,000, 97% of whom are Maya Kaqchikel. Over half of Comalapans live in or on the borderline of extreme poverty. 

Hero School specifically serves: grades K-11 students; teachers and directors who guide learning; builders who work with teachers and students to implement student projects; community members who receive critical infrastructure items from student projects; international volunteers who contribute muscles to the projects.

Hero School emerged from collaboration. From 2004-2009, Comalapans, myself, and LWH’s Construction Manager identified community needs - quality employment and education opportunities, methods to address non-existent waste-management, and processes to cultivate local leaders of community development. From this identification, in 2009, international volunteers brought muscles and money to support the construction of CETC’s green campus. In 2015, CETC teachers, myself, and pedagogy experts began to write the Hero School curriculum.

In 2019, 77 K-6 students, 51 grade 7-11 students, 27 Teachers/Directors, and 9 full-time builders directly benefited from CETC employment and education. 400 community members have been impacted through CETC’s curriculum. Since CETC construction began, our volunteer program has benefited ~1,000 international volunteers who have learned to revalue waste as a resource and participate in equitable intercultural collaboration.

Hero School presents an opportunity for a traditionally excluded community to train and elevate local heroes. Through project-based learning focused on meaningful outcomes for community members, students identify local challenges and have the space to assemble themselves, knowledge and materials to solve these challenges. Hero School beneficiaries’ behaviours and belief in their capacity to create change are shifted from rightfully felt pessimism to achievable optimism. Ethical involvement of external volunteers helps to deconstruct narratives of dominance in intercultural exchange/collaboration.

Collective democratic participation for sustainable community development...what an opportunity, yet challenge this in our current world. 

From 2002-2004, I was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Comalapa. I returned to Comalapa in 2005 after being offered by the town to build the first town park. From 2005 to 2008 while building relationships in the community during park construction, I also built the LWH organization. 

While recreation is important, a park did not provide a meaningful pathway to solve community development challenges. So, pairing the challenge of waste with the need for a vocational school, myself, Comalapans and international volunteers turned 450 tons of waste into a school that opened in 2012. However, the state curriculum of rote-memorization did not equip Comalapans to address the challenges - food, water, shelter, education, employment, and democracy - that economically and socially exclude them. Therefore, Hero School emerged. In 2015, I earned my Masters in Education. My thesis was the justification for and structure of Hero School. In 2015, I worked with the teachers to weave this into a state approved grade 7-11 curriculum that is now complete in 2020. Next, refine the 7-11 curriculum and expand it to K-6. Next, partner with others to adapt Hero School in other contexts.

In the Peace Corps I witnessed several instances of irreconcilable tragedy. From the tragic consequences of child sex trafficking interesecting with poverty, to a town trying to heal from genocide, to the daily realities of children needing to miss school to support the family. 

If coincidence of birthplace allows me to live a healthy and stable life in the U.S., why is that not the case for so many in Guatemala? If my country has been documented to have fundamentally halted opportunity for Guatemala to redress the oppression perpetrated against the indigenous, can I present myself as a different kind of U.S. citizen? If there have been two warnings to humanity issued on the critical threat of the environmental crisis and it is broadly understood that the effects of this crisis will hit low-income populations first and worst, what right do I have to sit in a bubble of comfort? Now is the time to elevate new, non-traditional, real heroes to begin tangibly solving local and global challenges. My passion is rooted in knowing that there are answers to the questions I present that uplift all and I must act in order to help actualize those answers.

Prior to the Peace Corps, I was a 911 paramedic.  My job was to rescue people. In that context, one had to have the demeanor and skills to see a crisis and act. 

Additionally, I have spent 16 years living in Comalapa. Not in lavish luxury, but in solidarity with Comalapans - living a rural and resource-strapped life. I am well positioned to understand the problems in the community and foster the collaboration needed to generate and deliver solutions. Again, my training as a paramedic has given me the advantage to remain calm in the face of tragedy, assess the problem at hand, and work effectively to address it. The Peace Corps trained me in Spanish, Guatemalan history, and project-related strategies. 

As a former paramedic, with Peace Corps training, 15 years of experiential training in how to establish and run a collaborative grassroots nonprofit, and a Masters in Education I have a holistic toolbox and team to complete the Hero School model and guide its adaptation by other organizations around the world.

Broadly, I am resolved to lead a life that furthers equitable and sustainable development in  Comalapa and around the world, during times of hope and even more, during the times when the work is hard and seemingly impossible. I humbly ask that MIT Solve elevate my work and further expand mine and LWH’s toolbox to grow and extend the Hero School model.

My resolve throughout LWH’s history was not always easy to enact. Most people do not remain living and working in a small, rural and poor community, because obstacles abound. Roads are terrible, healthcare access is superbly insufficient, and poverty creates desperation, which creates dangerous situations. Yet, the biggest challenge I faced and overcame was gaining trust. 

Rightful skepticism exists of foreigners who present grand ideas for change to low-income, rural communities. To overcome this skepticism, myself and my co-founder put in 14 hour days for three years while building the park. This was paired with living with no electricity, water, or internet. How did I fundraise for LWH? Handwritten letters to donors. How did I cut costs? Hitchhiking from Guatemala to the U.S. three times to bring back my stories and earn funds to continue work. When LWH faced an illegal tribunal over the leadership of CETC, 500 parents and community members wrote a letter of support for LWH and testified at the tribunal to discredit the illegal claims against our work. Solidarity, demonstration of equity in work, and commitment to the cause has created a resilient relationship of trust between myself, LWH, and the Comalapan community.

In 2016, the LWH nonprofit administration team went through a necessary transition from an informal organizational structure rooted in grassroots, relational development to a formal, clearly assigned organizational structure. As the old nonprofit administration team moved onto other journeys, I needed to rebuild the team. I also identified an opportunity for the organization to grow as a result of this transition of personnel. So, with LWH’s longest standing board member, we formally identified roles and sought out professionals to fill them. Since this formalization, LWH still has its founding relational base of supporters, but the nonprofit administration team has been able to promote the LWH story to a broader network and position us as a leader in progressive education, green building for social impact, and intercultural collaboration/exchange.  

I also earned my graduate degree in order to curate the information and gain the training needed to lead the Hero School curriculum development. My resolve and focus on equity is manifested by never asking another to do what I am not willing to do myself.

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In Comalapa, trash is dumped in the local ravine and waste run-off leaches into the water table creating a public health crisis. To address this challenge, CETC repurposes waste into construction. CETC has repurposed 450 tons of trash into an earthquake resistant campus and has integrated green construction into the Hero School curriculum student projects. Stoves use old tires as their base; latrines use eco-bricks (plastic bottles compacted with non-biodegradable waste) and glass bottles in the walls; retaining walls are made from used tires compacted with dirt and non-biodegradable waste. In their curriculum, students learn how to design, plan, and execute large projects and how to participate in the democratic process of allocating resources to address local challenges.

The responsibility of designing and constructing their grade level project is distributed across all nationally required courses from arts and sciences to budgeting and indigenous language classes. Teachers guide the classroom activities and builders guide the on-site construction. International volunteers assist in project builds, bringing equitable international exchange into the student experience and positioning the Comalapan students as leaders amongst their international peers. Students also serve as household sustainability leaders as they integrate efficient waste management practices at home and bring waste to CETC for use in construction.

“Before considering how to educate, it is well to be clear as to the sort of result which we wish to achieve.”

- Bertrand Russell 

Hero School is built on two assumptions: democracy and self-determination are inexorably linked, and education can be a vehicle of empowerment in the pursuit of freedom for individuals and communities. In these assumptions, Hero School supports the creation of a democratic society, through an educational process where teaching and learning is participatory, empowering, and emancipatory. Principles of democratic education and participatory action research manifest this effort.

Regarding democratic education, provided by Fundacion Paraguay, these principles are woven into daily activities of the the Hero School curriculum:

• Learning the application of technical skills and their scientific theories.

• Developing problem solving skills in their economic, political, and cultural context.

• Implicit and explicit communication: Intrapersonal skills and the ability to identify an orator’s social background.

• Analyzing a problem and resolving conflicts in various situations.

• Respect indigenous culture and re-establish traditional rural technology.

• Learning to work as a team and to cooperate with the local community in order to endure through situations and adapt to new environments.

• Performing tasks with social responsibility.

• Learning how to implement, participate and sustain a project.

Regarding participatory action research, these principles, provided by the Community Forestry & Environmental Research Partnerships at UC Berkeley, are the foundation of the Hero School curriculum:

1. Recognize community as a unit of identity;
2. Build on strengths and resources within the community;
3. Facilitate collaborative partnerships in all phases of the research;
4. Integrate knowledge and action for mutual benefit of all partners; 
5. Promote a co-learning and empowering process that attends to social inequalities;
6. Involve a cyclical and iterative process; 
7. Disseminate findings and knowledge gained to all partners;

The expectation for impact from these assumptions, process and principles is communities equipped to respond to a global crisis with thoughtful and data-driven humanitarianism; facilitated through creative problem-posing strategies, imaginative experimentation, and courageous exploration.

2020 =

CETC Students: 121;   CETC Teachers/Staff: 28;   LWH Builders: 9;   Xiquin Community Members: 12 (if students are able to get out to the communities in 2020, after COVID restrictions are loosened);   CETC Family Members: ~400;    International Volunteers: 100 (served 85 by March 15 and then closed down all experience programs due to COVID. If we reopen the volunteer program in 2020, we do not expect heavy traffic due to infection concerns)

2021 = 

CETC Students: 121;   CETC Teachers/Staff: 28;   LWH Builders: 9;   Xiquin Community Members: ~35 (student projects completed, builders focused on building three houses);   CETC Family Members: ~400;   International Volunteers: 100-150  ; Students, teachers, builders, families in at least one Hero School affiliate (# to be determined)

2025 (GOAL) = 

CETC Students: 150-170;   CETC Teachers/Staff: 40;   LWH Builders: 15;   Paraxaj Community Members: 100 (completing student projects, builders focused on building three houses);   CETC Family Members: 400;   International Volunteers: 200   ; Students, teachers, builders, families in at least two Hero School affiliates (# to be determined)

The primary goal driving our five year plan is the development and implementation of the Hero School curriculum for all grade levels at CETC. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, timelines for 2020 may be extended. 

LWH and CETC seek to further refine the Hero School curriculum for grades 7-11 and expand it to grades K-6. With a comprehensive curriculum, CETC graduates will be well-equipped and confident, community development practitioners when they enter university and/or a career. This objective requires curriculum development planning in 2020; refining and creating curriculum in 2021 with teachers, curriculum coordinators, and pedagogy experts in eco-literacy and project-based learning; and K-11 curriculum launch in 2022. In the full curriculum, feedback structures will drive yearly curriculum updates. 

CETC will have finished work in its first community, Xiquin, by the end of 2021 and implement the process in a new community, Paraxaj in 2022. By the end of 2026, Hero School anticipates that all survey-identified student projects will be completed in Paraxaj. This will initiate a new process of student survey to student project work in a new community. The impact of this student-driven process is not only astounding for the student’s personal and professional growth, but also important to improving living conditions in marginalized communities by installing critical infrastructure items.

Financial - On average, 12% of nonprofits fail five years after founding (Nonprofit Quarterly, 2014). Financial sustainability is vital for a non-profit’s ability to generate continued impact. As we operate in a low-resourced community, we must build an income portfolio that is primarily externally focused.

Technical - Green building combines traditional and new styles of construction. Including using waste as a primary building material. Building codes have not yet been established for this new material and without trained engineers and architects, poor and unsafe structures can be the outcome.

Legal - CETC and the Hero School cannot operate without the approval of the Guatemalan Ministry of Education. Innovative, project based curriculum that responds to local challenges, must also meet national grade level requirements. This integration is a complex task. 

Cultural - Two key assets that Guatemalan families invest in are land and home construction. When constructing a house it is the cultural norm, as perpetuated by globalization, to construct a cinder block house that acts in disharmony with the local environment. To then convince people to build a custom house made from “trash” (a symbol of poverty and dirtiness) can be a difficult sell. 

Market - Much of the global green building sector pursues high income customers with higher valued currency to spend in low income countries. This fundamentally excludes middle to low income families in low-income countries from the choice to build a custom, environmentally friendly home (people who would arguably benefit more from such construction).

Financial - LWH’s entrepreneurial approach to income generation mobilizes traditional sources like grants, awards, donors, merchandise, and special events. Yet, we also crafted immersive experiential programs that generate income and global awareness of our work. 

Technical - Building safe structures is the primary goal of LWH. Our Construction Manager has extensive experience in architectural design and engineering for intense, uncompromised structural integrity. Our builders follow his direction, and after 10+ years our builders have become experts in their own right. We also partner with Natural Building Collective to train builders and update our best practices.

Legal - LWH has successfully worked with the Ministry of Education for eight years. The pilot version of the Hero School curriculum was successfully approved and has met all national requirements since its launch in 2017.

Cultural - LWH began its journey in Comalapa in 2004. In 2009, The CETC campus then became a model for the potential and beauty of “trash” buildings. We have used this model and our well-established commitment to Comalapa to build interest in green building in Comalapa.

Market - Green design can be more cost and resource efficient for families. Compost toilets use less water, passive solar design requires less heating, fuel efficient stoves require less wood, tire retaining walls require no to minimal repairs, using waste as a building material reduces construction costs. LWH therefore seeks to make green design accessible through the student projects as well as general construction projects, adjusted for a variety of income levels.

Guatemalan Ministry of Education - certifies and monitors CETC for national standards compliance of education.

Xiquin Cocode (community governing body) - partnering to identify households in need of student projects, arranging logistics for projects, and ensuring that families work with students to construct the project.

Service Groups - Partnering with Gap Year, University, and Corporate Service Programs to introduce international students to alternative forms of building and equitable international exchange.

Natural Building Collective - partner to carry out the Green Building Academy, a month-long course that teaches students from around the world key green building techniques and how to practice community-responsive green building. Partnered with LWH to publish the LWH Guide to Green Building, a text that grows the reach of LWH green building techniques and model. Alongside university partners in South Africa, NBC is carrying out testing to develop internationally accepted building codes for green construction.

Two organizations have purchased the Hero School Model and are in the process of creating their own education institutions that weave its unique democratic education tenants into their campus structures and learning activities.

• Wildwoods International School, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, opening in 2022
• The Ark Orphanage and School, Livingston, Guatemala, opening in 2022
• Of note - we are also in discussions with two other organizations to adapt the Hero School model, one in Mexico and one in India.

Through employment, education, and green building LWH is creating pathways to democracy. Donations, program fees, and grants lead a diversified portfolio of 15 income sources funding the LWH mission.

Program fee income is associated with our key customers. Volunteers, service groups, and Green Building Academy students, immerse in a learning process at LWH. They learn the technical aspects of green building, its relevance in under-resourced and rural communities, a full and complex Guatemalan history, and contextual challenges to sustainable development. They leave Guatemala with a unique understanding of green building, equitable international exchange, and how to envision sustainability in their home communities. 

Other key customers are people/organizations that hire our local building team to construct green-designed space. From private houses to community health clinics in Central and South America, LWH has a full portfolio of private-client builds.

Income generated from our portfolio serves our key customers, the Comalapan/Guatemalan community. Despite being a U.S.-registered 501c3, LWH has spent 72% ($1,611,518) of all expenses from 2005-2018 in Guatemala. From 2004-2018, 85% ($1,894,874) of all expenses were directed to program services. Income earned by LWH is directed to the qualitative education of CETC students, teacher and builder employment, the expanded reach of green construction, and local sourcing of food, hospitality services, and construction materials. Unemployment and underemployment feed economic injustices and public health infrastructure severely lacks In Guatemala. LWH is committed to directing funds to fuel innovative, community-driven solutions to these challenges.

LWH has operated for 16 years, surviving during challenging economic hardships while constantly maintaining the mission and services of the organization. One of the reasons we have been able to operate for this length of time is because of our diverse income portfolio, described in the previous question.

Our largest source of income are fees from our experiential programs (green building academy, service groups, internships, and individual volunteers) which provided 26% of our total revenue in 2019. Individual donors provided 19% of our income, and grants a further 18%. The remaining income sources from most to least income earned in 2019 were: Special Events fundraising, outside construction projects, Education Model, Tuition, Merchandise sales, Corporate Donors, In-Kind donations, and Miscellaneous incomes such as interest, refunds, food sales, loans, and school supply sales. 

In times of financial hardship, we can assess this portfolio and engage the sources most relevant to the context. For example, as our experiential programs are suspended during this pandemic, focus will be on generating income from grants, awards, individual donors, and already-started construction projects. In the past three years, our organization has synthesized its operations and analysed its historical impact. This has allowed the organization to position itself as a leader in context-responsive green building, consequently increasing our ability to attract investors through grants, awards, individual donors and construction projects.

Funding Sources for 2019: 

Grants: 

• Global Giving Disaster Relief Fund - $12,927.50, 4/25/19
• Awarded money to construct a Health Clinic in Yepocapa in response to a volcanic eruption.
• Hausman Fondation - $2,000, 1/15/19 
• Simon and Louise Henderson Foundation - $40,000, 12/23/19
• American Endowment Foundation - $2,500, 12/3/19

Debt Financing: 

• Microloan Repayment - $70.32, 6/7/19
• Microloans offered to members of our community to help them in times of need (ex: land, livestock and school supply purchases)
• Loan from LWH Network Member to buy land -  $8,000, 6/10/19
• This loan was used to expand the LWH campus in Comalapa
• Loan from LWH Network Member - $7,977, 7/26/19
• Microloan Repayment - $247.48, 11/27/19 

Equity Financing: 

• Crowdfunding: $59,268.40 (Total amount raised from individual donors in 2019)

Revenue Sources:

• Volunteer Program: $10,182.25 
• Service Groups: $59,887.00
• Internship Program: $2,237.00
• Green Building Academy: $9,709.06 
• Green Building Manual: $518.38 
• Tuition: $3,816.01 (CETC students pay a small tuition fee per year, which can be subsidized with waste recycling.)
• Education Model: $7,000.00 (The Hero School curriculum has been sold to organizations in Livingston, Guatemala and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.)
• Corporate Donors: $192.66 
• Private Client Construction Projects: $30,697.72 
• Special Events: $34,940.00 (Rubbish to Runway is a fashion show in which designers repurpose garbage into wearable art.)
• Merchandise: $883.69
• T-shirts, postcards, etc.

We are currently seeking to raise funds for the items listed below. Given the current status of the world, we are seeking these funds through our non-compromised income streams - fundraising, grants, and sales of our green building manual. We are also not opposed to reasonable debt and equity funding options.

Funds to be raised:

• Normal 2021 operations  (due to budgetary concerns created by COVID), (necessary)

  • $250,000 projected budget to run CETC operations and nonprofit administration necessities. 

  • Raised throughout 2021

• Hero School development 2021 (necessary) 

  • $42,000 for pedagogy training and content mastery for teachers, curriculum activity creation by teachers, curriculum development and state approval.

  • Raised by January 2021

• Student project completion in Xiquin 2021 (optional/option to be reduced) 

  • $69,560 = $1,760 for 11 water tanks,  $4,800 for 15 latrines, $36,000 for 10 full time builders for 12 months, $12,000 for 12 household retaining walls, $15,000 for one green designed home.

  • Raised throughout 202

• Student project completion in Xiquin 2022 (optional/option to be reduced)

  • $83,560 = $1,760 for 11 water tanks,  $4,800 for 15 latrines, $36,000 for 10 full time builders for 12 months, $11,000 for 11 household retaining walls, $30,000 for two green designed homes.

  • Raised throughout 2022

• Capacity building for Hero School extension 2021 (optional/option to be reduced) 

  • $30,000 for full-time Hero School Partnership Director

  • Raised by January 2021

• Hero School extension 2022 (optional/option to be reduced) 

  • $30,000 for full-time Hero School Partnership Director

  • Raised by January 2022

In the beginning of 2020 we used previous years expenditures and informed knowledge of upcoming expenses to create a comprehensive budget. This budget, however, has been heavily affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outside of CETC operations, our operations rely on volunteer support and worker availability. As of now our volunteer, internship and Academy program have been suspended for a six-month period and our workers, though receiving full benefits, are working only necessary hours to ensure that our projects are protected from the elements. Without adjustments to our budget based on COVID-19, our 2020 estimated budget totals $249,664.

I am applying for this prize to gain funding, organizational development resources, and marketing support for the completion of the Hero School Model for grades K-11 at CETC and the development of a comprehensive Hero School Affiliate Program to extend adaptation of the Hero School Model to other areas of Guatemala and the world.

With a well-developed relationship, organizational structure, and pilot of a whole school sustainability model developed in Comalapa, LWH is well-positioned to scale the impact of the Hero School Model. We have developed solid responses to the barriers presented previously and now require the support to perfect our approach for broader application with Elevate Prize resources.

Philosophically and logistically, the Elevate Prize is in unbelievable alignment with what Hero School is and the resources needed for it to grow. We are, as the prize suggests, at the "tipping point" - We've already driven impact through our work and are well-positioned to do much more and inspire others to make change using the significantly larger audience and range of resources offered by The Elevate Prize.

Funding/revenue model - The Hero School Affiliate Program requires a solid business plan to quantify the costs of all that goes into adapting the model elsewhere as well as working with aspiring Affiliates to develop their own funding streams through and outside of LWH.

Legal/regulatory matters - As this Affiliate Program seeks to partner with organizations around the world, LWH needs support developing a base contract for international partnerships, including program development timelines, LWH vs. Affiliate roles, resource sharing, and local authorizations.

Monitoring/evaluation - LWH would like support in developing an adaptable framework (due to differing contexts) for monitoring and evaluating the Affiliate development process and Affiliate education/construction outcomes.

Marketing/media/exposure - As stated before, LWH has grown its exposure from a relational base of support to a broad recognition of our game-changing work in education and construction. With Elevate resources, we can elevate our work and inspire even more.

• E4-Education.com - We would like to partner with this education consultancy to refine and expand the Hero School curriculum to all K-11 grades at CETC. E4-education also has extensive experience developing contextualized eco-literacy curriculums in a variety of countries around the world. They would be an ideal partner for ironing out the Hero School curriculum adaptation process for the Affiliate Program.
• Organizations who have a similar model of developing partnerships internationally and adapting a specific program in partnership communities.
• Organizations with exceptional skills and experience developing holistic and adaptable monitoring and evaluation frameworks for complex topics.
• Brand strategists and organizations skilled in creating engaging brand materials for complex missions.