What We Offered

Heartwise partnered with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to strengthen both countywide coordination and on the ground support for districts and schools. The work focused on helping teams connect efforts across departments, deepen collaboration with districts, and grow the capacity needed to sustain community school implementation.

Heartwise also helped extend the COE’s technical assistance capacity by supporting districts completing their CCSPP applications, assisting with annual progress reporting, and offering guidance to grantees as they strengthened their implementation.

Hayley says, “My experience with Heartwise has been very supportive and communicative. It’s been very focused on what is needed by the grantees and also training me up on what that means and how I can be present for our school sites in our district. But also I have full trust and faith that Heartwise is there too. I have no reservations or worries when Heartwise is in the field as an extension of the COE, supporting schools and districts with their community school specialists.”Working Together

Working Together

A central part of the collaboration has been building a countywide Community of Practice for Community School Specialists. Together, Santa Cruz COE, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, and Heartwise launched a Community of Practice that brings specialists together regularly to share learning, strengthen implementation, and build connections across the county.

Hayley says, “I think partnering with Heartwise has also opened a lot of relational pathways to our different district grantees, which has been amazing.”

Heartwise has also supported internal alignment within the COE through listening sessions and facilitated discussions with the Student Support Services Department. These conversations explored how departments coordinate their supports for districts and schools, gather input from districts, and measure meaningful impact beyond compliance metrics.

Hayley reflects, “We started the more internal systemic work at the county level with Heartwise about a year and a half ago. We want to connect the dots as we collectively go into schools. Starting with our Student Support Services department first and growing outward instead of trying to have everyone on the same page all at once has really worked well for us. It made it more doable to take things in stages.”

Regular check ins help keep the work aligned and responsive.

“Kendra and I meet every other week,” Hayley says. “Our regular check ins are very organized and structured, but we also talk about what’s top of mind and how we can connect this work with other initiatives happening within the COE.”

The Impact

Through this partnership, Santa Cruz COE has strengthened both its internal coordination and its support for districts implementing community schools. Heartwise helped the Student Support Services Department organize around shared goals, develop a coordinated operations plan, and begin shaping a clearer long term vision for the department’s work. At the same time, the countywide Community of Practice has created a consistent space for community school specialists to connect, learn from one another, and strengthen their work across districts and school sites. Together, these efforts are helping the county build stronger relationships, clearer alignment, and a more connected approach to supporting community schools.

Hayley says, “At the COE level, the most successful aspect so far has been helping us organize ourselves as a Student Support Services Department. Kendra facilitated a process with the leads of all our programs to identify department goals and short and long term actions. That process led to an operations plan that grounded us in what’s underway and how our plans fit together.”

“We’re in our second year of a Community of Practice for all community school specialists in our county. Kendra and Heartwise have been key partners in building and strengthening that relationship with the district. The county’s connection with the district has grown stronger as a result.”

Hayley also describes the partnership itself as a steady and trusted support.

“Partnering with Heartwise is really worth it. It is worth the investment in this type of partnership. Kendra and her staff are kind, collaborative, and really good at listening and then responding. That quality is sometimes hard to find in a consultant.”

“I find that our working relationship is really strong and authentic. The approach meets us where we are, but also offers ideas when there is space for them.”

“I look forward to my meetings with Kendra. At the county level I wear many hats, so it’s been really helpful to have her as a thought partner who reminds me of things in a kind and supportive way. I have full faith and trust that good things are happening in the field, even if I’m not there, and that’s worth its weight in gold.”