Adult & Child Agency Inventories

Beloved Community is partnering with K-12 schools to pilot its Adult & Child Agency Inventories. Nearly 600 organizations, including K-12 schools, corporations/companies, non-profit organizations, and public agencies have completed Beloved Community’s organizational self-assessment – the Equity Audit. When making meaning of results from the audit, schools often ask, “What’s next? How will we measure the areas in which we want to improve?” This project, through the creation of the Adult & Child Agency Inventories, addresses this call from practitioners. This tool was produced out of the need to align specific behaviors and policies that operationalize belonging and ensure alignment to the local context through data collection.

The Inventories serve as an example of how to operationalize agency and belonging. The inventories are structured to align with the components of Beloved Community’s Adult & Child Agency Cycles and serve as a “mini-audit” to check for belonging at every level of the institution. This work was created as an adaptation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. For example, instead of self-actualization, the tool uplifts collectivism and community care to counter the myth of meritocracy. The tool is informed by research on adult belonging in the workplace, child development and learning theories, and developmentally appropriate best practices. This tool is also informed by Tema Okun’s work on White Supremacy Culture, CASEL’s social emotional learning competencies and GALLUP’s Q12 Index.