Lauren Hall Riggins is an educator, researcher, and nonprofit leader who leverages systems change to enhance the self-determination of youth and communities. As a senior leader at Empower Schools, Lauren works to create, strengthen, and expand high-quality career pathways and apprenticeships. One of five Phase 3 teams in the Learning Landscapes Challenge, Empower Schools is participating in a six-month incubator as it prototypes and implements its infrastructure solution. We recently spoke with Lauren to learn more about Empower School’s work creating healthcare career pathways in Indiana.
What does Empower Schools do?
Our big focus is on rural innovation and early college and career pathways. Our core innovation is something called Multi-Sector Collaboratives. We bring multiple rural districts together to provide young people with meaningful work-based learning in healthcare. We partner with higher education (higher ed) to ensure that students earn dual credit for when they go onto the labor market. We partner with employers so that students get paid work experience and access to mentors. And we bring in civic economic development folks to support this collaboration between K-12, higher ed, and employers at the local and regional levels.
Why is this kind of intervention necessary? What problems are you addressing?
In our community in East Central Indiana, we have students who speak Spanish and students who speak English. We have students whose families have been here for generations and students who are new to America. They all want a strong education so they can add value to their families and society. They want to live the American dream of opportunity. Meanwhile, our students — the majority of whom are from low-income backgrounds — are in high schools that care about them a lot but cannot help them connect the dots from high school to careers. They get a diploma, but they have no idea where to go with it. They may feel intimidated by higher ed or may not know how to apply to college. With Multi-Sector Collaboratives, our young people feel seen by multiple sectors. There are more caring adults supporting them, and they are getting the mentorship, education, and learning they need to thrive.
Our solution ensures that rural heartland districts provide the education, work-based learning, and connections for students to grow, enter jobs, and thrive throughout their lives. It also ensures that our employers have a talent pipeline that’s homegrown. We have local healthcare employers who are just desperate for talent, especially in our rural communities. We’re also ensuring that our next generation has the economic, social, and political embeddedness to feel like they can create a meaningful impact in their own community.
You hear about things like the opioid crisis or the lack of job supply, and I mourn that so many of our young people feel like home is overwhelmed with plight and hopelessness. We’re excited to ensure that this economic mobility — this sense of connection and belonging that we’re fostering — can create robust rural communities that thrive and are proud.
What impact have you already seen in your communities? And how do you want to see Empower Schools grow and develop?
We’ve got a good thing going here. We’ve got kids who didn’t even know they could be in the healthcare profession on track to become the most economically mobile family members in generations. They’re adding meaningful value to their communities, and they want to stay there. We want to take all that joy and all that growth and all that possibility and replicate it across the state.
We are trying to build a new type of institution in society that creates efficiency across our education system, our workforce development system, and our employment system. Our big ambition is to create this model of Multi-Sector Collaboratives and codify it in policy. And then we want to make sure that Indiana becomes a state that can say, ‘We’ve taken care of our rural kids, and our rural communities are thriving.’
What parts of the challenge have you found most beneficial to your growth and development?
Being part of the Learning Landscapes Challenge has been incredibly valuable. First and foremost, the challenge has helped us think about prototyping and being really specific and intentional about how to tweak our solution and try it again. The storytelling piece has also been really profound. We are often in spaces where there can be assumptions at play, and I think the storytelling pushes have enabled us to reflect on the sense of personal, professional, and political conviction around this work. As someone who has Appalachian roots, we are the branch of my family that made it out of poverty. You hear about things like the opioid crisis or the lack of job supply, and I mourn that so many of our young people feel like home is overwhelmed with plight and hopelessness. We’re excited to ensure that this economic mobility — this sense of connection and belonging that we’re fostering — can create robust rural communities that thrive and are proud.
Looking ahead
Over the coming months, the Phase 3 teams will continue to prototype their solutions, develop sustainable funding streams, and create implementation roadmaps. Phase 3 will conclude with a Demo Day featuring presentations in front of a live audience and judges. Judges will evaluate submissions according to Phase 3 evaluation criteria. Up to two grand-prize winners will receive $500,000 each to support implementation of their infrastructure solutions. Stay tuned for additional updates about the Phase 3 teams and their mentors.
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