Bed-Stuy Beautiful
A year-long, district-wide campaign to revitalize a failing school district
December 2016- December 2017
Project Manager
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is a rapidly gentrifying school district with a vibrant history. In 2016, the tension in the community was palpable, and the narratives around its district schools largely negative. That year, more than 40% of the students that lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant didn’t attend school there. The DOE was closing schools.
District 16 faced an enrollment crisis.
New Superintendent Rahesha-Amon Harrison had big plans for D16. She hired Hannah Erickson to create a three-tier campaign to rally and unify the community around its schools. They created a series of district-wide open-house events—School Crawls—to showcase the schools’ offerings.
Together, they set out to turn the negative narratives about the district around.
The BedStuy Beautiful School Crawl was comprised of three district-wide open house events. The three events—held in April, June, and October of 2017—invited families from Bedford-Stuyvesant to a morning of simultaneous school open houses that hosted fun and exciting activities for the whole family. Participants were given a “Passport,” and stamps from 3, 5, and 7 schools enabled participants to receive deep discounts at community restaurants.
The event was created to showcase the exceptional educational offerings of the district. Specifically, the event was geared towards the recruitment of new students from the neighborhood.
School Crawl: Participating Schools & Attendees
Under Superintendent Amon-Harrison, and as a result of the BedStuy Beautiful campaign, by 2019, enrollment in District 16 had drastically improved.
The Crawl is now in its third year of operation in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The DOE is no longer closing their schools.
The School Crawl Event has been replicated in all but one borough.
What people are saying about the leadership.
“Hannah Erickson is a visionary humanist whose support of community school district 16, Brooklyn, New York, as the first project manager, was unprecedented.
Hannah's efforts were replicated, first in Harlem in Community School District 5, and then to all of the Northern Manhattan school districts. The New York City Department of Education has named the "School Crawl" a community engagement best practice and since replicated in all but one of the five boroughs. ”
-Rahesha Amon-Harrison, Former Superintendent, District 16
Senior Executive Director for Leadership and Professional Learning for the New York City Department of Education