Happy New Year!
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Here is to another incredible year filled with joy, learning, love, and growing our Horizons community!
The new year brings with it new goals and plans for Horizons, and a renewed commitment to increase equitable learning opportunities for more young people and families.
2023 kicks off Horizons National's 2023-25 Strategic Plan. At this moment in time, with so many students and communities still grappling with the educational reverberations of the COVID pandemic, proven programs like Horizons must do more; we must find ways to expand Horizons to support thousands more students today, and well into the future.
In 2022, we focused on building new partnerships to expand Horizons programs. For the first time, Horizons received government funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, allowing us to create more high-quality programs that will serve students in perpetuity while also supporting the sustainability of our existing programs.
To build on the success of expanding Horizons in 2022, our new Strategic Plan has 4 pillars, focused on growing & sustaining Horizons programs to reach more students and ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion across our Network:
- Pillar 1: Accelerated Network expansion
- Central to our mission of creating more experiences that inspire the joy of learning is the expansion of the Horizons Network to serve more students. Over the next 3 years, we will accelerate our rate of growth using strategies we already know work and explore other strategies for growth through strategic partnership and new models.
- Pillar 2: A high-impact customer service system for the Network
- We will develop a stronger and more efficient customer service model for Horizons sites and prioritize the services we provide to focus on the areas where we can have the most impact. We will work closely with our affiliates to align our internal systems and services with the Network’s highest priority needs, and employ technology as appropriate to deliver them effectively.
- Pillar 3: A culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
- Our ongoing work to advance equity will be embedded into every aspect of this Strategic Plan and we will continue to make progress on our staff and board equity plans. We will create vehicles for our stakeholders to be seen and heard, particularly as it pertains to the decisions that impact them, and we will co-create EDI guidelines for affiliates.
- Pillar 4: Increased and diversified revenue
- Horizons National’s financial health is essential for the success of this Strategic Plan and our mission to build long-term partnerships that create more out-of-school time learning opportunities for students. We see opportunities to partner with affiliates in fundraising, specifically related to our Campaign for Growth and regional expansion initiatives. We will work closely with our affiliates to explore a cost- sharing model for some centralized services.
There is work to be done, and we at Horizons National are eager to continue moving forward with the support and collaboration of our affiliates, host schools and institutions, community and government partners, program champions, and Horizons students, families, and alumni. Together, we can increase equitable learning opportunities for more students across our country, and advance equity in education for generations to come.
Stay in touch with Horizons National in 2023 for ongoing news, updates, and stories from our community!
