Social Justice
Mission
Advancing equity by countering systemic obstacles to opportunity for marginalized young people
The Walter Family Led Projects
The Academy Group
The Academy Group narrows the opportunity gap by providing holistic lifelong support, structure, guidance, education, and employment to systemically disadvantaged individuals by intervening early in the lives of students and staying involved for life using a self sustaining ecosystem of Academy owned companies and programs to provide education and employment.
Fueled by the belief that talent is ubiquitous, The Academy Group unlocks opportunity for young people from the nation’s most resilient communities to realize their full potential as economic, educational and social change agents. The Academy Group provides hundreds of youth the opportunity to go from the excluded to the exceptional. Fueled by profits from businesses founders Kimbra and Mark Walter have contributed, The Academy Group provides academic support, mentoring and work experience to scholars during a 14-year-journey from fourth grade to career.
Chicago Beyond
A child’s ZIP code is the biggest predictor of life outcomes. Chicago Beyond invests in leaders and organizations that are positioned to disrupt that harsh reality, while simultaneously driving towards systemic change so that ZIP codes are no longer what influences a young person’s fate.
From working with the third largest school district in the nation to develop the first-of-its-kind blueprint for providing holistic trauma supports for over 300,000 students to authoring a 100-page guidebook, Why Am I Always Being Researched?, which has been used in more than 70 countries and all 50 states to inform equitable research practices in communities, Chicago Beyond is leading impact initiatives for the city and nation.
It invests in everything from education, to youth safety, to community development, to health wellness, and beyond. This is important because there is no single barrier to equity.
OneGoal
OneGoal’s mission is to close the degree divide in America. Despite decades of work and millions of dollars invested, the degree divide continues to be one of our nation’s most complex and critical injustices. Only 22% of students from low-income communities earn a postsecondary degree (bachelor’s and/or associate), compared to 67% of their peers from high-income areas. However, 86% of OneGoal high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution and 76% of those persist one year after high school graduation.
OneGoal partners with high schools and colleges in low-income communities to ensure college and postsecondary planning, preparation and support are no longer extracurricular luxuries but integral components of the high school experience for all students. Honed over 12 years, the model has three core components: rigorous and culturally relevant content and experience that ensures its students are affirmed in their identities and understand their why, cohorts of students who can support each other over the course of the three year program, and a teacher (Program Director) who supports their most vulnerable students’ long-term ambitions. OneGoal starts as a credit-bearing class during students’ junior and senior year of high school. Then, Program Directors bridge the transition from high school to Fellow’s chosen postsecondary path by continuing individualized support for a full year after high school graduation. Leveraging technology, they provide a flexible model that can be delivered in-person, online or through a hybrid structure and one that allows Fellows to explore and affirm their individual identities in order to identify postsecondary paths aligned to their personal aspirations.
The Walter Family Supported Organizations
The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation
The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundations envisions a city where everyone regardless of ZIP code has the opportunity to thrive. The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation is tackling the most pressing problems facing Los Angeles with a mission to improve education, health care, homelessness and social justice for all Angelenos.
MetroSquash
For Chicagoland youth who desire and deserve more, MetroSquash combines academic support, competitive squash, and enrichment opportunities to empower students to realize their potential and make their mark. MetroSquash focuses on Increasing Academic Achievement, Improving Health and Wellness, and Providing Career and Life Skills for all of its students.