Across Southern California, educators are working to create schools that are more inclusive, supportive, and responsive to the needs of all students.
Your CORE Support
CORE (Cultivating Organizational Resilience & Empowerment), based at Los Angeles Education Partnership, and funded by the 21CSLA grant, creates learning spaces where educators can arrive fully, reconnect with themselves, and engage from a place of clarity and care. Our work is rooted in the belief that meaningful learning starts with grounding, presence, and compassion.
STRENGTHENING EQUITY THROUGH LEADERSHIP
We serve educators and school leaders across San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Imperial Counties, providing no-cost coaching, professional learning, and leadership development.
Through practical, high-quality professional learning we support leaders to improve access, opportunity, and inclusion for those who are historically underserved and systemically marginalized, so schools become places where students and adults can fully participate and thrive.
How CORE Supports Leaders Across Southern California
Coaching & Strategic Support
CORE coaches partner with school and district leaders through one-on-one coaching and team facilitation. Together, they examine how systems and experiences shape school environments and build equity-centered, trauma-responsive practices that strengthen leadership and organizational resilience.
Communities of Practice
Small, sustained cohorts where leaders come together to learn, reflect, and problem-solve collaboratively. These communities build trust, deepen practice, and support continuous improvement—including wellness-focused spaces for educator resilience.
Localized Professional Learning
CORE hosts regional conferences, workshops, and virtual learning experiences that respond to real-time challenges facing educators. These spaces foster connection, shared learning, and practical strategies leaders can immediately apply.
Early Childhood Educator Support
CORE supports leaders in early learning through UTK-focused professional learning that centers inclusive, equity-driven practices in early childhood education.
These experiences invite leaders to reflect on mindset, systems, and structures needed to create inclusive environments for young learners, families, and communities.
Embedded throughout our offerings
Wellness & Resilience
Rooted in CORE’s origins in trauma-informed practice, this work supports educators to address burnout, reduce compassion fatigue, and build sustainable leadership practices. Because when educators are well, school communities can thrive.
Data, Evaluation & Impact
CORE embeds data and evaluation across all programs—using both metrics and participant voice to inform continuous improvement, strengthen impact, and respond to the evolving needs of educators and school communities.
“So worth my time I feel like I should pay you.”
“It was like group therapy for my soul.”
“I didn’t realize how much I needed this.”
21CSLA SOCAL Regional Academy's
2026 - 2027 VIRTUAL PROGRAM
As part of the 21CSLA 2026–2027 SoCal Regional Academy, we have created a virtual learning space where educational leaders across Southern California can reflect, grow, and lead for equity in community. This year’s virtual offerings span summer, fall, and on‑demand learning, creating multiple entry points for leaders to deepen their practice, strengthen their well‑being, and build cross‑county connections.
The Summer Series invites leaders into intentional reflection and community building. Sessions such as You Are Not in This Alone create space for leaders to “share insights, celebrate accomplishments, examine challenges, and plan for the important work ahead,” emphasizing that leadership does not have to be isolating . Additional summer offerings—including a Deep Listening Community of Practice and Mindful Movement & Breathwork for Equity Leaders—support leaders in developing relational tools, practicing presence, and tending to their own sustainability.
The Fall Series expands into skill‑building Communities of Practice that center equity‑driven leadership. Offerings include Coaching‑Driven Leadership, Small Works Big Topics (using children’s literature to navigate complex issues such as racism, disability, and LGBTQ+ identities), Transformative Data Practices, and Shared Magic: Dungeons & Dragons for Wellness & Resilience. These sessions help leaders strengthen coaching mindsets, engage in courageous conversations, humanize data practices, and reconnect with creativity and play as tools for resilience. As one series describes, participants “learn about the art of data sensemaking and collaborate to develop practical data tools” they can implement immediately in their school communities .
Alongside these scheduled offerings, the On‑Demand Series provides flexible, no‑cost professional learning in Universal Transitional Kindergarten and equity‑driven leadership coaching. These modules support leaders across the P–3 continuum in implementing inclusive, high‑quality early learning environments and offer individualized coaching grounded in “justice, healing, and inclusion” to sustain leaders in their day‑to‑day work .
Together, the 2026–2027 21CSLA SoCal Virtual Program offers a holistic learning experience that blends community, reflection, practical tools, and wellness. Leaders can engage in multi‑session Communities of Practice, drop‑in wellness offerings, and tailored coaching—all designed to strengthen equitable leadership and build the collective capacity needed to support thriving school communities across Southern California.
Save Your Spot
Multiple Dates17 days to the eventWed, Jul 2221CSLA SoCal Zoom Room (Register for Link)Explore Deep Listening, practice tools for engaging across differences, and build an equity centered community committed to serving all students and educators. Schedule: July 22 — 10 - 11:30am July 29 — 10 - 11:30am Aug 5 — 5 - 6:30pm Aug 12 — 5 - 6:30pm Aug 19 — 5 - 6:30pm Aug 26 — 5 - 6:30pm
Multiple Dates20 days to the eventSat, Jul 2521CSLA SoCal Zoom Room (Register for Link)A Community of Practice where leaders connect, reflect, collaborate, and prepare together for the year ahead. Schedule: Thu, June 25th — 10am - 12:15pm Sat, July 25th — 9am - 11:15am Sat, Aug 1st — 9am - 11:15am Sat, Aug 8th — 9am - 11:15am
Multiple Dates22 days to the eventMon, Jul 2721CSLA SoCal Zoom Room (Register for Link)Engage in 1-hour long gentle yoga and/or breathwork sessions to pause and tend to yourself designed to each stand alone or to be enjoyed together as a complete experience. Schedule: Alternating Mondays from July through Oct from 5pm - 6pm
On Demand to Fit YOUR ScheduleLocation is TBD Based on Your NeedsWe offer leadership development aligned with your goals, supported by a community of care that sustains both your work and well-being. Our equity-centered coaching is grounded in justice, healing, and inclusion, and takes a strengths-based approach—uplifting you as the expert.
On Demand to Fit YOUR ScheduleLocation is TBD Based on Your NeedsWe offer no-cost professional development that uplifts equitable education in a localized context for all educational leaders in the P-3 continuum to fit your schedule.
Early Childhood Education Leadership & Support
Through the statewide 21CSLA UTK Leadership Initiative, CORE serves as the SoCal Regional Academy supporting site leaders, teacher leaders, and central office teams. We deliver UTK Professional Learning Modules across San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Orange Counties—helping leaders foster equitable, inclusive, high-quality early learning environments for children, families, and educators. Our work is strength-based and localized: we conducted 13 site visits across four counties to identify regional strengths and needs, uplift what’s already working, and build relationships rooted in humility and curiosity. We implement through a facilitator model and a “deep, not wide” approach—expanding our trainer team and using site-visit insights and county partnerships to bring the most needed UTK learning topics to each region.
Affinity Spaces
As a part of our 21CSLA 2025-2026 Virtual Program, we hosted two affinity groups to give educators dedicated spaces for connection and equity-centered growth.
The BIPOC & Mixed Roots Healing Space (Anthony Jackson & Dhalia Balmir) centered belonging, restoration, and candid reflection on leading in white-dominant systems—honoring identity, legacy, and “freedom dreaming” new ways of leading.
Moving Towards Us: Divesting from Whiteness (Elizabeth Claes) supported white-identifying educators in structured, collective anti-racism learning using shared texts to examine white racial emotionality, anti-Blackness, allyship, saviorism, and systemic oppression.
Together, these spaces strengthened leadership practice and helped educators return to their schools better equipped to build safer, more affirming learning environments.
Leadership Coaching
Our 21CSLA Leadership Coaching supports educational leaders to strengthen equity-centered leadership—building capacity to expand access, opportunity, and inclusion for students and adults who are historically underserved and systemically marginalized.
Leaders across San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Orange Counties receive 25 hours of virtual or hybrid coaching over one year, grounded in relational trust and aligned to CPSEL.
Our coaching model is human-centered and improvement-focused: coaches cultivate safe, reflective space through deep listening and partnership, helping leaders address equity-centered problems of practice and grow sustainable leadership habits.
I learned new ways to question and to be more self-reflective with my staff.
(Coaching allowed me to be)more realistic with my goals, being kinder to myself, and (to focus on) my own wellness.
My leadership/ coaching skills have improved as a result of this work. My coach was able to share resources that I could put into practice immediately.
Conferences that cultivate collective growth
Twice each year, our program branches come together at equity-centered conferences that weave our offerings into a single experience shaped by what leaders have shared throughout the year.
These gatherings are designed to strengthen leadership and practice while also prioritizing well-being: creating space to decompress, learn, connect in community, and heal through meditation and wellness offerings, free learning libraries, entertainment and social engagement, community-building activities, and hands-on art projects.
Participants leave with renewed capacity, actionable tools, and equity-focused strategies they can bring back to their schools and classrooms in service of students.
What I learned here is to chart the course, be present for the students, to do the work in fidelity. To remember why we do the work, and that liberation comes in the spaces that we create in our classrooms. And I feel so fortunate that I get to provide those spaces for students. So, thank you for the reminder!
The learning and knowledge I'm walking away with have solidified my beliefs in this work and has given me some renewed hope of the future of our youth.
The conference provided valuable space to reflect on my own leadership, bias and areas for growth. This helped me think more critically about how I approach equity in my work...Engaging in candid conversations with others who are also committed to equity reinforced that this work isn't done alone.
Data & Evaluation: Sustained by evidence
LAEP’s Evaluation, Accountability, and Impact (EAI) team partners with CORE to collect and use data that strengthens program design and conference planning in real time and over the year. We pair what leaders tell us with measurable evidence to keep improving what we offer—academically, professionally, and for well-being. We listen, we measure, and we adjust—because impact should be visible, not assumed. Our evaluation work creates a continuous feedback loop that strengthens every conference we design by pairing what leaders tell us with data that makes our impact measurable.
