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By Aziah Siid

Originally appeared in Word in Black

Overworked and underpaid teachers need all the help they can get to ensure students achieve and are college or career-ready. Fortunately, there are dozens of nonprofit organizations that can lend a hand, helping guide students to higher education or a well-paying job. Some organizations are resources for students starting as early as ninth or 10th-grade, partnering with some of the nation’s leading schools to provide dual enrollment opportunities. Other organizations help underserved students pay for college tuition, textbooks, and supplies.

Here are 5 nonprofits that are stepping up to be part of the village that ensures Black kids achieve: Black kids achieve

National Equity Lab

The National Equity Lab Project is a nonprofit, social justice movement dedicated to transforming the experiences of underserved communities through helping provide a quality education. Through partnerships with organizations like Khan Academy and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the project provides high school students with the opportunity to take college courses. In addition to exposing students to HBCUs, the Equity Lab collaborates with Ivy League schools as well. Since fall 2021, for example, the e University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has offered an “Essentials of Personal Finance” course to high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Students learn “everything from defining and calculating simple and compound interest, to how the U.S. tax system works, to exploring ways to fund higher education and negotiate the best available financial aid packages,” according to the school’s website.

National CARES Mentoring Movement

Unlike traditional mentorship programs, the National CARES Mentoring Movement is specifically designed to address the needs of Black boys and girls who have grown up in generational poverty. The movement aims to provide children and low-income parents with the “emotional, social, academic and career-readiness support they must have to become self-sustaining, successful contributors to their family, community and our society.”Unfortunately, the need is critical: 1 in 6 Black children is living in extreme poverty, defined as a household of 4 with at least two related children and an income of less than $12,200. CARES calls itself “the only holistic programmatic works being built for the advancement of impoverished children and parents nationally,” according to its website. Located in some of the most underserved schools in the country, and supported by 58 U.S affiliated networks, their 32-week curriculum helps provide low-income parents with programs that encourage stability and their children with an educational as well as emotional foundation that is critical to future success.

United Negro College Fund

Perhaps the most well-known organization that supports Black students in higher education is the United Negro College Fund, whose motto is “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” For eight decades, the organization has awarded grants and scholarships to college-bound Black students and undergraduates already in college to pay for tuition, books, and other costs. Doing so, they believe, will help more Black people obtain a degree and a fulfilling career.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Founded in 1987 by Dr. N. Joyce Payne, a Black woman, TMCF is dedicated to supporting the Black College Community and those who plan to join it or are already a part of it. In addition to their generous scholarships to students attending one of the nation’s 47 publicly supported HBCUs, they have always dedicated resources to improving the Black teacher pipeline. The nonprofit is responsible for helping train 300+ K-12 teachers.

Peer Forward

A teen has more influence on another teen than an adult. That’s the thinking behind Peer Forward, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that maximizes the power of peer influence to help transform the lives of students from underprivileged and under-resourced neighborhoods. With students from higher-income families earning a degree four times the rate of those from lower-income households, Peer Forward’s objective is to help close the gap. To do that, the organization utilizes what they call Peer Leaders to connect and encourage students on a path toward higher education. According to the Peer Forward website, each teen Peer Leader gets “60+ hours of training in Leadership Development, Campaign Organizing, and Postsecondary Admissions.” Teachers also get training and support from the organization

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