Vision for Holistic Youth Development
Nashville Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
Nashville’s Vision for Holistic Youth Development (Vision) established a shared, community driven framework for what children and youth need to thrive in learning and in life. Building on this multi year initiative, NAZA created the complete suite of 12 Vision Curricula, locally developed, culturally inclusive learning tools that build essential mindsets, social emotional competencies, and cognitive skills. These curricula and trainings offer innovative, accessible pathways for youth to strengthen identity, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and confidence. The Vision is freely available through NAZA’s website for educators, families, and community partners.
Challenge/Opportunity
• Lack of direct youth outcomes specifically designed for out-of-school time space.
• Limited access to developmentally appropriate, community driven learning resources for out of school environments.
• Growing need for human skills that are essential in the age of AI
• Opportunity to equip youth with durable skills that support postsecondary success, employability, and long term wellbeing.
• Need for free, high quality resources that strengthen educators’ ability to design meaningful learning experiences.
Key Elements of Innovation
• Development of the complete suite of 12 Vision Curricula, each aligned to a core growth practice from Nashville’s Vision for Holistic Youth Development.
• Co creation with youth development professionals, educators, caregivers, and community leaders to ensure cultural relevance and practical usability.
• Trainings delivered across Nashville to build educator capacity to deliver Vision curricula and develop youth mindsets, communication, emotional intelligence, literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, goal setting, initiative, and life skills.
• Free public access through NAZA’s website, supporting broad adoption across afterschool programs, libraries, community organizations, and homes.
• Innovative integration of local expertise, youth voice, and community storytelling to create engaging, flexible learning experiences.
• Designed to scale, adaptable for diverse educational settings, age groups, and community needs.
• An opportunity to offer a high-quality instructional material
Achieved Outcomes
• Completion of all 12 Vision Curricula and related training modules, used by youth serving organizations across Nashville.
• This set supplements communication tools on each of the skills developed for youth, parents and adults with simpler activities and guidance.
• Hundreds of youth serving professional engaged in trainings demonstrating increased skills in communication, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and leadership.
• In the youth surveys 60% of respondents report growth in problem-solving and resourcefulness, 58% in communication, 56% in emotional intelligence and self-management, 62% in life skills, and 58% in critical thinking.
• New partnerships formed with the Nashville Juvenile Court, libraries, faith based groups, and community organizations to adopt and expand use of the curricula.
• Free online distribution increases access for educators nationwide, strengthening long term pathways to postsecondary readiness, employability, and life skills.
