Facilitating a Community of Practice
From recruitment to mentorship, every detail matters in holding transformative space.
Recruitment Considerations:
Cultivating Belonging from the Start
A thriving Community of Practice (CoP) begins with how we invite others in. Recruitment is about extending a hand, building bridges, and ensuring people feel seen, valued, and called into a collective journey. We begin by centering equity and belonging in how we shape the invitation.
Who Are We Inviting to Belong?
Before we recruit, we ask: Who do we want at the table, and how do we ensure they feel like the table was made for them?
- Excel Beyond the Bell San Antonio Network Members
- Youth Development Providers
- Senior Leaders and Frontline Staff
- Those whose voices have been missing or marginalized
We seek partners in learning, people with lived experience, organizational insight, and a commitment to transformation.
Key Pathways for Inclusive Recruitment
Clarify the Invitation Window
Name and share the opening and closing dates of your application process. Transparency creates trust. Ample time allows for thoughtful reflection, not rushed decisions.
Design an Equitable Review Process
Establish internal review timelines and equitable criteria. Aim for consistency, while staying responsive to nuance.
Communicate with Care
Ensure notifications are timely and personal. Acknowledge effort, express gratitude, and offer next steps in ways that honor dignity.
Host Welcoming Informational Sessions
Whether in-person or virtual, create spaces that reflect the values of the CoP, dialogue, learning, and mutual respect.
Bring the Invitation to Them
Take initiative. Partner with key organizations and networks to present the opportunity in spaces people already trust.
CEO-to-CEO Outreach
Personal connections matter. A direct call or email from a CEO can help open doors and signal the value of participation to organizational leaders.
Lift Up Peer Voices
Empower former participants to share their stories. Peer-to-peer referrals carry credibility and warmth that formal channels often lack.
Activate the Extended Circle
Alumni, steering committee members, and partner CEOs can be some of the most powerful ambassadors. Their lived experiences and networks can help us widen the circle of belonging.
Logistics: Creating the Conditions for Belonging
Logistics are the infrastructure of care. When thoughtfully designed, logistical decisions communicate to participants that they matter, their time is valued, and their full selves are welcome. Every detail, from space to supplies, is a chance to build trust and inclusion.
Considerations for Centering Care Through Logistics:
Choose a Venue that Welcomes All
Select spaces that are physically accessible, culturally affirming, and emotionally safe. The setting should reflect the values of equity, openness, and connection.
Ensure Seamless AV/Technology Support
Reliable technology honors everyone’s contributions. Whether in person or hybrid, tech should support access, voice, and engagement.
Uphold Health & Safety with Intention
COVID-19 protocols and general health considerations should be proactive, transparent, and rooted in collective care, especially for those at higher risk.
Offer Nourishment and Tools for Participation
Thoughtfully prepared food and well-organized materials are not extras. They are signals of respect. Consider dietary needs, cultural preferences, and use clear, user-friendly resources.
Collaborate Closely with Facilitators and Session Leads
Ongoing coordination ensures everyone leading has what they need to create transformative space. Co-create plans, troubleshoot logistics together, and center mutual support.
Considerations for Relational Session Design:
Root Design in Relevance and Humanity
Develop sessions that respond to the real conditions, experiences, and aspirations of participants. Content should be both rigorous and resonant.
Engage Internal Voices Early
Gather insight from your planning team and organizational partners. Invite questions, ideas, and challenges to shape meaningful agendas.
Facilitate with Presence and Flexibility
During sessions, listen deeply. Pay attention to both spoken and unspoken dynamics. Adapt in real-time and prioritize connection over perfection.
Pause and Reflect as a Practice
After each session, debrief with your planning team. What surfaced? What shifted? What might we hold differently next time? This reflection is where the CoP itself continues to grow.
Session Design & Facilitation: Holding Space for Collective Learning
Design and facilitation are acts of relationship-building. Each session is an opportunity to foster connection, surface wisdom, and move toward shared purpose. In a Community of Practice, facilitation is participatory, iterative, and guided by both structure and spirit.
Communication with Participants: Sustaining Connection, Trust, and Belonging
Communication is the architecture of relationships. In a Community of Practice, communication must be consistent, transparent, and rooted in care. Every message shapes how people experience the community: whether they feel informed, invited, and included, or even overlooked and peripheral. Communication cultivates belonging.
Guiding Principles
Be Predictable and Personal
Regular rhythms build reliability; personal touches build trust. Balance structure with authenticity.
Center the Whole Person
Speak to both the professional and the human. Acknowledge effort, celebrate growth, and honor participants’ time and attention.
Maintain Multilevel Engagement
Design communications for all levels of involvement, from frontline participants to organizational leaders, so that the community grows both wide and deep.
Key Communication Practices
Full-Year Calendar Invitations
Set expectations and ease scheduling burdens by providing calendar invites for all CoP sessions after participants are accepted. Include known session topics, prep materials, and access details so members feel informed from the start.
Pre-Session Reminders (One Week Prior)
Send warm, informative reminders that outline session objectives, materials to bring, and reflection prompts. These messages reinforce the sense that participants are co-creators.
Post-Session Reflections (1–2 Days After)
Follow up with gratitude and a clear summary of what was explored, links to materials, and an invitation to next month’s topic. This continuity reinforces learning and shared memory.
Monthly Network Newsletter Updates
Use newsletters to spotlight insights, upcoming sessions, participant contributions, and aligned opportunities. Keep the wider network connected to the pulse of the CoP.
CEO Progress Updates
Provide periodic updates to organizational leaders on CoP outcomes and participant growth. This strengthens institutional buy-in and helps bridge participant efforts with executive support.
Dedicated CEO Learning Sessions
Host intentional sessions with CEOs to explore themes emerging from the CoP, elevate participant voices, and build shared accountability for systemic change.
Application Materials: Extending a Thoughtful and Equitable Invitation
The application is an invitation into a community grounded in racial equity, developmental relationships, and collective growth. How we invite people shapes how they show up. In that spirit, the Excel Academy (EA) application materials are designed to be transparent, accessible, and deeply aligned with the values we hold: care, accountability, and transformative leadership.
Participants are asked to reflect on their experiences, their aspirations, their readiness to grow, to act with equity, and to build stronger networks of support for the youth of San Antonio.
What our Excel Academy Application includes:
Program Overview
Clear descriptions of EA's purpose, history, and structure rooted in equity and continuous improvement.
Session Schedule
A full-year calendar outlining session topics to foster trust and transparency from the beginning.
Participant Application Form
Questions ask participants to reflect on their understanding of racial equity, developmental relationships, and their leadership goals, which are framed as opportunities for growth, not gatekeeping.
Participant Commitment Statement
A values-aligned agreement that clarifies expectations while affirming the participant’s dignity and agency. This includes acknowledgment of coaching, survey facilitation, and project work-time as part of the learning journey.
Organizational Commitment Form
A reflection and signature section for supervisors and CEOs to support their staff, affirming both the time investment and leadership capacity needed to carry forward the Academy’s work inside their organizations.
Timeline of Excel Academy
A Journey Toward Equity, Relationship, and Collective Leadership
The work of transformation is not linear. It unfolds in seasons, through rhythm, reflection, and relationship. The Excel Academy’s multi-year structure honors this reality. Each year invites participants deeper into themselves, their organizations, and the larger ecosystem of youth-serving professionals. Our timeline is a journey of becoming grounded in equity and trust.