Understanding Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are groups of professionals who come together around a shared passion or common interest in their work.
These communities are much more than just professional networks or casual gatherings—they are intentional, ongoing collaborations where members regularly engage with one another to learn, share knowledge, and collectively improve their skills and approaches.
At the heart of a CoP lies strong, trusting relationships. Unlike transactional or superficial interactions, CoPs are rooted in meaningful connections among members who value mutual support and collective growth. These relationships create a safe space where individuals feel comfortable sharing challenges, exploring new ideas, and experimenting with innovative solutions. Through this relational foundation, CoPs foster a culture of continuous learning and reciprocal exchange.
Members of a CoP benefit not only from the expertise and experience of others but also from the sense of belonging that comes with being part of a purposeful community. This relational dynamic encourages collaboration across boundaries—be they organizational, disciplinary, or geographical—breaking down silos and enabling richer, more diverse perspectives.
Importantly, CoPs play a vital role in enriching the developmental ecosystem that young people grow up in. When youth-serving professionals come together within a CoP, they deepen their understanding of how to nurture positive youth development and character strengths. This collective learning and shared commitment increase the likelihood that young people experience consistent, supportive environments where they can build confidence, responsibility, respect, and leadership skills.
By strengthening adult relationships and practices within youth development programs, CoPs help create a more cohesive and effective support system for young people. This interconnected network of caring adults and aligned practices fosters a positive developmental climate where youth are more likely to thrive socially, emotionally, and morally.
Ultimately, CoP serve as powerful engines for professional development, innovation, and most importantly, for supporting the growth and character development of the next generation.
Excel Academy
Excel Academy is a multi-year CoP. leadership development program for youth serving professionals across San Antonio focused on Racial Equity, Developmental Relationships, and Continuous Improvement through the Results Count Framework.
Excel Academy came to life through the work of Excel Beyond the Bell San Antonio, a network of out of school time organizations, to equip partners with the tools they need to go deeper with Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships framework by sustainably integrating practices into their agencies. Recognizing that transformational youth development requires confronting systemic barriers, a racial equity lens was intentionally incorporated to support participants in deepening their personal understanding and applying it to create more equitable systems and outcomes
Search Institute, in collaboration with UP Partnership, was awarded the Templeton Foundation Character Through Community Grant to grow and improve the work of Excel Academy. From 2022 to 2025, Search Institute has partnered with Excel Academy to:
Better understand what youth-serving professionals are learning in Excel Academy,
Support youth-serving professionals in evaluating their organizations’ relational strengths, and
Support Excel Academy in strengthening their curriculum to meet the needs of the attending youth serving professionals.
Through this collaboration, valuable insight was gained toward making a successful CoP aimed toward equitable relationship-building in out-of-school time settings.
These insights are outlined below.
The San Antonio Context
San Antonio is one of the fastest growing and most culturally rich cities in the United States. With nearly 80% of its 710,000 young people (ages 0–24) identifying as youth of color—primarily Latinx and Black—the city is both demographically vibrant and deeply impacted by systemic inequities.
Despite its rapid growth, San Antonio has been identified as the most impoverished major city in the country (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024). Youth of color disproportionately experience poverty, with 15% of Latinx and 14% of Black families living below the poverty line, compared to just 5% of white families (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023). In many local districts, students of color graduate at rates up to 25% lower than their white peers (Texas Education Agency, 2025).
U.S. Census Bureau. (2023). American Community Survey 5-year estimates: Bexar County, Texas—poverty status by race/ethnicity (Table S1701). Retrieved September 2, 2025, from this Website.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). QuickFacts: Bexar County, Texas. Retrieved September 2, 2025, from this Website.
Texas Education Agency. (2025, January). Four-year graduation and dropout data, Class of 2023. Texas Education Agency. Retrieved September 2, 2025, from this Website.
Challenges in the Youth Development Field
Before the formation of the CoP, San Antonio’s youth-serving organizations faced persistent, systemic challenges that limited their collective impact:
Undervalued
Youth-serving work was often seen as low-status, with high turnover and minimal long-term investment in professional development.
Unconnected
Youth-serving workers frequently operated in silos, with few opportunities to connect with peers or participate in coordinated networks of support.
Undersupported
Many practitioners worked with young people carrying trauma and adversity without access to the reflective spaces, supervision, or coaching needed to process their experiences or build resilience.
Unfocused
Programs often competed for funding and visibility rather than aligning around common practices or a shared vision for youth development.
Strengths That Positioned San Antonio for Change
Even amid these challenges, San Antonio had key ingredients in place for transformation:
Future Ready Bexar County united more than 100 organizations and 500 leaders around a county-wide strategic mission to ensure all young people are ready for the future.
Collaborative networks like Excel Beyond the Bell San Antonio, Diplomás, My Brother’s Keeper San Antonio, and Our Tomorrow, now known as Youth Leaders of Tomorrow, laid the groundwork for shared infrastructure, cross-sector trust, and a focus on equity.
A growing body of research and practice supported the use of relational frameworks and youth voice as central to strong developmental ecosystems.
The Community of Practice: Rooted in Relationships
In response to these dynamics, San Antonio established a Community of Practice (CoP) rooted in relationships through the Excel Beyond the Bell network and UP Partnership. This CoP became a platform for building the collective capacity of youth-serving professionals to improve practice, promote equity, and advance systems change.
The CoP supports youth development leaders by providing:
- Peer connection and collaboration to reduce isolation
- Co-learning and coaching to build skills and well-being
- Shared language and frameworks grounded in character development and youth empowerment, and
- A unified field identity that bridges organizations and strengthens community-wide coordination
This approach moved the focus from isolated program excellence to a shared ecosystem of support, trust, and continuous learning, centered on the power of relationships.
A Local Solution with Systemic Impact
The Rooted in Relationships CoP is not just building capacity — it’s transforming systems. By anchoring in a relational framework, the CoP has helped unify youth-serving organizations across San Antonio and strengthen the broader efforts of Future Ready Bexar County.
Leaders within the CoP are now:
Advocating for systemic change across education, housing, and health systems
Elevating youth voice in policy and practice
Addressing structural racism through collaborative action, and
Supporting staff well-being to reduce burnout and turnover
Key Insight for Other Communities
San Antonio’s experience shows that when a city leverages its existing assets, embraces collaboration, and centers relationships, it can reimagine youth development as a coordinated, equitable, and healing ecosystem. The CoP model offers a replicable pathway for other communities ready to invest in their people, not just their programs.