The Extraordinary Transformation of a City and Its Schools

(Part 1, 06:38–08:04 and 15:16–17:35) 

When Rich Harwood and his team first came to Reading, they didn’t start with a plan — they started by listening. They talked to residents in both English and Spanish and asked simple, open questions like: “What are your aspirations for your community and your kids?”

“Not a single individual mentioned issues that you would hear in the culture war debates. What they talked about was where their community was, where they wanted their community to go.” — Rich Harwood (Part 1, 07:10)

The first thing that people had to do was not to develop plans. It was not to go out and find more money. It was not to run some kind of regression analysis. It was not to look at best practices from some other community, all things that we all do reflexively and religiously in trying to create change in communities. They did something different. They stopped. They decided that they're going to have to go and engage more people more deeply around their agenda items… and really deeply understand what it was that really mattered to them. – Rich Harwood (Part 1, 15:30)

Example: Residents identified nine shared priorities related to education — none of them rooted in partisan or ideological issues.

(Part 1, 09:40–12:08)

Before the Harwood initiative in Reading, many civic groups, nonprofits, and schools were fragmented and working in silos. Pastor Steve Ohnsman described it this way:

“We were all doing good work, but in silos… six people doing the same thing, redundancies everywhere.” (Part 1, 12:50)

“The difference with the work … with Harwood is we saw something we all wanted. They brought so many agencies together, they brought community members together. They put us all in one room and said, Let's figure it out. That was a starting point of unleashing the impact here.” - Migdalia Garcia (Part 1, 14:16)

Why does this happen? When under stress, people hunker down and look inward — protecting their turf instead of collaborating.

Example: The United Way, Centro Hispano, school district leaders, and local faith groups moved from getting together to working together, reducing duplication and aligning efforts around what really mattered to people. What emerged were teams that began focusing on after-school programs, providing support for residents for whom English was a second language, and strengthening early childhood education programs. 

Part 2, 25:23–27:36)

Instead of crafting comprehensive plans, Reading’s leaders focused on small, visible wins that proved progress was possible.

“Resistance starts to go away when people see proof that things are actually happening in a different way.” — Rich Harwood (Part 1, 26:18)

“Start small to go big. Look, I want big systemic change like we created in Reading, but it all started in small ways. So release yourself from the burden that you have to create big, comprehensive change overnight and just focus on one small thing that you can get moving on, and use that as a way to catalyze a larger, ever-growing chain reaction of efforts over time. – Rich Harwood (Part 2, 30:24)

Examples: Schools opened their doors for after-school programs to come back in. ESL programs launched in churches. Each small win built trust and momentum.

(Part 1, 17:35–21:00)

When Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Murray first saw the Harwood community report, she felt defensive.

“It hurt. It stung… But then I came back the next day and decided to read it as a launchpad to help us do better.” (Part 1, 19:47–20:56)

“To Dr. Murray's credit, she's one of the braver leaders I've worked with…She listened to us, she listened to the community… She stayed at the table and kept engaging.“ Rich Harwood (Part 1, 20:56):

Murray’s willingness to stay engaged — to move from defensive to open — became a model for other leaders.

Example: Murray reframed school buildings as “the community’s buildings” and encouraged principals to share space for after-school programs.

(Part 1, 13:38–14:16)

Pastor Steve Ohnsman put it plainly:

“It seems like people always want credit. When you want credit, it’s hard to share the limelight.”

The turning point came when organizations realized that lasting progress required shared responsibility.

Example: Education, civic, and faith leaders began celebrating group success instead of individual recognition, shifting the focus from ego to impact.

Part 2, 26:31–28:16

In just a few short years, hope had become visible again.

“The more people that want to join in, the more contagious it becomes, the more momentum you build.” — Rich Harwood (Part 2, 27:50)

“When I asked people What are you creating here? They said we are creating a new sense of pride in a community that had lost pride, that we're creating a new sense of hope in a community that had lost hope.” – Rich Harwood (Part 2, 26:31)

“Seeing folks who have seen our work want to get involved is enough for me to say that they're hopeful for our future.” - Migdalia Garcia (Part 2, 27:36)

Example: Partnerships among schools, families, and nonprofits sparked new energy — parents and families came back into the community, groups worked together in new ways, and a new trajectory of hope began to take hold in Reading.