Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child Receives Honorary Recognition for Commitment to Catholic Education in Haiti
The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), part of the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) at the University of Notre Dame, is pleased to receive an honorary plaque from Haiti’s Bureau Diocésain de l'Éducation (BDE) of Jérémie. This recognition highlights the GC-DWC's unwavering dedication to enhancing Catholic education in Haiti, and leveraging the Church's network to deliver transformative educational opportunities that break the cycle of poverty and empower future generations.
Recognizing the critical role of the Catholic Church in Haitian society, the GC-DWC leverages the parish system as a means for fostering holistic child development. In Haiti, each Catholic parish runs a school, and is deeply embedded in local culture, community life, and home life. The GC-DWC works within these parish networks to address children's needs at all three levels of their social ecology: the home (lakay), school (lekòl), and church (legliz)—or L3. This comprehensive approach ensures that children receive the support they need to thrive physically, intellectually, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.
This L3 Systems Activation framework allows for innovative, community-driven interventions, such as integrating child development and parenting guidance into sermons, introducing nutrition education to combat stunting in schools, facilitating parent empowerment programs, and creating community learning centers for play and education. By engaging key stakeholders and leveraging culturally relevant programming, GC-DWC Haiti promotes a whole child approach to development—one that not only values the richness of Haitian communities, but also creates a lasting impact across the country.
“The BDE of Jérémie’s recognition is a powerful affirmation of our shared mission to uplift Haitian children and communities through education,” said Kate Schuenke-Lucien, GC-DWC Director for Haiti and Senior Associate Director for Strategic Planning. “By strengthening Catholic schools and harnessing the Church’s reach and influence, we are laying the groundwork for a brighter, more resilient future for Haiti’s youth.”
The GC-DWC extends its heartfelt gratitude to the BDE of Jérémie for this prestigious honor, and looks forward to deepening its partnership with Haitian stakeholders to broaden access to quality education and foster holistic child development.
For more information on GC-DWC’s work in Haiti, please visit: https://iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc-haiti
About the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC)
The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) at the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame, collaborates with researchers and practitioners to ensure the wellbeing—physical, emotional, social, and cognitive—of children and adolescents in low-resource and conflict-affected settings. Established to serve as a coherent platform for the Institute for Educational Initiative’s growing portfolio of global child development and learning programs, the GC-DWC creates environments that foster resilience and encourage children and adolescents to thrive. Using an innovative whole child development approach tailored to context-specific needs, the GC-DWC translates research into timely and thoughtful action, adapts research tools to improve the development of learning programs and policies, and activates systems (families, schools, communities) to lift children and adolescents out of adversity.
For more information about the GC-DWC and its initiatives, visit https://iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc/about.
About the Institute for Educational Initiatives
Founded in 1996, the Institute for Educational Initiatives consists of more than two dozen initiatives that strive to improve education for all youth, particularly the disadvantaged, paying special, though not exclusive, attention to Catholic schools. Through research, the formation of teachers and leaders, and direct service to educational systems, the IEI’s scholars and practitioners pursue interdisciplinary collaborations to better understand and improve PK-12 education both in the United States and internationally.
