Kanesha Venning

KaCey Venning is a youth education and mental health advocate, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. In 2011, she founded “HEY! Helping Empower Youth” which was an organization that supports and advocated for underserved youth in metro Atlanta. For 17 years, she has worked in Title 1 schools through curriculum support (introducing more STE(A)M programming) work and as a liaison and advocate for families. She has worked with fortune 500 companies and is an author of “Built for This: A Young Woman’s Journey to Self-Discovery and Empowerment” (2016) and “Wrestling with Peace” (2018) and is now a speaker. 

Curriculum 

• Committed to ensuring teachers have the training and resources they need to teach curriculum effectively
• Will establish evidence-based curriculum that emphasizes creativity and critical thinking – “culturally responsive curriculum for inclusionary learning”  
• Emphasizes that curriculum should also include vocational training and entrepreneurial skills  

Equity

• Emphasizes dismantling old systems and removing institutional barriers and utilizing restorative and social justice 
• Will work to address the achievement gap – committed to ensuring students meet ELA and math proficiency standards regardless of zip code, socioeconomic status, race, or disability 

COVID-19 

• Understands that the pandemic will have an impact on APS graduation rates and will work to “prepare students with life skills” for life after secondary education 

Community Engagement 

• Committed to improving support services to families and focusing strategies for intervention on restorative and social justices