JAKE Small Speaking Fee: $10,000 to $20,000

Too many education systems treat belonging as an afterthought — a nice-to-have separate from instruction — and then wonder why students disengage. This talk confronts that false separation by centering mattering as the essential condition for academic persistence and long-term success for Black boys and other marginalized youth. Drawing on years of classroom-facing research, community leadership, and poetic narrative, JAKE Small names the practical levers that make mattering real in schools and districts. In "The Miracle of Mattering," he threads data with story to show how policies, adult practices, and school rituals either signal that a child matters or that they do not. He connects these signals to measurable outcomes — attendance, retention, behavior incidents, and postsecondary trajectories — and offers specific shifts that educators and leaders can implement immediately. PERFECT FOR TEAMS & LEADERS WHO ARE: • Working in K–12 settings that are losing Black boys to chronic disengagement and want concrete strategies to reverse that trend within one school year • Leading equity initiatives that need a unifying, research-backed concept to move adults from policy talk to classroom practice • District or school leaders preparing strategic plans that must demonstrate measurable gains in retention, engagement, and culturally sustaining practice • Community organizations and funders seeking clearer ways to invest in programs that increase belonging and long-term student success YOUR AUDIENCE WILL WALK AWAY WITH: • A clear framework for diagnosing whether students experience mattering in their school — including observable adult behaviors and institutional signals • Actionable classroom- and school-level practices that educators can adopt to improve attendance, participation, and persistence within months • Language and narratives to shift adult mindsets, enabling teachers and leaders to center care without sacrificing academic rigor • Examples of policy adjustments that remove structural barriers and create measurable pathways for Black boys to thrive When mattering is nonnegotiable, schools stop surviving and start fulfilling their purpose.

When stories of youth are reduced to statistics, policy becomes disconnected from the lived realities it is meant to serve. This keynote begins with a provocation: narrative is not merely illustrative — it is a governance tool that shapes who counts in our systems. JAKE Small blends his work as an author of FOR EVERY BLACK BOY with decades of grassroots education leadership to map how storytelling can catalyze policy change. He demonstrates how poetry, testimony, and community testimony surface the moral stakes behind data, and how leaders can use narrative strategically to mobilize resources, shift public will, and design student-centered programs. This talk guides audiences from awareness to advocacy — from empathic listening to concrete policy edits. PERFECT FOR TEAMS & LEADERS WHO ARE: • Seeking to align communications, policy advocacy, and program design so that stakeholder stories inform resource allocation and accountability • Funders, nonprofit leaders, and district officials who want to center authentic youth voice in decision-making rather than treating it as token input • School boards and elected leaders needing a values-driven approach to translate community narratives into legislative or budgetary action • Educators and organizers who rely on storytelling but want clearer pathways to convert narratives into measurable practice changes YOUR AUDIENCE WILL WALK AWAY WITH: • Techniques to capture and elevate student and family stories in ways that influence policy and funding conversations • A replicable approach for turning qualitative testimony into specific policy language, program criteria, and measurable outcomes • Tools to build cross-sector coalitions that use narrative to sustain political will for equity initiatives • A renewed sense of why honoring young people’s voice is both ethically necessary and strategically effective Stories are not sentimental add-ons — they are the engine for sustainable, just change.

Too often organizations adopt lofty equity statements and then leave practitioners to interpret what those words mean in daily routines. This talk reframes the problem: emancipation is not an idea to be admired — it is a set of practices to be operationalized and measured. JAKE Small brings a practitioner’s lens to emancipatory work, translating emancipatory theory into daily policies, staff practices, and accountability habits that reduce harm and expand opportunities. He draws on his work in school governance and community organizing to show how systems, practices, and beliefs can either resist or abet oppression — and then offers concrete steps leaders can use to move from performative change to institutionalized justice. PERFECT FOR TEAMS & LEADERS WHO ARE: • Responsible for turning equity statements into implementation plans with clear deliverables, timelines, and assessment metrics • Leading professional development efforts that must move adults from awareness to consistent practice across classrooms and offices • Designing audits, hiring practices, or evaluation systems that need to center reparative action rather than compliance • Building cross-functional teams (instruction, operations, family engagement) that must coordinate to dismantle entrenched barriers YOUR AUDIENCE WILL WALK AWAY WITH: • A set of concrete operational levers — from hiring and onboarding tweaks to schedule and discipline policy changes — that reduce harm and increase access • Practical methods for auditing existing practices and prioritizing interventions with the highest impact on equity and student outcomes • Communication moves and meeting rituals that keep emancipatory commitments visible and accountable over time • Templates for translating commitments into measurable indicators so progress is tracked and sustained Operational justice is not an aspiration; it is a daily discipline that organizations can learn and scale.