Resilient Agency & New Village Girls Academy: A Partnership Rooted in Community
Located in the heart of Los Angeles, Resilient Agency partner New Village Girls Academy is redefining alternative education for girls grades 9-12 and partnering with community-based organizations like Resilient Agency to provide New Village students, their families, and the larger community with the resources they need to overcome challenges and thrive. New Village students include those who are justice-impacted, in the foster care system, struggling with food and housing insecurity, facing mental health issues, are pregnant or parenting or facing a variety of other challenges.
Leading the school is Principal Jennifer Quinones, whose eight year tenure has helped shape the school’s culture through community-rooted leadership, empathy, and an academic experience that acknowledges the multifaceted challenges her students face and the support systems that can help them focus on academic and personal success. A former Fulbright Fellow and longtime educator in East and South Los Angeles, Quinones brings both research experience and lived commitment to her role. Quinones credits her success to understanding the community she comes from, investing in continuity with trusted educators, and fostering strong relationships with families. Under her leadership, New Village has grown into a school that not only meets academic requirements but also functions as a hub of healing, empowerment, and intergenerational impact.
Quinones’s background in identifying and overcoming barriers to student success helped her and her team overcome numerous recent crises, from the pandemic to the LA fires to recent ICE raids. As Quinones describes: “If there’s one thing to be grateful for, about the pandemic, let it be our ability to start taking into consideration the impact schools have on everyday life. This is not just a place of learning…. This is–for some people– a lifeline.” Collaborating with community partners like Resilient Agency, New Village helped the neighborhood bounce back from challenges and cemented their role as a community cornerstone.
Community Partnerships
The school’s holistic model extends beyond its classrooms to the neighboring community partnerships and the neighborhood that surrounds them.
“At the end of the day, this is communal work. What we do here has a direct impact not only on my students and their high school requirements… but it also has a direct impact on what their future is, but also their families. And when we look at girls that are pregnant or parenting, we’re looking at generational impact.”
By centering community, New Village strengthens not just individual students but also families and neighborhoods, ensuring that education and justice are inseparable.
Resilient Agency plays a critical role in New Village’s interface with the surrounding neighborhoods. Providing Safe Passage support after school ensures that New Village’s grades 9-12 students get to and from school safely. Quinones emphasizes how critical this work is, explaining the high risk of human trafficking and violence these students face: “if we’re not proactive by ensuring that we’re taking care of our streets…we’re hurting our community and our families.”
In addition to regular Safe Passage support, Resilient Agency shows up to support New Village during emerging situations that require conflict resolution and deescalation. Quinones recalled a recent incident where a student in crisis required urgent intervention. Instead of resorting to punitive measures, Resilient staff arrived within minutes, de-escalated the situation, and helped the student return safely to her family.
For Quinones, this kind of response reflects what true partnership looks like: “Resilient has been that support for us. They show up for emergency situations regardless of whether it’s time-sensitive or if it’s something for the long run. For me, [they’re] angels.”
School Culture: Mentorship & Belonging
One of New Village’s cornerstones is cultivating empathetic, trusting mentorships between students and adults. As Principal Quinones shared, “80 to 85 percent of our girls… tell us there’s somebody here that I can confide in.” That sense of safety and belonging is amplified by the school’s advisory structure, in which each student spends half her day with a small cohort of about 20 peers guided by a trusted advisor.
Beyond mentoring, New Village offers a range of holistic supports: students follow individual learning plans, pursue internships twice a week, and engage in project-based learning rooted in their interests. The wellness program provides free medical care, mental health counseling, a full-time school social worker, daily meditation, an edible garden, and field trips (including with Resilient Agency). The combination of relationship-first pedagogy and wraparound support helps students feel seen, heard, and empowered, often for the first time in their educational journeys.
For students who have often been silenced or overlooked in traditional settings, that sense of belonging is transformative. It allows them to reflect, seek guidance, and rebuild trust. Through mentorship and wraparound supports, girls at New Village learn to take control of their futures with confidence. Two former students have since returned as faculty members, now giving back to the community in new ways.
A Model for the County
The lessons of New Village reach far beyond its campus. Quinones is now working with Los Angeles County officials and advocates to design alternatives to youth detention for girls, building on the very practices that have succeeded at her school. With state support and county momentum, Quinones is helping pave the path toward compassionate alternatives to incarceration for young women across Los Angeles and perhaps one day, the whole country.