Brittany Rabb’s full-circle joy: Helping kids thrive

In 2023, Brittany Rabb (CWR ’19, SAS ’20) landed her dream job with Harlem Children’s Zone  (HCZ), a renowned New York City nonprofit that provides “cradle-to-career” support for children.

“I fell in love with the model during a child policy course at Case Western Reserve,” said Rabb. Today she’s director of K-12 initiatives at HCZ’s William Julius Wilson Institute, which helps organizations around the country adapt the comprehensive HCZ approach to reduce poverty and increase opportunities. She works with leaders of school districts and nonprofits to create strategies that provide students the support needed to overcome barriers to success. 

She draws on her experiences from childhood and CWRU. Orphaned at 14, Rabb ultimately flourished with help and support from her community and high school, which fueled her passion for work in education.

As an incoming CWRU student, Rabb earned a full-tuition scholarship and a place in the university’s Nord Family Emerging Scholars Program, which provides academic support and mentoring primarily to graduates of Cleveland-area high schools. Its leaders encouraged her interest in sociology, which became Rabb’s major. Then she earned a master’s degree in social work from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

What attracted you to your work?

The William Julius Wilson Institute’s North Star is to put 1 million children on the path to social and economic mobility—a path that I am on. I grew up in poverty and am now on the other side. And it wouldn’t have happened without my CWRU education, without the scholarship or without the caring adults and mentors in my life.

How did your CWRU education prepare you?

I will always reflect on how people believed in me throughout my entire CWRU journey. [Nord Family] ESP really gave me the foundational skills to get over the imposter syndrome of coming to CWRU. [Professor] Tim Black’s “Sociology 101” was honestly life-changing. … It gave me the words for my experience, which was really, really empowering. 

You’ve navigated profound personal challenges and built a career helping young people thrive. What in your day-to-day work reminds you why this matters?

It’s the kids. You always have to ground yourself in your ‘why.’ I think about ‘high-school Brittany’ or ‘senior-year Brittany,’ and that we have to do whatever it takes to kind of get that young person on a path to thriving. That’s what kids deserve.