EmpowerU Launches Platform to Streamline Expert Social-Emotional Learning and Support for K–12 Students


With youth mental health needs on the rise, the new edtech platform powered by human relationships allows schools to scale services

(September 23, 2021—Minneapolis, MN) EmpowerU has reimagined the online portal to its highly personalized, data-driven social-emotional learning (SEL) solution. Refined through extensive beta testing, the new portal is designed to be more personalized and intuitive for the students and educators who use it. As districts around the country face ever-growing SEL and mental well-being needs among the students they serve, EmpowerU helps schools scale their counseling and support services—without hiring more staff.

“Our first EmpowerU platform was highly effective at helping schools provide students with evidence-based SEL interventions powered by real, caring people on the other side of the screen,” said Katie Dorn, MA, LSC, MFT, EmpowerU’s founder and licensed school counselor and family therapist. “As we talked with EmpowerU students, we realized how much they valued the daily support of their EmpowerU coach—and they wanted an integrated way to access their feedback and encouragement. Our new platform does just that. We’ve created a seamless user interface that is focused on the student journey, as we continue to deliver highly customized and personalized online coaching in small, digestible bites that fuel student growth.”

Key features of the new EmpowerU platform include:

  • Integrated student/coach feedback and messaging encourages active student participation in asynchronous, daily one-on-one dialogue with their EmpowerU coach.
  • An updated dashboard makes it easy for students to monitor their own progress and save essential learnings to take with them after they complete the course.
  • Integrated communication tools create close collaboration between the school team and the EmpowerU coach.
  • A one-click portal tab allows a student and the school-based team to visualize student data and progress on personal goals.

“Our new portal was designed to further simplify everything for our school teams and their students,” said Dorn. “We know how hard they work to support the wellbeing of their students. It’s our absolute privilege to be their trusted partner as we work together to serve struggling students faster and directly.”

Since 2015, the EmpowerU solution has been developed to help schools meet the needs of struggling students—without the need for additional hires or more work for the school’s teachers or in-house student support team. The online platform is EmpowerU’s epicenter of student success. It efficiently integrates student learning and daily coaching. And it streamlines progress-monitoring and collaboration with the school-based team. The upgraded, tech-powered platform deepens learning and mastery of SEL concepts as EmpowerU coaches help students take small steps each day to improve wellbeing and resilience.

EmpowerU’s tech-powered solutions are rooted in relationships to support student wellbeing and resilience from Kindergarten through college. The approach combines SEL lessons with evidence-based reflection, support and customized coaching to help students internalize new knowledge and skills. The plug-and-play SEL solutions include elementary Tier 1 curriculum and Tier 2 interventions, as well as secondary curriculum and interventions for Tier 1 and Tier 2 students.

Independent evaluation of EmpowerU’s Tier 2 program for grades 6-12 that launched in 2017 showed:

  • More than 93% of students who complete EmpowerU make a dramatic shift from discouragement and anxiety to improved wellbeing, motivation and hope.
  • More than 88% of students complete the program, compared to completion rates of 5–30% in other programs.
  • More than 98.5% of students would recommend EmpowerU to a friend or classmate.

About Empower U

EmpowerU’s highly personalized, data-driven SEL Tier 1 and Tier 2 solutions equip students to be resilient, self-directed learners and reach their goals—without a heavy lift from schools or need for additional hires. The program provides each student with interactive lessons and personalized coaching, pairing technology with brain research in a unique way that supports students and empowers their growth. The approach is aligned with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and National Health and Wellness standards, and measures student growth using the Prochaska/DiClemente Transtheoretical Model of Change. Multi-year data makes it clear: nobody understands Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and approaches SEL the way EmpowerU does.

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