When adults are aligned, children and families thrive. That’s the simple truth at the heart of Top-Notch Villages™.
This framework shows organizations how to move from job titles to mission alignment—so teams reduce burnout, families feel supported, and children experience safety, belonging, and love.
At its core, Top-Notch Villages™ is about ecosystems: the environments that surround every child. Ecosystems don’t just support children—they shape them. And when the ecosystem is strong, the child is free to grow strong too.
Ecosystems don’t just support children—they shape them.
Top-Notch Villages™
Helping Children and Families WIN
Meet Dr. El
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Dr. El Brown grew up as a child without a healthy ecosystem of support—an experience that shaped her commitment to children and families. She became a teacher determined to give young learners what she once needed most.
As a mother, she noticed her toddler display developmental differences. Drawing on her teaching skills, she created a program to evaluate and communicate his needs. That program became KinderJam®, which spread globally and gave families tools to support their children while also providing the data she needed to work with service providers and secure her son’s autism diagnosis.
Because of misalignment, it took three years from the time she first asked for help to reach that diagnosis. Knowing childhood is a window in time, she built a mission-aligned ecosystem that brought his providers and community onto the same page. That Top-Notch Village moved her son from being nonverbal at five to thriving as a college freshman.
Having lived the power of a Top-Notch Village, it is now Dr. El’s mission to help organizations build them too—so every child has the opportunity to win.
​As a single mother raising a son on the autism spectrum—and without a strong family ecosystem to lean on—Dr. El had to build the village her child needed. Partnering closely with service providers and community members to help her child win, she created what became a living case study for mission-aligned ecosystems.
Raising Superman details how children, families, and village members work together to move children through childhood into young adulthood.
From this journey emerged the Village Engagement Matrix™, a framework born from lived experience and academic rigor. It illustrates the interconnectedness of ecosystems and how roles and needs evolve as children and families grow. What began as one mother’s urgent work to move her child forward now serves as a replicable model for building Top-Notch Villages™ that align people and purpose—so every child has the opportunity to thrive.
Raising Superman™
The Case Study That Built a Framework
In Top-Notch Villages, families and village members align so children win.
