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Why Parent Cafés? Spotlight on Help Me Grow and Goal Concordant Care
How and why do organizations that serve families use Parent Cafés as a strategy for parent engagement? Often, it’s to create a solid foundation of partnership between staff and parents and among the parents in a program to advance other programmatic initiatives. In 2022, Be Strong Families joined…
Reflections on the Building a Parent Nation IEL Panel
Over 3500 people gathered together during the Institute for Educational Leadership Conference in early June for the National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference (CSxFE). Educators and family supporters met from around the country and across the pond in Los Angeles to discuss the development and sustainability of community schools, supporting parents, and students alike. One of the breakout sessions was a featured panel on Parent Nation…
Good Community News!
Board Member Sandy Baba shares Office of Head Start webinar titles “Supporting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Families: The Head Start Program Perspective” by Dr. Jerry Yang at Kai Ming Head Start Program
An Interview with Tecoria Jones on Radical Family Engagement
On November 30, 2020, as part of Be Strong Families daily webinar series Staying Strong and Positive for Ourselves and Our Children, Be Strong Families President and CEO Katthe Wolf interviewed Tecoria Jones about radical family engagement. What works to engage families? What are the barriers? What would radical family engagement look and feel like to parents and agencies? Where is it happening now?
Weighing in on “Parent Engagement Through a Lens of Equity”
As a privileged white woman in a position of power and authority, committed to diversity, inclusion and radical co-creation, I’ve been trying to sit this one out. I’ve been trying to let my actions speak louder than my words and to use whatever energy and influence I have as an ally to make way for voices at the margin to come to the center and to speak for themselves in this conversation that is bubbling to the surface in our field. I’m aware that sometimes the most important thing I can do to promote equity is to shut up and encourage, and sometimes even coach others to say what’s in their heart and on their mind.
But I have something to say: this sh*t is annoying.
Parent Engagement through the Lens of Equity
Weiss et al. highlight how family engagement is key to achieving equity for kids in schools, and offer examples of how engaging parents as co-creators, co-learners, community-builders and decision-makers creates the condition for equitable learning.
In recent years, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, exacerbating loneliness and isolation.