Family, School, and Community

Engagement ModelAn essential Strategy in Building a

Pathway to Higher Education & Success.

Presenters: Suzeth Dunn and Eric HallNovember 20,2013

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Orchard Gardens Public Housing is composed of over 1400 low income residents.

Location: Lower Roxbury, MA- inner city of Boston

90% of Families are predominantly low-income

44% African-American 40% Latino Families 5% Asian 11% Others- Mix Race families

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Orchard Gardens Resident Services

Health & Wellness-community health initiatives

Partnership: Dana Farber, Boston University Medical School, Whittier St. Health Center, and Boston Health Commission.

Goal: is to address and reduce health disparities by encouraging healthy behaviors, increasing access to healthy foods, providing health education, and providing opportunities for physical activities.

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OG Resident Services Areas of Priorities

Jobs and Workforce Development- Build partnerships to increase access to career training, education, and job opportunities that lead to careers with family sustaining wages.

Community Partners: Urban League of Boston and Goodwill Memorial.

Workforce Development Committees: to review and develop program curriculum and research labor market.

Conduct Job Readiness Training/Coaching/Financial Literacy.

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OG Resident Services Areas of Priorities

Community Safety & Gang Prevention- increase safety by developing a comprehensive strategy that improves collaboration & effectiveness-Public Safety Committee

Increasing coordination, communication & prioritizing of existing resources among all community partners.

Focus on Family Strengthening as a long term and develop strategies to reduce violence.

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OG Resident Services Areas of Priorities

Community Safety & Gang Prevention-Boston has over 3,500 gang affiliates. The majority of the gang violence and activities happen in the Roxbury/lower Roxbury areas, especially in Orchard Gardens.

Multi-agency disciplinary team of providers

Boston Police Department, Trinity Management, Boston Health Commission, Boston Public Schools, Mayor’s Office, Probation Office, Department of Youth Services, Boston Center for Youth & Families and many more.

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Resident Services Areas of Priorities

Youth and Education: Education has the power to lift individuals and families out of poverty.

Our Goal are to increase: academic performance college enrollment and college graduation

rates enrollment of residents in higher quality

career training programs that promote economic security

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Resident Services Areas of Priorities

Study found that Boston Public Schools had one of the highest college enrollment rates in the country, only 35.5% of the students, who enrolled in college earned an associate’s degree within seven years.

Most of these students are students of color

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The Education and challenges

Research showed that BHA students do not perform as well academically as the average BPS student.

Non-BHA BPS students perform better on MCAS than their public housing peers.

BHA students have lower attendance than non-BHA students.

Average attendance at the OG School 95.3%, the average attendance for public housing students was 86.5%.

Boston Public School and Boston Housing Authority Education

Initiative

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Goal: To inspire a community-wide sense of shared responsibility that prioritizes education and academic performance to ensure that students growing up in BHA public housing developments achieve success in school and beyond.

Committee members: Trinity Management Resident Services, Boys and Girls Club, Roxbury Community College, Northeastern University, Boston Public School staff, Families, Boston Public Housing Authority, DREAM mentoring, and many more.

Lower Roxbury Community Family Education Engagement Committee

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“The evidence is consistent, positive, and convincing: families have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and through life. . . .When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.”

Henderson, A. T. and Mapp, K. L. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement (p.7). Austin, TX: SEDL.

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A disproportionate percentage of students who drop out of high school and college are low-income minority students.

Research continues to show that your traditional family engagement model improves school readiness, student’s academics achievements and graduation rate.

But for students of color this model simply doesn’t work.

Preparing Students for the Twenty-First Century

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We must reframe the traditional family engagement model.

Successful 21st Century Schools Understand and Emphasize That:

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Can’t relate, intimidation Mistrust-long lasting dynamics of

miscommunication and distrust between schools and their communities.

Negative schooling experiences Don’t feel respected or valued Language barriers and cultural differences Not fully understanding how the system

works.

Barriers and Challenges

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Family, School, Community Engagement Model work best for communities of color.

Shared responsibility-multi-disciplinary teams.

Community Grassroots model for Family Engagement.-Phases of Outreach

Resident Services family engagement activities are link to learning.

Parents are Partners

Reframing Family Engagement and Reorganizing its Practice

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Family, School, Community Engagement model can be the key to closing the achievement gap.

Concept of cultivating parents as agents of change.

Who are your partners in education?

Educating Everyone Takes Everyone!

Family, School, Community Engagement Model

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Give before you take. Understanding the families. Focus groups, need assessments

Who are these families? Needs? Strengths? Areas of needs?

Leveraging community resources , building a community network- Raise standards and address concerns.

Sharing Data-it’s a collective community interest.

Community Grassroots Model for Family Mobility

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Home visit Program-kit of resources, tips to helping your child succeed in school.

Technology Goes Home-basic computer classes & free computer for parents.

Fathers Groups- involving fathers in their kids education.

DREAM/ Boys & Girls Club- homework tutoring, college mentors

Family Financial Fitness- for entire families.

Examples of Family Educational Activities

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Career development workshops/coaching

Parent Education Workshops: Bullying, Teen Dating violence, Internet Safety, Trauma Response workshops, Sex Education, Effective black and Latino Parenting Classes.

Workshops/trainings programs: College application and Financial Aid information.

Literacy Parent Groups for toddlers.

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Examples of Family Educational Activities

Back to School Jamboree-celebrate success-several community vendors, education, dental van, school supplies, music, raffle prizes.

Large Career Fairs, Family Resource & Summer Camp Fairs.

Community Service Day- celebrating Orchard Gardens School, it went from a level 4 school to a level 1. No longer being in the list for underperforming schools.

Celebrate Community and provide Community Mobility

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Parents helping to organize and lead family, school, community engagement initiatives that are directly linked to learning.

School understanding the value of partnering with community providers and families for their input, expertise and guidance in program planning & policy development.

Parents regularly engaging in community and agency decisions about their children.

What Does Success Look Like?

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Shaping Culture and Values about

Education in Young People.

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Media Stereotypes

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Media Stereotypes

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It matters greatly what students believe about their intelligence.

Scientific Research that intelligence is not fixed but is developed.

Motivate our children- abilities can be developed through effort and learning.

Praising the process, their efforts.

Fighting the Stereotypes and Cultivating a Growth Mindset

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The Growth Mindset of Intelligence

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Shared Responsibility: School, Parents, Community. Raising Expectations.

Redefining our role models.

Coaching, Mentoring and Role Models

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Supporting children and Families

Supporting children and Families

Q & A

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