This slide show was to share best practices around how to engage families of color around the issue of education. When you genuinely engage families, this has a direct positive outcome on the child's academic success.

1. An essential Strategy in Building a Pathway to
Higher Education & Success.
Presenters: Suzeth Dunn and Eric Hall
November 20,2013
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2. 
Orchard Gardens Public Housing is composed of
over 1400 low income residents.
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Location: Lower Roxbury, MA- inner city of
Boston
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90% of Families are predominantly low-income
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44%
40%
5%
11%
African-American
Latino Families
Asian
Others- Mix Race families
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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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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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Community Safety & Gang Prevention- increase
safety by developing a comprehensive strategy
that improves collaboration & effectivenessPublic 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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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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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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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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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%.
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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.
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11. “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.
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13. We must reframe the traditional family
engagement model.
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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.
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15. 
Family, School, Community Engagement Model
work best for communities of color.
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Shared responsibility-multi-disciplinary teams.
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Community Grassroots model for Family
Engagement.-Phases of Outreach
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Resident Services family engagement activities
are link to learning.
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Parents are Partners
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Family, School, Community Engagement
model can be the key to closing the
achievement gap.
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Concept of cultivating parents as agents of
change.
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Who are your partners in education?
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Educating Everyone Takes Everyone!
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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.
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Home visit Program-kit of resources, tips to
helping your child succeed in school.
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Technology Goes Home-basic computer classes
& free computer for parents.
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Fathers Groups- involving fathers in their kids
education.
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DREAM/ Boys & Girls Club- homework tutoring,
college mentors
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Family Financial Fitness- for entire families.
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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.
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Workshops/trainings programs: College
application and Financial Aid information.
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Literacy Parent Groups for toddlers.
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Back to School Jamboree-celebrate successseveral 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.
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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.
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22. Shaping Culture and
Values about Education
in Young People.
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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.
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Shared Responsibility: School, Parents,
Community. Raising Expectations.
Redefining our role models.
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