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About

Vision

Comunidad envisions a diverse, inclusive, and racially just PTA. In this future, all socio-economic, racial, ethnic, linguistic, and geographic groups are present, included, and active. This is why we exist.

Mission

Comunidad builds an inclusive community by creating equitable spaces for conversation and relationship and equitably advocating for the needs of all families and staff. This is what we do.

Strategy

Comunidad will create the strategy for the 2022-2023 school year in August. This will determine what we focus on and how how we will achieve the mission.

From cultural celebrations to expanding the handbook, Comunidad is doing a lot. Here's a short list of what we've done during the 2021-2022 school year:

Advocating for caregivers
Cultural celebrations including Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month
Organizing and communicating through classroom liaisons
Creating a calendar with all school events
Expanding the handbook policy
Expanding lottery preferences
Fundraising
Meeting with the board
Representing caregivers and staff to the principal every two weeks
Polling caregivers and staff to determine questions, concerns and areas of focus
Playdates
Sustainability events including Earth Day (week) activities, clothing swap and communtiy celebration
Taking trainings on equity
and more!

Take a look

History

August 2019 - Calle Ocho campus founded
2019-2020 - Efforts to start a traditional PTA were stopped by the school
Fall 2020 - Kindred (a consultancy organization that has a contract with Mundo Verde) starts recruiting for dialogue groups
Spring 2021 - Kindred runs its first caregiver dialogue group
Fall 2021 - Kindred runs its second dialogue
Spring 2021 - Kindred initiates a PTA (without teachers) focused on equity and invites all caregivers including those that did not attend a dialogue group
Spring 2021 - Confusion arises due to those who went through the dialogue groups having a different understanding than those who did not
Summer 2021 - Comunidad work pauses
Fall 2021 - Comunidad continues with Kindred communicating to the administration for Comunidad
Spring 2022 - Kindred's work with Comunidad pauses while Comunidad continues without Kindred
Summer 2022 - Comunidad will choose its organizational structure a second time

Who is Kindred?

Kindred is a nonprofit that advises schools in building a racially just school community. Kindred does this work by conducting dialogue groups with mixed caregivers in year one. In year two, they usually launch an Equity Team focused on advancing equity. The equity team works alongside the PTA. In our case, we did not have a PTA. So the decision was made to launch a joint Equity Team and PTA as one organization and open it to all caregivers. This was confusing for many caregivers, so Comunidad (this joint group) has been doing the work to align all caregivers into one shared vision. Today Kindred has updated their model to include engagement with administration which they are currently doing at Mundo Verde while their work is paused with Comunidad.

Kindred Journey

Kindred's Process

History with Kindred

Our History with Kindred

Who we are

Our Structure: We use a hubless spoke model in which each spoke (committee) is aligned to our mission and free to choose its own activities and present questions to the larger group.

Plan - 7 members - This spoke plans the large meetings and organizes communications with the school.
Celebrate Spoke - 5 members - This spoke plans cultural activities and celebrations throughout the year.
Classroom Liaisons - 35-40 members - This spoke has representatives in every classroom helping to organize volunteers, teacher appreciation events, fundraising, and general communication.
Communicate Spoke - 5 members - This spoke manages the newsletter, calendar, website, and communications with the school.
Include Spoke - 5 members - This spoke works to build a feeling of community through events, and works to make the school community more diverse.
Resource Spoke- 2 members - This spoke resources the school with people, time, money, and other resources.
Sustain Spoke - 8 members - This spoke manages projects and activities on the topic of sustainability.