Embedded Files
Step 4: Family & Community Supports
Step 4: Family & Community Supports
🎯 Purpose
🎯 Purpose
To establish strong family/caregiver and community partnerships that support SLIFE social-emotional well-being, academic success, and overall development.
📝 Description
📝 Description
Successful programs connect to students’ families, home learning cultures, and communities in a variety of ways. Connecting with SLIFE families/caregivers recognizes the important role that they play in SLIFE’s educational journeys and seeks to involve them as active participants in the educational process.
Beyond the family/caregiver unit, partnerships can involve community-based organizations that have the cultural and linguistic knowledge necessary to effectively serve as bridges between schools and families. Reliance on community partnerships is a common strategy across school districts to develop wraparound services for students and their families. These partnerships can be particularly extensive for refugee students and families, often involving resettlement agencies and organizations that support transitions. Additionally, partnerships with community organizations, such as local sports clubs (e.g., soccer teams), have proven advantageous for students, fostering cross-cultural connections, developing social-emotional competencies, and promoting inclusive environments. When rooted in genuine relationships with students, families, and community members, the sample resources listed below can contribute to SLIFE academic success, social-emotional health, and overall well-being.
🛠️ Tools
🛠️ Tools
Massachusetts and MA DESE Tools
Welcoming Families Communication Toolkit
Source: MA DESE and the Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center
Description: Recommended practices, templates and resources for schools and district on welcoming families. This toolkit was developed through a partnership between the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center, a program of the Federation for Children with Special Needs.
Welcoming Newcomer Families: Online Resource Hub
Source: Federation for Children with Special Needs (FCSN) as part of collaboration with DESE
Description: A space for educators to discuss and share resources on how to welcome newcomer families to school districts. This resource hub has links to a wide variety of resources for families to access food, clothing, healthcare, housing, legal, and ESL services.
Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants Education, Youth, & Other Health Services Directory
Source: The Office for Refugees and Immigrants’ Education, Youth, Health & Other Services (ORI)
Description: ORI includes several refugee programs, including case management, health and medical assistance, youth mentoring, unaccompanied minors, and more.
Other Tools & Resources
Newcomer Toolkit Chapter 5: Establishing Partnerships with Families
Source: NCELA, U.S. Department of Education
Description: This chapter of the Newcomer Toolkit focuses on building connections with newcomer families.
Career Ready Checklist in Multiple Languages
Source: NYC Department of Education Multilingual Learners and Immigrant Student Support Site
Description: A checklist available in 10 different languages for ML students to prepare for careers.
"Making Your First ELL Home Visit: A Guide for Classroom Teachers"
Source: Colorín Colorado
Description: This article provides practical tips for conducting home visits with English learners and their families, including steps to take before, during, and after the visit.
Description: Videos for newcomer families in 11 different languages. They provide general information about schooling in the U.S. and information specific to OUSD. These can be good models that MA districts could use to develop their own family orientation videos or materials.
Starting School in the United States: A Guide for Newcomer Students' Families
Source: REL Northwest
Description: This guide walks newcomer families through the typical schooling experiences in the United States. Available in four languages.
Successfully Communicating with Multilingual Families
Source: National Association of Secondary School Principals
Description: Explanations of how different districts have effectively communicated with multilingual families, including Brockton, MA.
Haitian-American Public Health Initiative (HAPHI)
Source: Mutual Assistance Association Coalition
Description: Culturally and linguistically accessible information and services to improve the health and emotional wellbeing of the Haitian Community in Massachusetts.
Source: Brazilian Worker Center
Description: The Brazilian Worker Center is a non-profit organization that capacitates immigrant workers to learn about workplace rights, immigration, and health equity. The site includes links to a variety of resources offered at its Family Welcome Center in Boston.
Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI)
Source: Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI)
Description: Comprehensive services for new arrivals in the IFSI Offices in Boston, Brockton, and Worcester.
Source: Immigrant's Assistance Center
Description: Provides information and resource from a center that helps immigrants meet basic human needs and travel the complex road to American citizenship, employment, and financial self-sufficiency while maintaining their ethnic identity and pride.
Source: Mass211
Description: A hotline to help locate essential community services (e.g., after-school programs, food banks, aging care).
Source: Office of Refugee Resettlement
Description: This website is a one-stop resource hub for refugee service providers in the United States. This is a library of learning resources, an online evidence database, a range of self-paced e-learning courses, regular live learning opportunities, and on-demand technical assistance for ORR-funded organizations. This includes school districts participating in the Refugee School Impact program.
Source: TalkingPoints
Description: A multilingual technology platform (free for individual educators to sign-up) that connects and empowers families and teachers by using human and AI-powered, two-way translated communication and personalized content. Supports home-school connections and family engagement.
📸 Spotlight on Practice
📸 Spotlight on Practice
Snapshot 1: Community Partnerships
Snapshot 1: Community Partnerships
SomerViva, in the Office of Immigrant Affairs in Somerville, offers community services in various languages, such as guidance for where residents can find food and rental assistance, information and referrals for legal assistance, and courses in topics such as financial education. There are many local and regional organizations like this across the state that schools and districts can partner with to help provide supports for families.
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Snapshot 2: Insights from a Youth Organization
Snapshot 2: Insights from a Youth Organization
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
One SLIFE Community of Practice member has been working with a youth community organization. We asked a leader from that organization: What advice would you give to a school that is just beginning to engage in community partnerships?
Positionality, reflection, and self-reflection: Ongoing trainings, individual reflection, and "inventory" of my own identities, prejudices, blind spots, strengths, and areas of growth have been tremendously helpful for me. As a White non-Latinx male born in the U.S., whose first language is English and second language is Spanish, I have had to learn, unlearn, and relearn about how I see myself and others around me. I came into this work thinking that I knew a lot and had done a lot of work on myself, such as anti-racism work, but I've realized I need to strengthen areas that I thought were already "strong" and acknowledge other areas where I needed a lot more "strength training." There is a space of looking at ourselves compassionately in the mirror and working on developing our understanding of ourselves and how we move in the world, and how we can be open to learning more about ourselves and others. Reflecting on my identities around race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc., learning more about my mental health and the mental health of others, and identifying my own strengths and the strengths of others has been deeply beneficial in both my personal and professional life. I realize that I want to help and see positive change, and a very important thing I need to do is work on making positive changes in myself.
Active listening and holding space: Listening and showing kindness is always a helpful practice! I've found that a lot of people just want to be listened to. Some people don't need or want my "help," questions, advice, solutions, or ideas. Sometimes people just want to be heard and seen. Sometimes all that is needed is to just sit with someone and listen to them.
Community nights: One way to connect families and schools could be hosting community nights with parents, families, staff, and administrators, complete with interpreters, food, and transportation and childcare, if possible. Everyone could sit in a big circle, and the parents and families could be asked what they want and need, and have their voice and choice heard and respected. Ideas and action steps could be built out from parent and family input, along with continued collaboration, communication, and follow-up meetings.
Multicultural nights: Multicultural nights organized by student clubs are another great way for families to build relationships with one another and with school staff. Multicultural nights at local middle schools have included student DJs, live music and dance performances from students and families, and tables representing different countries and cultures piled high with free food from those places! Students, families, and staff wore soccer jerseys from their countries of origin, carried flags, and wore traditional garments. These nights are wonderful events of celebration, connection, and community-building.
Coffee hours: A middle school principal holds regular coffee hours with principal chats, one in English and one in Spanish, by opening his office for parents to join him for a time to talk. The principal has also invited community partners to present on key topics, share resources, and answer questions from families/caregivers.
Student interviews: Interviews with SLIFE students would also be a great way to get their perspective, and their voice and choice, ideas, and collaboration in the process of building out the program!
Bilingual Staff: Multilingual, multicultural, and ethnically diverse teachers, school counselors, staff, administrators, and family liaisons who speak family/caregiver languages are imperative for helping bridge the gap between many schools and families. I wonder if there are opportunities for people that speak the languages and are from the cultures represented by the students to be trained and employed, if they are not already, in these capacities.
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