How can community partnerships foster educational equity and justice?

Community partnerships are also additional lenses school stakeholders can receive feedback and insight from. New perspectives to issues or innovations often help develop resolutions. Now more than ever, schools need the tools each individual and group have to support academic goals for students!

I am an example of being in a community partnership with schools. As the Senior Education Consultant of my business, I am a sub-contracted Education Consultant for one of my Clients that provide School-Based Mental Health Services for K-12 students. I enjoy being the liason in bringing the gap with my Client, School Leaders and staff. These services are essential in serving the whole child in order to close Academic Achievement Gaps.

1. Provide information: Educate parents about ADHD, its symptoms, and how it affects their child's learning. Provide resources and information on strategies that can help their child succeed in school.

Community partners are critical to discussions that revolve around how to best support learners. Strong community partnerships allow educators to tap into local resources and expertise and they can also serve as a window into what families and students value.

Regular communication: Maintain regular communication with parents through emails, phone calls, or parent-teacher conferences. Share updates on the child's progress and discuss strategies that can be implemented at home and in school.

Consider partnering with organizations such as Communities In Schools that specialize in this type of work. https://www.communitiesinschools.org/ "Communities In Schools is a national organization that ensures every student, regardless of race, gender, ability, zip code, or socioeconomic background has what they need to realize their full potential in school and beyond. Communities In Schools works by bringing community resources directly into schools through embedding a trained local coordinator whose sole focus is helping connect students with additional supports to help them learn, advance in grade level and graduate."

Collaborate with parents: Involve parents in the decision-making process and work collaboratively to develop strategies that can help their child succeed. Encourage parents to share their insights and observations about their child's behavior and learning.

The ability to sustain community partnerships with schools supporting Scholars and their communities...is building rapport and healthy relationships. One simple way to foster this is creating checks and balances along the way to promote desired outcomes, and ensuring that you have clarity of the vision they have for their school.

Provide support: Offer support to parents by connecting them with support groups, counseling services, or other resources that can help them cope with the challenges of parenting a child with ADHD.

Celebrate successes: Celebrate the child's successes and progress with parents. Recognize their efforts and achievements, no matter how small, and encourage them to continue working towards their goals.