STRENGTHENING FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY.
Our Family Centers collaborate with community groups to provide members with information about events and resources as well as workshops on a variety of topics including parenting, health and nutrition, HUSKY health insurance, child development, child care, money management, cultural diversity, and other subjects requested by parents and others.
“High schools are designed to get
students to graduate . . . They are not necessarily designed to enable students
to succeed in college . . . The time has come to think past admission to
academic success.” Certainly, high schools need to do their part, but can
parents help? What can parents do to help their students be ready for
college? How
do parents know whether their student is ready for college?
CAREER READY?
60 question free career test uncovers the
scientific summary of your work personality. Also - generates a detailed full version option
with lists
of careers and jobs that fit you best.
Families come together for a healthy dinner,a story and an activity.
The book of choice was "Whistle for Wille" written by Ezra Jack Keats. Peter, a young boy wished he could whistle, but was having difficulty whistling.
He saw a boy in the park playing with his dog and each time the boy whistled, the dog came to him. He wanted to do the same with his dog, but he was unable to whistle. He tried multiple times, but struggled with each attempt. He continued trying, until eventually he was successful at whistling. He hid in a carton from his dog, and whistled and Willie, his dog, stopped and looked around to see who it was. He stood up, shouted to the dog and Willie ran right to him. He went home and showed his parents that he could whistle and was proud of his accomplishment.
Moral of the story, if you try and don't succeed, try and try again. With practice and persistence all things are possible. The children all took turns whistling, then were asked to recreate the scene with Peter and Willie using pipe cleaner, cotton balls, paint, paint brushes, paper, scissors and glue. They were told to be creative and the end result was amazing. Some children painted a picture, some used pipe cleaner to make a boy, one child made a girl instead because she is a girl, one student went outside the box and made a 3D dog which was amazing.
Their masterpieces were left to dry and will be displayed until the next Dinner
and A Story (7/25/2017). Total number of projects completed = 15
==============================
Families were greeted and invited to join the program. Today's dinner and a story session, Asylum Hill joined with Parker Memorial and their black giving circle program, which fathers enrolled in the center to facilitate dinner and a story. Kitchen helpers began prepping the food, while fathers prepped for the evening’s story and activities. On the menu was mashed potatoes paired with sweet corn, baked bbq chicken and fried whiting with eschovitch onions. The menu choices for this session was an absolute hit with the families and they enjoyed the dinner portion of the evening. The fathers who facilitated the evening’s story and activities were Mr. Ron Martin and Mr. Benjamin Rivers, who are both active participants in the fatherhood program. The idea is to engage the fathers and encourage them to be active not only in their children’s lives, but in their community.
The story chosen for the evening was titled “Be Who You Are” by Todd Parr, a New York Times Bestselling Author. The story started with the message “be old, be young,” which I thought was fitting for everyone in the room, not just the children. It went on to explain that being yourself means to embrace color, the way you dress, the way you speak, the way you learn, your neighborhood or country, your family.
It stressed the importance of being who you are and not who others may want you to be. It went on to encourage bravery, kindness, fun, learning, expressing feelings, trying new things, confidence and so much more. The message in this story was it doesn’t matter who you are and how different others may be, everyone needs to love themselves and others.
I thought the story chosen was very appropriate, as it can be difficult to live amongst so many different people and try to conform to the things society label “normal” while those things may not be normal to you. In a society of bullies and harsh criticism, sometimes being true to one’s self can be quite difficult, but having that understanding that everyone is different and should be accepted and loved is very important and is an invaluable lesson; for children especially.
Mr. Martin followed the story with a song titled “Let me be a little kinder” which was accompanied by acoustics from his guitar. He taught the group the words to the song and invited everyone to sign along.The children were asked to join Mr. Ron at the front of the room to partake in the sing-along, and the song and guitar chords were followed by clapping. Everyone enjoyed this segment of the program. The children were then asked to draw pictures of kindness and the outcomes were amazing. One child explained her art, stating she drew a butterfly with a broken wing which she helped and the butterfly was able to fly again.
Another child drew himself helping a homeless person. Another constructed a 3D house with garbage bins and expressed that she cleaned up the area around her house, remembering to recycle and also assisted a neighbor in disposing of her garbage. They were so creative and we couldn’t be more proud of their projects. Children were also asked what they would like to be when they grow up and the first response was a pediatrician, which came from an eight year old from one of our newest family center families; her response was quite refreshing. Other responses included soccer player, professional gamer, ballerina, teacher and many more.
In conclusion, the children stayed engaged, they were excited about their projects and the fathers did an amazing job hosting this dinner and a story. The collaboration with Parker was as success and gives a great message about teamwork.
"Trinity College’s Cities, Suburbs and Schools Project, the Connecticut Data Collaborative and the University of Connecticut’s Mapping and Geographic Information Center (MAGIC) analyzed and visualized data to help communities examine outcomes in the context of neighborhoods, socioeconomic and community resources." [1] - EDI Report
This session focused on Equity in Education. We focused on two sections of the EDI: Language & Cognition and Emotional Maturity. Language and Cognition receiving the highest results
(66%) and Emotional Maturity receiving the lowest (45%). This means 66% of the students entering kindergarten had language and cognitive readiness, while only 45% were emotionally ready.
The first question asked was:
What is equity
in education /
what do you think equity means?
We had equity defined as “fairness
and
justice in the way someone is
treated” The participants responses
to
this question were as follows:
-Allows fairness in the education system
-Children having access to extra-curricular activities
-“Our children’s lives matter”
-Family centers offer programs that allow
children to be
on a level playing field
-Children have better access due to their location
A current high school student
stated the following
“As a student at school you do not learn about
programs /scholarships unless you are
friends
or have a good relationship with the guidance
counselor. Another high school student said
“there is a
lack of equity in education. You have
an
advantage based on your name,where you live
and your
background” This student also posed the
question, “why are majority of teaches who teach in
Hartford, not from
Hartford? Also, speaking from
experience, are black teachers non-existent
or just not getting hired?”
One group stated, “ In America,
there is barely equity in anything.”
Another group
alluded to the fact that parents of students in urban
areas tend to have multiple jobs
and as a result are unable to attend PTO meetings and other school
activities. They
want to be more
proactive but there are many barriers which makes it difficult.
They are also unable to assist with homework
and the task is left to older siblings.
Another group mentioned the Sheff vs O’neil case then mentioned the Open Choice and lottery systems. It was oftheir opinion that the systems are selective, has good intentions but multiple drawbacks and students are not prepared. It is a forced integration system.
This group expressed there is a positive
in
these systems for SOME.
At this point participants were
told
that some of their responses were for
question #2, but they were shown A youtube video on equity and
equality before tackling question #2.
This was useful to ensure they were
not confusing the two.
Dinner was served and as
participants returned
to their groups, question number 2 was posed: What factors contribute to the low scores?
- They
were asked to record their responses on
newsprint. We started harvesting with
group 3,
as group 1 began the initial discussion on what
is equity.
Group 3 mentioned some of the responses
from
question 1 were contributing factors. One of their Members shared the following:
“After having this discussion, my impression changed a little.
The EDI Information is relevant when
having
this conversation because it puts a lot into
perspective. ”The participants posed the
question,
“if this is the teacher’s perspective then were they
more
subjective?”
Group 3 added Asylum kids tend
to be more
emotionally ready when they have to go to
school in other towns. One thing to take into consideration is the
educational level of the
parents in Asylum Hill. The quoted “Educated
parents =
educated children” They also
added
people’s attitude is a contributing factor in addition to
background and
culture and also their environment.
Groups 1 and 2 shared there are
language barriers and
cultural differences which makea big difference They
stated “Parents are the
child’s first teachers”. The
expressed
some parents, although uneducated, will
fight and ensure that
their children do their bestat school,
while some remain uninterested. They expressed the
manner in which
we speak to and interact with our
children determines their outcome; parents
have to
find time for positive interaction with their kids.
At this point participants were
asked to engage in a role play activity where each group had to select an
individual from their group
to play the role of the
teacher, child or parent. The scenario was the child
under-performing in school, teacher
suspects parent
is not doing as they should to encourage learning at
home, teacher confronts parent
and parent reacts.
It was amazing to see participants in their respective
roles and when other participants were asked to chime in on ways the teacher and
parent could have responded differently, one
participant mentioned using
“I” statements as they learned in their PEP
classes; that was quite refreshing.
The final question was
presented to the participants was:
Whatmust we do together to combat these issues?
One person from each table was
asked to give feedback
on this question.
First response was to share information
- we can feed off of each
other’s strengths. They also
shared the
following responses:
-We need to stop crying victim
-Personal development sessions
-Universal laws – taking action
-Continuous development of leaders
***********************************************************************
Our fourth community Café was held June 15 th 2017 at 5:30 in the evening.
Food was provided for dinner where we hosted 17 participants 7 of which were
youth under the age of 21. The conversation was rich and robust although we
got off to a slow start. Once families began to speak there was no
stopping them. - MORE HERE
