Does community and family engagement contribute to success? What are agencies’ experiences and when does engagement fit best in the process? Engaging with partners maximizes potential relationships among community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and local agencies.

Resources:

A Study of Family Engagement in Redwood City Community Schools from the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, Stanford Graduate School of Education.

InnerCity Struggle is a member of California Calls: An Alliance to Renew the Dream, an alliance which consists of over 27 community-based organizations in 11 counties, has identified over 265,000 voters mostly in low-income, communities of color who support reforming California’s budget and investing in California’s future.  This page describes how InnerCity Struggle engaged the public as part of this alliance.

Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement, A Toolkit for Parents and Community Partners, Dec 2010 This toolkit includes information, examples, and helpful questions that parents and community partners can draw from as they jointly develop engagement strategies that reflect their unique priorities and communities.

The Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project is a nationally recognized California non-profit organization jointly governed by three founding member groups: the Sacramento City Teachers’ Association, Sacramento ACT (a faith-based community organizing group), and the Sacramento City Unified School District.  The partners have developed a district-wide program connecting parents and families to schools. The partnership provides interactive staff development training sessions and serves as a resource and leader for participating sites and connecting home visiting efforts locally, statewide and nationally.  The goal of the project is to increase trust and communication between schools and families using a proven model of voluntary and relational home visits that build the capacity of educators, families and students leading to increased success for all. Read about the partnership in National Education Association’s profile on page 38 of the guide, Family-School-Community-Partnerships 2.0.

The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in concert with the US Department of Education’s Parental Information and Resource Center  and other partners produced a series of webinars and video recordings about family, school, and community engagement.

The Institute for Local Government, through its Public Engagement program, offers a wealth or resources to help cities and counties realize their public engagement goals.  Materials and resources have been gathered from the Institute’s website to assist cities, counties and schools understand Local Control Funding Formula and available resources.