Flamboyan Foundation is a private, family foundation focused on improving educational outcomes for children in Pre-K-12 public schools in Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Announcements
Flamboyan-P.R. Executive Director Guiomar Garcia a Featured Panelist at National Urban Fellows Leadership Conference in San Juan
Flamboyan Executive Director-P.R., Guiomar Garcia, will be a featured panelist at the National Urban Fellows Leadership Conference Saturday at the San Juan Marriott Stellaris Resort & Casino. This year’s conference theme is “Leadership Diversity in Public Service: A National Imperative”.
Funding Solutions in Diverse Communities will take place from 3:00-4:30 pm. The panel will be moderated by Tamara Carpenter, Vice President of School Development, MidWest Region of K12 Inc., and will also feature Charisse R. Lillie, President of Comcast Foundation and Angelo Falcon, Donna Frisby Greenwood, Program Director, Knight Foundation, Sharnita C. Johnson, Senior Program Officer, Skillman Foundation, Lorraine Vega, Senior Vice President, KeyBank Foundation, and Luis Alvarez, Board Member, Aspira of America and Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.
Ms. Garcia was chosen for this panel to provide insight on how Flamboyan Foundation is working with communities in Puerto Rico on the priorities for action in diverse communities, based on her extensive knowledge of the field of philanthropy on the island.
Flamboyan President Kristin Ehrgood Profiled in Bucknell’s Alumni Magazine
Today, Ehrgood is the driving force behind Flamboyan Foundation’s goals, which center on education advocacy and family engagement in Washington, D.C., and on fostering strong school leadership and building the island’s philanthropic and nonprofit communities in Puerto Rico. Though new and small — just 10 employees — Flamboyan has helped train 450 D.C. teachers on conducting productive home visits with student families and worked to change the tax code in Puerto Rico to be more conducive to philanthropic giving. Read more here.
Flamboyan’s Capitol Hill Panel on Family Engagement Featured in Ed Daily
DCPS builds teacher-parent relationships with home visits
Although some parents were at first wary at the thought of school officials coming into their homes, the District of Columbia Public Schools and the Flamboyan Foundation worked with the community to get both teachers and families comfortable with the idea of home visits.
Besides decreasing absenteeism and increasing student achievement, Flamboyan President Kristin Ehrgood said family engagement is foremost about fostering “relationships between teachers and families that are about the child, to help the child.”
Speaking during a briefing on Capitol Hill, panelists said positive teacher-parent relationships are prevented by misperceptions that teachers only call parents when their children get into some trouble in school and that parents are too busy to care. Read more here.