Announcements
New Partnership Opportunities Available for D.C. schools
Flamboyan Foundation is excited to announce the release of a Request for Proposals for Family Engagement Partnerships for 2012-2013. The Family Engagement Partnership will provide intensive coaching, technical assistance, and funding to schools that want to strengthen their family engagement approaches and practices, and, ultimately, be models for other D.C. schools interested in improving their family engagement efforts. These partnerships are designed to build school, and especially teachers’, capacity for family engagement that accelerates student learning. Early childhood, elementary, and preK-8th grade D.C. public and public charter schools are invited to apply for the Family Engagement Partnership.
Interested school principals are encouraged to register for an informational webinar and can do so clicking on the following links:
- February 16th from 4:00-5:00 PM at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/221708215
- February 23rd from 4:00-5:00 PM at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/323014119
- February 28th from 7:15-8:15 AM at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/701737383
Applications (which are brief) for the Family Engagement Partnership are due by 5:00 PM on Monday, March 5th. If you have questions or need assistance registering for a webinar, please contact Helen Westmoreland, Director of Program Quality, by e-mail at hwestmoreland@flamboyanfoundation.org or by phone at (202) 315-2438.
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, Kristin 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.
Flamboyan Foundation Founders’ Unique Approach Highlighted in Venture Philanthropy Partners’ Newsletter
Kristin Ehrgood and Vadim Nikitine: A unique couple with an original approach to philanthropy. Read more here.
Flamboyan Foundation Honored As Promising New National Partner at the Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project’s Fifth Annual Conference: Foundation President, DCPS Teacher and Parent Highlight the Importance of Building Trusting Relationships to Accelerating Student Learning
Washington, D.C. –Today, Flamboyan Foundation is being showcased at the Parent‐Teacher Home Visit Project’s (PTHVP) fifth annual national conference for their leadership in bringing the PTHVP relationship‐building model of home visits to Washington, D.C. public schools. PTHVP is honoring Flamboyan’s commitment to identifying family engagement strategies that work in D.C., and the foundation’s role in securing funding and spearheading the organization of the local home visit program.
“Home visits give teachers and parents the opportunity to build trusting relationships of mutual respect and create a collaborative partnership,” Kristin Ehrgood, President of Flamboyan Foundation, said. “Working with PTHVP, our home visit program is making strides in D.C., with hundreds of teachers seizing on this proven strategy for driving student learning.”
For more information, please click here.
D.C. Teacher Home Visiting Program Recognized on the Front Page of The Washington Post
Recently, home visits were featured on the front page of The Washington Post. Reporter Kevin Sieff highlighted the hard work of D.C.-area teachers who are visiting their students’ homes to build trusting relationships and engage their families as partners in their students’ education in his piece: “Teachers increasingly use home visits to connect with students’ families.”
Mr. Sieff’s story included a quote from Flamboyan Foundation’s President, Kristin Ehrgood, and recognized the Foundation’s work supporting D.C. public and public charter school teachers’ efforts around home visits. In 2011, Flamboyan Foundation partnered with the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project (PTHVP) of Sacramento, CA to train 407 teachers at 47 D.C. public and public charter schools. We provide extensive logistical and financial home visiting support to five schools in D.C. Teachers in our five partner schools have conducted over 480 visits to date.
Following publication of Mr. Sieff’s story, The Washington Post printed a letter to the editor written by Pamela Ross of Oyster-Adams Bilingual School: “Teachers’ home visits can benefit all students.” Ms. Ross, a 3rd grade teacher, stressed that home visits were valuable for all families, not just those who are disengaged or have children who are struggling.
Please click here for more.
Flamboyan Foundation Convenes Home Visit Trainings for D.C. Teachers as Part of Ongoing Family Engagement Efforts
As part of its ongoing partnership with D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and D.C. Charter Schools, Flamboyan Foundation today announced its home visit teacher training program for the 2011-2012 school year. Flamboyan is holding eight professional development training sessions Aug. 11-18, which are expected to teach 300 D.C. educators about building trusting relationships and accelerating their students’ learning through home visits. Please click here to learn more.
Flamboyan Foundation’s Helen Westmoreland Named “Emerging Leader in Family Engagement”
We are thrilled to announce that the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has honored Director of Program Quality Helen Westmoreland as one of its “Emerging Leaders in Family Engagement,” and published her work in the May 2011 issue of the HFRP FINE newsletter. In this article, Helen lays out her vision for the family engagement field and looks at the work Flamboyan and others are doing to make family engagement more purposeful and learning-focused. Read it here: Philanthropy for Innovation: Promoting Family Engagement Through Strategic Funding and Program Development.