Florence, South Carolina
Row 2 (l to r): Andrena Hart, Markey Bee (School, Family, Community Liaison), Tammy Pawloski (Director of the Center of Excellence to Prepare Teachers of Children of Poverty)
Celebration Time—Sharing Best Practices
The leaders of the Center of Excellence (COE) at Francis Marion University guide four districts and about 80 NNPS member schools. This year’s culminating breakfast celebration welcomed teachers and administrators from four more districts that were interested in knowing more about COE, NNPS, and the partnership activities conducted in districts and schools in South Carolina. At the Celebration, Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs) had time to 1) network, share their best practices, and gather new ideas for use in their own schools; 2) recognize schools’ hard work and accomplishments; and 3) encourage schools to submit their best practices for the new edition of the NNPS book of Promising Partnership Practice 2016.
The theme for Celebration Time was “Every family is a different kind of flower and all together make this world a beautiful garden.” There was a Poster Gallery Walk to review activities. Seven schools that earned COE Family and Community Outreach Project Awards described their funded projects using videos, posters, or PowerPoint presentations. Ten more schools made short presentations on a best practice in their programs. The Associate Director of COE recognized all schools whose work was in the NNPS 2015 collection of best practices and awarded each of them a $100 prize from COE.
Celebration Time—Sharing Best Practices is featured in Promising Partnership Practices 2016.
Effective Communication Strategies
To improve and grow the Center of Excellence (COE) partnership program with NNPS, COE leaders wanted to improve communications with district leaders on how to help their schools. First, the COE leaders checked to learn which kind(s) of communications each district leader preferred. Leaders of the four districts supported by COE agreed that regularly scheduled monthly phone contacts were easiest, along with some on-site face to face visits. The district leaders expressed appreciation for current communication strategies like the COE newsletter that is distributed statewide, the fall “Refresher Training,” and the End-of-Year Celebration (see above). COE leaders guided district leaders to take follow up actions to help their schools. For example, one district leader scheduled meetings with principals to create more awareness of the partnership program. COE helped fund two principals to attend the NNPS conference in Baltimore. District leaders were encouraged to participate in NNPS webinars.
When a new state-level Director of the Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) was hired, COE initiated communication about its activities and NNPS programs and services. The new state leader discussed her vision for partnerships and how COE might continue to assist the state to increase and improve programs of family and community engagement in districts and schools. The Center communicates statewide with teachers, administrators, and district leaders. COE conducts an Annual Summer Institute (SI) now in its 9th year. This is a two day event designed to provide participants with practical, research-based information on standards for meeting the needs of children of poverty—one of which is Family and Community Partnerships.
