Our GOAL
To build family-educator partnerships to support student well-being and achievement.
Visit our parent site at www.MAEC.org
To build family-educator partnerships to support student well-being and achievement.
How can out-of-school time professionals engage families in programming and advocacy? Join us for an interactive webinar featuring the Afterschool Alliance as we explore strategies to elevate family voice in OST programs. This session will provide educators, program providers, and community leaders with practical tools to sustain culturally responsive family engagement and promote advocacy skills among families.
In this episode of the Corner CAFE podcast, Nikevia and Jessica discuss the Families and Educators Together (FET) model with award-winning educational leader Ari Gerzon-Kessler, exploring effective strategies for building strong family-educator partnerships and transforming school communities.
CAFE is MAEC's Statewide Family Engagement Center for the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. We help build sustainable infrastructure to support healthy family, student, and community engagement. CAFE serves all educators – from state agencies to school districts to school staff and early care providers – and families by developing resources, co-designing learning opportunities, and fostering dialogue designed to help families connect with local schools and support their children’s development and learning.
CAFE implements a co-constructed approach, working alongside our clients, to ensure the effectiveness of our work. Below are examples of the services we offer:
State Education Agencies
- Develop and implement a seamless birth to 21 family engagement framework.
- Establish an advisory committee in each state.
LEAs, Local school systems, Learning communities, Community-based organizations, Educators
- Create partnerships with families, schools, and communities.
- Facilitate parent academies.
- Convene communities of practice.
Families
- Provide opportunities for leadership development.
- Support for literacy skills development.
- Create resources to promote school readiness and academic achievement.
MAEC and the National Center for Family Learning (NCFL) partner with a school to implement two-generational literacy programs for low-income families, predominantly immigrants and English learners, in Queen Anne's County, MD. This program expands parents' role in their children's education, connects families with free WiFi, and supports positive community relationships.
MAEC and Academic Parent Teacher Teams facilitate strong relationships between families and teachers in Indiana County, PA. Through team and individual meetings, teachers and parents practice activities to improve their students' continuum of learning from school to home, leading to student success in key concepts.
Family engagement needs to be more than a series of random acts. It requires a systemic, integrated, and comprehensive approach to working with families in support of children’s learning.
Susan Shaffer,
President, MAEC
© 2024 Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
