The start of another school year is a great time to reflect on and jumpstart your community outreach to families, community members, businesses, and other stakeholders.
Several years ago, as an aspiring administrator, a district leader asked me if I was involved with any local community organizations. It wasn’t until then that I realized to strengthen community partnerships, I needed to get involved with the community outside of the school walls. That moment was a great time of reflection for me: How am I impacting my community?
Fast-forward to the present where I recently completed my fifth year with the Junior League of Texarkana. The Junior League’s mission is to promote voluntarism, develop the potential of women, and improve communities through effective action and leadership training. Being part of these efforts have allowed me to connect with community needs outside of the school building and network with other community entities. It has been a win-win! I am able to give back to my community and connect our community resources to our family needs at the campus/district level.
In my new role as Director of 21st Century Community Learning Centers (Texas ACE) this past year, we focused on building and strengthening community partnerships. We worked intentionally with our family engagement coordinator to provide a beginning-of-year survey, asking families about their needs, the resources they would like provided, and the best dates and times for events. We collaborated with our six campuses to bring in community partners who could offer resources to our families during events that were already taking place at the campus level and brought community resources to our campuses.
If there is a community engagement idea you have been wanting to try, take the risk. Have you seen something amazing someone else is doing to engage the community? Take the risk. A survey can provide you good feedback from your families on what they would like to see at the campus level.
Strengthening our partnerships with community organizations and other entities can help bring resources to our families and our communities.
A district success I would love to share is that in May 2024, our Texarkana ISD Student Lighthouse Team completed their local community project, and talk about a powerful collaboration! Students had the opportunity to hear from local rescue owners about a community need, and from there the work began. Across the district, more than 7,000 items were collected to donate locally, $10,000 was raised, and a Pet Adoption Fair was planned and hosted. This was a collaborative effort between campuses, staff, students, families, and community members. I am so proud of our district leaders, campus leaders, and student leaders who made this possible. It inspired me! If a group of PreK-12 students can rally together to be the change, imagine what our family and community partnerships can do!
Share your engagement and partnership ideas with us @TEPSAtalk and #WeLeadTX. As leaders, we should always be looking for ways to learn, grow and connect.
Elodia Witterstaetter is the Director of 21st Century Community Learning Centers Texas ACE Program in Texarkana ISD. She is the Chair of the Advocacy Committee and serves on the TEPSA Board of Directors.
