Building Effective Family Engagement

Building Effective Family Engagement

When authentic relationships between families and educators are built, everyone wins.

Families are able to share their hopes and goals for their child’s education. Educators have the opportunity to help families understand how to best support their student’s learning at home. And students are surrounded by the support they need to excel socially, emotionally, and academically for the long term. Students do better when families and educators work together as equal partners. For students most impacted by inequity, this equal partnership – what we call effective family engagement – often doesn’t happen well or at all. We are working to strengthen family engagement in schools through our school partnerships and leadership development programs.

Our Work

Explore Our Effective Family Engagement Programs

School Partnerships

Grounded in research, our school-based work allows us to learn from and grow the capacity of public and public charter schools in Washington, DC to embed effective family engagement into schools.

Innovations in Family Engagement Teacher Fellowship

Flamboyan selects public school teachers in Washington, DC to join a fellowship to design and implement innovative family engagement strategies at their schools.

Teacher and Leader Trainings

Flamboyan provides professional development to educators and school leaders. Educators learn about effective family engagement practices while exploring their assumptions about students and families to deepen their understanding how systems of inequity impact their students.

National Family Engagement Fellowship

Flamboyan expands its reach nationally by building the capacity of change makers leading the charge for effective family engagement in their communities.

The Promise of Family Engagement

Conversation with Arne Duncan, Wanda Durant, and Kristin Ehrgood at “The Promise of Family Engagement” in November 2019.

Philanthropic Partners

Our Family Engagement Funding Partnerships

Horning Family Fund

The Horning Family Fund (HFF) is a Washington, D.C. based family foundation that helps build communities where families thrive and children are nurtured to achieve their greatest potential. HFF focuses on addressing the disparity of opportunities and services for children and their families in Ward 8. They’ve invested in Flamboyan’s Family Engagement Partnership at Ketcham Elementary School in Ward 8 since 2014.

Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation

The Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for families and their communities by supporting innovative projects and successful ongoing programs. It has partnered with Flamboyan since 2011, when it first co-funded with Flamboyan the launch of a school-wide model for family engagement in a select group of D.C. public schools.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) is one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the U.S. It concentrates its resources on achieving the optimal development of children (prenatal to age 8), by supporting families and communities. In January 2015, WKKF awarded Flamboyan a two-year grant. The funds go towards providing training and coaching to help families and teachers in Washington, D.C. schools partner effectively to support pre-school through third grade children’s success.

D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education

The D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) Office of Public Charter Financing and Support has partnered with Flamboyan since July 2015, when it awarded Flamboyan a grant to support its family engagement work in seven D.C. public charter schools. The Scholarships for Opportunities and Results (SOAR) Act grant funds Flamboyan’s family engagement partnerships with schools across the city. The two year SOAR funding allows teachers in these schools to receive the training, tools, coaching, and financial support to build trusting relationships with families, engage families as partners in their student’s academic success, and communicate consistently and meaningfully with them.

Explore Even More

Learn About Our Work in Puerto Rico

Flamboyan Foundation does a lot of meaningful work in the following areas. Take a look!

Strengthening K-3 Reading

Ensuring students are reading in Spanish on grade level by third grade.

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Revitalizing Puerto Rico

Ensuring that Puerto Rico is thriving economically, educationally and culturally.

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