We have a new partnership in Tulsa. Here's how it came to be
In partnership with pre-K programs, we work to build a more impactful education experience — one that centers race and culture, engages parents as partners, and supports children's social-emotional well-being to help unlock the full promise of early childhood education.
Professional Development
Professional Development is supports school staff to form strong, culturally responsive relationships with families and promote children’s social-emotional well-being.
Parenting Program
Parenting Program supports families to promote children’s early learning and development. In a warm, predictable space that engages parents as true partners, parents build community with each other and explore evidence-based practices they may choose to incorporate at home. Parenting Program aims to disrupt the harmful pattern of telling families of color how to parent, and honor families’ race, culture and expertise.
Friends School
Friends School, a classroom-based social-emotional learning program, supports children in developing foundational social-emotional learning skills. Children learn to navigate strong feelings, develop a positive sense of self (including emerging cultural identity), build healthy relationships, and have fun together!
Commitment to Racial Equity
At all levels of our work, racial equity is our North Star.
In working with families, we aim to interrupt harmful patterns of outsiders telling people of color how to parent, and to honor families' culture, lived racial experience, and expertise.
In working with educators, we aim to bring race and racism into the conversation, and support authentic relationships with families.
In working with system leaders, we aim to partner on efforts to build a new early education experience that addresses entrenched inequities for Black and brown children.
Lastly, our work is internal. We are committed to ongoing learning and deepening our commitment to racial equity — in our work and ourselves.
“The relationships between schools and families, between teachers and parents, matter. They must be strengthened. We have been so focused on getting kids ready for school, that we’ve missed that schools are often not ready for kids.”
Kai-ama Hamer, Director, ParentCorps
“My favorite experience is witnessing how the parents bonded and supported each other during and after the sessions. They provided encouraging words, resources and ideas that worked for them in difficult situations. To me, this meant that they felt safe to be vulnerable and they seemed to find comfort in the fact that they were not parenting alone and had someone to listen to and share their experiences with.”
Mary Woods-Miles, Family Engagement Specialist, Starfish Family Services, Detroit