Bridging Communities and Schools

Since the fall of 2004, the UNP/Hartland Resident Committee has been engaged in building their collective and individual communities. Central to their work has been representing the goals of their ethnic communities in relation to the development of the Hartland Partnership Centers. With the Centers enjoying their eighth year of success, the leaders have recently taken their voices and ideas further into the community to their local, neighborhood schools. What has resulted is the development of a long-term, mutually-beneficial partnership endeavor that is built on strong relationships and a commitment to a common goal—educational success for all.

The partnership program, Voices of New Americans: Bridging Communities and Schools are trainings and dialogues that are presented by Resident Committee members in collaboration with College of Social Work faculty, Trinh Mai, and her students. The audience of participants are teachers and staff from local schools where many of the Resident Committee members have a direct relationship. The goal of the program is to build the capacity of the schools to better respond to the strengths and needs of newcomer populations. As newcomers themselves, the Resident Committee firmly believes that acculturation is a two-way street and therefore has designed the program to position newcomers as teachers and targets schools as learners.

The trainings start with sessions where the Resident Committee shares narrative descriptions of their cultural experiences of education both in their native land and in the United States; a brief overview of literature surrounding issues related to resettlement and education; and an open-ended time for questions and dialogue. From there, each presentation evolves according to the goals and ideas of the group.

For Mountain View Elementary School, these trainings became monthly working-group dialogues where the Resident Committee involved school staff and other parents to address topics such as family involvement and promote joint problem-solving that builds relationships between families and schools. As a result of this partnership, Mountain View Elementary developed a protocol for teachers’ conferences that promotes 2-way conversations; more home visits have been facilitated by teachers; and data from the dialogues have been integrated into the Mountain View/Glendale Community Learning Center.

Other recent presentations have been done at East High School, the English Skills Learning Center, the UNP Steering Committee and a variety of classes at the University of Utah. With 2012 upon us, the Resident Committee is committed to continuing this partnership endeavor and looks forward to the positive impacts, both for the schools involved and for the people who make up those schools.

My voice is powerful.

Abdulkhaliq Mohamed

It is a two-way street; as much as parents want to understand teachers, teachers want to understand parents. Support each other.

Maria Esther Garcia
UNP/Hartland Resident Committee

Working together gives you a clean heart. I know the teachers and can talk with them with an open mind and without fear of discrimination.

Yusuf Shali
UNP/Hartland Resident Committee

I want to continue doing what  I did, with more passion. It is validating to see changes happening.

Juan Lopez Guerrero
UNP/Hartland Resident Committee