What do effective family and community engagement strategies look like in practice? How do we empower families of English Language Learners as members of our communities? How might we bring diverse groups of people together around common themes and interests? 

We dive into these questions and much more as we kick off our series on family and community engagement with Renata Germino. Renata is a passionate educator who has spent over 20 years working with teenagers and the last 9 years working with Engligh Language Learners. She started the Bridges Through Bread program in Charlottesville, VA to bring people together around a universal topic - food. 

In this episode of Highest Aspirations, we chat with Renata not only about how we can help immigrant and refugee families, but also about the rich contributions they can make to our communities. 

Renata has graciously offered to share her experience with anyone who is interested in learning more. Below are some of her favorite resources along with her email address:

• US Department of Education Newcomer Toolkit
• Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) 
• The International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Announcement from the IRC about Bridges Through Bread
• Charlottesville Tomorrow article about Bridges Through Bread
• Teachers are welcome to email at renatagermino@gmail.com

Look for our next episode on family and community engagement to drop on May 9 with Stephany Cuevas from Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Did you miss our series on dual language programs? Subscribe and listen here.