Home Works Spark & Share Tuesdays: From Barriers to Bridges — Engaging Families in Challenging Times
Families play a crucial role in student success, yet engagement can be difficult when barriers arise. In this Spark & Share, HOME WORKS! is bringing together expert panelists to explore barriers, share strategies for building bridges, and highlight resources to support families and schools in navigating challenging circumstances.
Spark & Share Tuesdays is our virtual series that highlights the people who power our mission: families, educators, and advocated who have lived HOME WORKS! firsthand. Through their stories, we see how building trust between home and school accelerates learning, strengthens resilience, and transforms lives.
This session is hosted by Ashli Florek, HOME WORKS! CEO, and features a thoughtful conversation with Diana Suarez of Coaction Collective and Karen Rice of SchoolHouse Connection. Together, they share research highlights, explore barriers that families and schools face, and offer strategies to support families, particularly those navigating homelessness or other significant challenges.
As part of this conversation, we highlight a new resource co-created by HOME WORKS! and SchoolHouse Connection: Engaging Families Experiencing Homelessness: Practical Strategies for Liaisons and School Staff, a guide offering strategies to build trust, remove barriers, and strengthen school-family partnerships for students experiencing homelessness.
You’ll leave this conversation with a deeper understanding of what family engagement can look like in difficult circumstances, as well as practical tools and resources you can use in your own school or community.
Whether you’re a funder, administrator, teacher, or family member, this conversation will provide insights and inspiration to strengthen school-family partnerships and support student growth.
