Doris Palomino and Conexion Americas celebrate one year of involving parents at Cole Elementary School

Doris Palomino, Family Resource Coordinator at Cole Elementary School

Today is the annual “A Cup of Coffee for Conexión Américas” breakfast, which celebrates the resilience that comes from connecting with your community, "whether it is in a new country or picking up the pieces after a natural disaster," in the words of Conexión Américas Executive Director Renata Soto.

One of the projects of Conexión Américas is management of the Family Resource Center at Cole Elementary School in Antioch, which is concluding its first academic year in operation. The Center-in-a-school concept was created by United Way of Metropolitan Nashville and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and is designed to be a one-stop shop for health and human services needs. A total of thirteen such sites, including seven that are not school-based, serve approximately 28,000 Nashville residents every year.

“Conexión Américas is committed to bringing programs and services that address the needs and aspirations of the families of Cole Elementary,” Soto said in an October press release circulated by the United Way. “We are most excited about the opportunity to help increase parent involvement through our Parents as Partners program and to develop parent leaders who are engaged in their children’s education and work in partnership with the school."

Doris Palomino of Conexión is the Family Resource Coordinator at Cole. Palomino graduated from the Catholic University of Peru with a degree in Social Psychology in 1997. She is receiving her Master's of Education in Organizational Leadership from Vanderbilt this year, with a focus on "how trust is built in educational institutions and the role technology plays in this process," which explains her leadership role on the crew of BarCamp 2009.

More information about the Family Resource Center at Cole is available in this February newsletter, which describes the kinds of conversations parents are having in their English classes, Palomino's goals for the program, and announcements for taxpayer outreach in English and Spanish.  More information about Family Resource Centers in general is available here.