Well-Being for the Greater Good: A CalHOPE Community of Practice for Parent and Family Engagement Staff

Registration closes 4/8. Sign up today to reserve your spot!

About This Community of Practice

Join us for a virtual Community of Practice for school staff in a variety of roles who engage with parents and families in California schools to envision, experience, and co-create caring, compassionate, equitable, and connected learning communities. 

As a person who is dedicated to supporting parents and families, you’re vital to creating a successful, flourishing school community. You work hard to build relationships with families who look to you for guidance and resources, but do you regularly take the time to focus on your own social and emotional well-being? 

This Community of Practice is a unique opportunity to experience how evidence-based well-being practices can care for you as you care for families and provide you with tools to share with your school community. 

Fees are fully covered for this five-week Community of Practice led by the experts at the Greater Good Science Center.

About Our Time Together

Five sessions: April 8, 15, 22, and 29, and May 6 from 10 am to 11:30 am Pacific

In each of our five 90-minute sessions, we will:

• Explore science-based insights and practical activities to nurture five keys to well-being: social connection, empathy, mindfulness, compassion, and purpose. 
• Spotlight your colleagues from community schools to virtual schools to family home visit programs who engage with parents and families to learn how they’re implementing these science-based resources for well-being in their work around the state.
• Discuss successes and challenges with piloting these well-being resources with parents, families, and colleagues. 
• Be inspired by new ideas for strategies and approaches to engage parents and families with invitations to uplift well-being.

These co-learning sessions will be highly interactive, and you'll also have time to engage in conversations with colleagues across California to foster a sense of connection and community. 

Keys to Well-Being: 

• Social Connection: Explore our sense of closeness to other people during interactions and within relationships, and our sense of belonging within groups.
• Empathy: Learn about the ability to sense other people’s emotions and imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
• Mindfulness: Learn how to maintain a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.
• Compassion and Self-Compassion: Explore the act of noticing and feeling motivated to help relieve our own and others’ suffering.
• Purpose: Cultivate personally meaningful long-term goals that are also directed toward improving the lives of others.

Testimonials

“I feel so much better and have the tools I need to engage in the hard work that we do every day while taking care of ourselves.”

“I have been able to reconnect with my own sense of self on a deeper level. I know that being in that space with myself has contributed to how I share myself professionally with my staff, students and families. Thank you, I am looking forward to the spring series.”

“It has given folks in this role a space to collaborate and learn from each other, it was absolutely incredible.”

 Logistics and Cost

Dates: April 8, 15, 22, and 29, and May 6 from 10 am to 11:30 am (Pacific Time). All sessions will take place on Zoom. In order to build a community anchored by safety, trust, and connection, we ask that all who enroll plan to attend each session.

Who Should Join the Community of Practice?

Staff members whose work involves supporting and engaging parents, caregivers, and families. 

What is the Cost to Participate?

There is no cost to you, the educator, for this program: it's free! Fees for this five-week-long Community of Practice are covered by the CalHOPE grant. There is limited space available in the Community of Practice, so make sure you register today to save a spot!

Facilitators

Maryam Abdullah, Ph.D., is the Parenting Program Director of the Greater Good Science Center. She is a developmental psychologist with expertise in parent-child relationships and children’s development of prosocial behaviors. At GGSC, Maryam’s role is to support organizations providing parenting education to raise caring children and to share the latest parenting science findings on Greater Good. Prior to joining GGSC, she was an Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California, Irvine Child Development School in the Department of Pediatrics, a school-based behavioral health program where she provided parenting and child interventions, oversaw its clinical outcomes and program evaluation, and mentored undergraduate students with research projects.Her research experiences include exploration of parent-child relationships, early development of children with autism spectrum disorder, and traditional behavioral and canine-assisted interventions for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. She was the recipient of the University of California, Irvine Health System ARIISE Award for Respect.  Maryam has been a lifelong student of California public schools.