Introducing the California Family Engagement Network en español

Dear PON Members and Community: Greetings to you as the new year gets into full swing and our warmest wishes that 2024 is a healthy and productive one for family engagement. 2023 was quite a year for PON and our collaborative partners! PON reached an important milestone as I celebrated 10 years leading this impactful organization. We returned to hosting in-person workshops for parents of English learners, co-hosted the Black Family Summit in February, hosted the Latino Family Summit in September, and wrapped up 2023 by co-hosting the inaugural conference for the California Family Engagement Network (CA-FEN) in December in Los Angeles. Our thanks to all our partners and donors who helped make the parent voice stronger throughout 2023.

CA-FEN is composed of about 20 family-serving nonprofits and county offices of education that champion family engagement across the state. The network has been meeting since 2019, but we convened in December to strengthen our efforts even more, to formalize our structure, assess the current landscape for family engagement, and provide direction for the work in 2024-2025. I’m excited to announce that CA-FEN has entrusted PON with leading this incredibly important work in the coming years. This means in 2024 PON will grow the Los Angeles County network and continue to serve families while merging our critical policy work with CA-FEN. To transition to this new phase, PON’s structure will change: we are seeking formal non-profit status, and our monthly meetings will become quarterly meetings. In addition, there will be increased opportunities to engage in committee work at the county and state level. We know PON will continue to grow in size and influence in 2024 and I look forward to working with you to reach our goals. If you are interested in joining PON or CA-FEN, please contact me at asimeon@parentnetwork-la.org. Please join us!

Sincerely, Araceli Simeón Executive Director

Who is a member of CA-FEN?

2024 Priorities

CA-FEN is dedicated to supporting and promoting equitable, culturally responsive, and transformative family engagement practices in TK-12 and early childhood education settings across California. CA-FEN shares best practices, influences state policy, and seeks to build consensus among students, families, practitioners, and advocates to promote family engagement as an essential pillar to improve student outcomes. Our collective efforts during the last decade have influenced changes in policies and multi-billion dollars investments in statewide initiatives that require family and community engagement including community schools (~$4B), the Community Engagement Initiative ($100M), family math ($35M), and Statewide Family Resource Center ($5M). In 2024 CA-FEN members will: Promote family engagement in pre-service education. Identify and research topics to set a family engagement platform that includes legislative & communications strategies. Align efforts related to family engagement capacity building across statewide initiatives. This means getting partners (i.e., nonprofits, system leaders, educators, families and students) on the same page about language, goals and outcomes, practices.

CA-FEN Website

To learn more about our work, please visit the CA-FEN website.

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For information visit our website at http://www.parentnetwork-la.org PON is a project of Community Partners