Learn How Camino Nuevo Charter Academy and Healthier Generation Built Community Among Families

Parents and caregivers across the six-school Camino Nuevo Charter Academy network in Los Angeles have learned family wellness practices and strategies to manage stress, build transformative relationships, and foster well-being thanks to a series of bilingual, virtual and in-person sessions. 

According to Kimberly Plaza, Camino Nuevo’s Director of Family Engagement and Advocacy, the charter school network’s six schools thrive as individual sites. Their next goal? “How are we now bringing all of the families together so that we are one network and we are one community?” 

Camino Nuevo’s family engagement team enlisted support from Healthier Generation to co-create a culturally responsive, strengths-based series rooted in the school community’s core values, including multilingual communication in English and Spanish, sharing experiences between families, and lifelong learning. Mrs. Plaza says, “We’re always trying to bring different learnings to our families.” 

“They want to learn. Our families are just always wanting to learn something new.” – Kimberly Plaza

Building Connection and Belonging

Social connection is a positive health indicator for people of all ages, as it can improve well-being and extend life expectancy. Studies show that when families and students feel like they are included and part of a team with school staff and other families, young people are more likely to succeed academically and socially. 

Every aspect of these family learning opportunities highlighted and built upon Camino Nuevo’s family engagement values and goals – even the hybrid virtual and in-person setting. It was both accessible and engaging for families, some of whom said being able to join from the comfort of their home was one of their favorite aspects of the series. It allowed them to care for other family members at home, be in a familiar environment, and participate at their own pace. Some families attended on site at their school, and the coordinator projected the meeting for them. Mrs. Plaza says, “So, they were able to be in each other's presence. They would talk to each other there as opposed to just being at home alone or wherever they were.”

As a testament to the success of this collaboration and the commitment Camino Nuevo families have to their students’ success, caregivers and parents from all six schools participated in an in-person event to celebrate and reinforce their new skills.

“Aprendemos que hay solución en nuestras vidas diarias.” (“We learned that there are solutions in our daily lives.”) – Family participant after the third session 

Customized Learning for Community Goals

This partnership was years in the making, according to Mrs. Plaza. Her team had implemented no-cost resources for school communities navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of curiosity, they reached out to Healthier Generation recently to ask about new learning opportunities. Healthier Generation and Camino Nuevo identified key goals and community strengths and identified the opportunity for a fee-based, in-depth and customized wellness series for families. Isabel Kashani Lara, National Advisor for Whole Child Health with Healthier Generation, planned each session with resources and group activities from Kohl’s Healthy at Home | en español, the Virtual Me Moments Hub | Centro Virtual de Momentos Míos, and other resources in English and Spanish. 

Ms. Kashani Lara and team outlined important social-emotional competencies families could learn and practice in each session. 

“The Camino Nuevo team shared topics they had covered with their families and worked with me to determine how we could deepen their knowledge and share strategies from our suite of resources that parents could implement with their students and families to support whole family well-being,” says Ms. Kashani Lara. As Mrs. Plaza reviewed the recommendations, she could imagine her school families taking action, “I think it was a lot of stuff that you say, ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’ But you never really think about it. So, what I really appreciated was the fact that families got a chance to see it, hear it, think about it, reflect on it, and then walk away with a next step.” 

Session topics included:

1. Building Transformative Relationships | Construyendo relaciones transformadoras
2. Mapping our Identities | Mapeando nuestras identidades
3. Identifying and Managing Stress | Identificando y manejando el estrés
4. Navigating Conflict | Navegando el conflicto
5. Holistic Well-being | Bienestar Integral
6. Camino Nuevo’s Family Wellness Series Culmination and Celebration Event | Serie de bienestar familiar de Camino Nuevo evento culminante y celebración

After the first session on transformative relationships, one parent said, “Todos los días se aprende algo nuevo, y me encanto mucho este taller especialmente porque yo tengo un hijo con autismo y un nin̈o de kinder con ADHD y trastorno por déficit de atencíon he inperactividad. Muchas gracias. Espero esto me ayude. Muchas gracias.” (“Every time we learn something new. I loved this workshop especially because I have a child with autism and a child in kinder with ADHD. Thank you very much, I think this will help me. Thank you.”) 

Looking back on identifying and managing stress, a family member said they appreciated “All the information and samples given on how to implement that with our family.” (“Toda la información y los ejemplos de cómo usarlo con nuestra familia.”)

And following the conversation on navigating conflict, one family said in a feedback survey that session four was, “Explicación muy entendible y apertura para que los padres compartieran sus experiencias.” (“Explanations that are easy to understand and opportunities for the parents to share their experiences.”)

“Facilitating and learning with the families of the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy was energizing and affirming to our work supporting whole child health. Participants were eager to share their personal experiences, reflect on which strategies worked with their families from our sessions, and give each other encouragement and support to improve family wellness.” - Isabel Kashani Lara

Sharing Stories and Strategies Among Families

At the in-person culminating event, family members came together to reflect on what they learned and share resources and wellness strategies from their own lives. “They definitely like when somebody's in front of them, facilitating teaching them, and then I think that they also really appreciate being able to, like kind of own their learning.” In small groups of people from multiple school sites, they wrote down their learnings from each session, putting the lessons into their own words for others to learn. Together they completed and discussed Kohl’s Healthy at Home activities such as the Family Vision Board | Tablero de visión de la familia to use at home and the Student Vision Board | Tablero de visión del estudiante to use at school. The space was filled with energy as families reunited in person.

“I think the biggest thing to me that makes me feel like it was successful is when they leave and they say we should do more things like this, and I heard that a lot… I think they thought it was successful and it is because of the comments that they were making… And I think the conversations that were happening and just how much they were willing to share was a success.”

Camino Nuevo Charter Academy hopes to continue to foster this sense of community and apply for America’s Healthiest Schools to be recognized for their commitment to whole child and whole family health. When asked what advice her team would give to other schools with similar community-building goals, Mrs. Plaza says, “It all starts with creating a welcoming environment. If you cannot do that – even if you have all the resources in the world and all the workshops in the world and all the learning opportunities in the world – families are not going to want to come in.” With that welcoming environment is part of the school culture, Camino Nuevo plans events and workshops like family reading time, outdoor markets, and book clubs to meet the needs and interests of families. We can’t wait to see how their schools keep growing and learning together!

“If there's other opportunities to collaborate with Healthier Generation, I think that would be awesome, because it's really been a good experience.”

Explore Kohl’s Healthy at Home, the Virtual Me Moments Hub, and activities for building school communities:

• Kohl’s Healthy at Home | en español
• Virtual Me Moments Hub | Centro Virtual de Momentos Míos
• 6 Ways to Build a Network of Support for Your Child at School | 6 maneras de crear una red de apoyo para sus niños en las escuelas
• Family Vision Board | Tablero de visión de la familia
• Student Vision Board | Tablero de visión del estudiante

-By Kohleun Adamson