Eric Dearing
Executive Director
The Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children
Dear Friends:
I’m excited to welcome you to a new year at the Boston College Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children. In a time of challenge and change, we are continuing to grow our work promoting thriving for children, families, schools, and communities. This work includes new research and continuously improving practices that build on strengths and meet needs so that all children have a better chance to thrive. By moving our research into the real world, we are co-designing, testing, and refining strategies that truly make a difference in the lives of children, putting the wisdom of educators, practitioners, and families at the center of our work. Through these research-practice partnerships we are co-constructing evidence-based and scalable strategies for improving educational opportunities at home, in schools, and in their communities.
I invite you to keep apprised of the latest developments in our long-standing work on City Connects, the nation’s leading approach to integrating school and community resources to transform students’ near- and long-term outcomes. A note from Founding Executive Director, Mary Walsh and Associate Director, Claire Foley on City Connects and the new school year is below.
I also invite you to learn more about our work in the newly established Growing Opportunities Lab. In the GO Lab we are doing rigorous research and development studying and creating more educational opportunities at home and in the community. Examples of our work include co-creating enriching early math learning experiences throughout the neighborhood, including while visiting the pediatrician, the grocery store, the community center, and the zoo or while walking to school. Our aim is to surround young children with chances to learn in playful, family-centered, and meaningful ways.
Thank you for joining us in these efforts to promote thriving! We wish you a productive and rewarding year.
Sincerely,
Eric
Mary Walsh
Executive Director
City Connects
Claire Foley
Associate Director
City Connects
Dear Friends:
The hum in the hallways. The excitement of connecting with familiar and new faces. Fresh pages and fresh starts. A new school year brings hope and a few questions for students and the educators and administrators who make schools places of connection, care, and learning. Many of our partners in the Midwest have already begun welcoming students into their schools, while many on the East Coast are opening their doors this week.
Our current moment makes the work of our City Connects Coordinators even more important. Alongside colleagues in each school, we are working to ensure every student is seen, supported, and connected to a personalized set of resources and opportunities that will help them to be ready to attend, engage, and learn in school.
Empowering teachers, families, and the local community to build the human community around each student is work that inspires each of us. We endeavor to provide leading-edge technology and actionable science about child development and learning to support our exceptional Coordinators and their schools. We also apply a pragmatic lens to quality implementation: helping schools to more effectively and efficiently build on existing personnel and processes; and helping schools, districts, community partners, and municipalities make data-informed decisions about how they can best direct limited resources in alignment with student and family needs and interests.
As a testament to how much City Connects student support is valued, our network continues to grow. This fall, we will welcome schools in Missouri and expand our domestic footprint in New York and overseas in Ireland. Our new sites recognize the large body of evidence that City Connects makes a difference for students, helping schools to ensure that each child has an opportunity to grow, learn, and thrive.
Thank you for your continued support of City Connects. Now, as ever, it is vitally important to make sure the strengths, needs, and interests of every child are met, so they can take full advantage of this new school year and build lives commensurate with their talents, interests, and promise.
With gratitude,
Mary & Claire
