The Olympic torch’s time may have passed this summer, but for one day, it shone brightly again on the North Shore at the Shore Educational Collaborative.
In a fun back-to-school event organized by City Connects Coordinators Antonio Martinez and Brianna Mancino, students were able to compete in Olympic-style games while enjoying food and ice cream. Spalding, the sporting goods company, was on hand to help with events. It was also an opportunity for families to meet teachers and see classrooms.
It was the first event of its kind at the school, which serves students with complex special educational needs. Shore has programs for all ages, from preschool to graduation, in classrooms that support children with varied disabilities, strengths, and academic goals.
“We held this event to let our families know that the Shore staff are here to assist beyond the realm of education,” Martinez said. “We know that raising a child with special needs is challenging; however, having a natural support system can help ease stress. This event helped our students and their families interact with Shore staff in a relaxed environment rather than the traditional setting.”
In addition to games and activities, the event brought in community partners to talk with families about the services they offer. About 15 family resource agencies had booths at the event, including the Parent/Professional Advocacy League, MassHealth Ombudsman, and the Massachusetts State Police.
The event also provided time for students to get things like back-to-school haircuts. The event served 53 families and 128 individuals, counting caregivers and siblings who attended. Having families on site for school kickoffs like this one also helps open lines of dialogue to better support students.
“The back-to-school event was an initiative to increase engagement between our school and our students and their families in the hopes of establishing a strong sense of community going into the year,” Mancino said. “We want our families to feel that our school is a safe and supportive environment where their children will thrive. We also wanted our families to get connected to agencies that have important resources available for them. Through these connections, we hope to see our students thrive in every aspect of life.”
The Shore Collaborative in Chelsea, Massachusetts, began implementing City Connects in 2023. All students at Shore learn from the same curriculum as their peers across the state, but instruction and materials are adapted to each child’s learning styles and abilities. Students are supported by a strong interdisciplinary team, which may include teachers, paraprofessionals, occupational, speech, and physical therapists, school adjustment counselors, behavior analysts, and nurses.
Although all students have individualized education plans focused on academic progress, the City Connects model brings the whole child perspective to help build on students’ interests and strengths and support the child’s and family’s basic needs.
Through a combination of existing and newly developed partnerships, coordinators are working to establish new partnerships to serve students, especially with agencies that provide access to food, clothing, and housing support. In addition, they are gathering information about student interests to begin to develop partnerships tied directly to what students want, such as video games and art.
“Family engagement is the cornerstone to our students’ success,” City Connects Program Manager Judith Lynch said. “Our City Connects Coordinators, who only started their City Connects journey at Shore at the beginning of the last academic year, have done an amazing job prioritizing the engagement of our culturally diverse family systems.
“We recognize that when families and schools work together, students thrive both academically and emotionally. Our back-to-school event was designed to strengthen these connections, ensuring that every student has the support they need to succeed throughout the year. We had quite a few families, from each of our different programs, attend our event.
“Our City Connects Coordinators connected with many of our families that afternoon, which we hope will foster increased family engagement with both our school and community resources.”
With this Olympic-style event providing a safe and fun way for families and students to engage with their school, it paves the way to vault the academic year into success.
