"I was a teacher assistant for 10 years before joining WISD. When I applied for the Family Liaison role two years ago, I only knew WISD as a place for children with the most challenging behaviors. It was just so cool to realize that they're not just special education. They're about families, they're about helping homeless kids, they're about mental health: they do preschool, they do achievement initiatives, they do technology, and they have nine districts that they’re supporting. They are way more than special education.
In my role, I host meetings for parents with young children. I usually bring in a speaker to talk to them about a topic that is relevant – like potty training, autism or challenging behaviors, picky eaters, or co-parenting. Our meetings are about two hours long. We provide dinner and childcare for parents so that they're able to have dinner with their kids, and then the kids go to childcare so the parents can actually focus on what is being spoken to them. Getting to go out into the community and to community events is actually my favorite part of my job. I've built a network of around 200 parents through community outreach.
I also get to run our social media pages. I post either about our coalition meetings or the Trusted Parent Advisors or about Talking is Teaching. Talking is Teaching is a national initiative that started with the Clinton Foundation, and me and my team are bringing it to Washtenaw County. My favorite part is delivering Trusted Messenger trainings. It's where I can share my personal experiences and help parents build their parenting skills. I strive to make resources accessible and help families feel supported, drawing from my own challenges as a single mother. I go to different places and talk to families about talking, reading and singing with their children. I tell them about how important it is, and how it builds their child’s/children’s brain and language development.
My grandson was born maybe a month before I found out about Talking is Teaching. I'd never heard of it in all my life - and I have four kids! My oldest will be 26 this year, and I had never heard of it! I was a single parent pretty much all of my kids' lives. It would have been so amazing to have somewhere to go and learn while I was raising my kids, instead of just trying to figure it out all the time. I am really passionate about this because there are so many things that Washtenaw County has, but they're secret, even though they’re not actually a secret. So many people don’t know what’s happening. I consistently use my personal life as an example.
If I had never heard of these resources, then I certainly know that lots of other people haven't, so I really want to be in the community as much as I can for our families. Being a parent can be fun, but it can also be really challenging, and we don't have to do it alone. If we can have tools to build our parenting skills to raise better families then let's do that. I just want to try really hard to build up families, because I don't want us to feel like we're all alone in this by ourselves.
When I do my presentations, I'm an animated person, so I'm laughing, I'm moving, I'm walking around…I'm just all into it and a very funny person. Sometimes I'll be super-nervous, but you can't tell because of how I cover it up with humor. Once I get going though, I'm totally fine. I love teaching people things, and I love teaching people things that I am passionate about, and that I care about. I love my job and having the opportunity to meet new people!"
Inspired by (and with special permission from!) the original "Humans of New York," the "Humans of WISD" storytelling project is uncovering what drives our WISD team and why they're passionate about their work in the district and in our community.