Family Engagement in Action: EdNavigator

Offering high-touch education support to working families through personal education advisors

By Whitney Henderson June 22, 2021

This essay and video are part of a series that supplement Embracing a New Normal: Toward a More Liberatory Approach to Family Engagement by Karen L. Mapp and Eyal Bergman, a report commissioned by Carnegie Corporation of New York that explores the dynamics and barriers that stand in the way of effective family-school partnerships and outlines how to reach a more liberatory, solidarity-driven, and equity-focused family engagement practice that supports educational excellence for all children. The essays and videos highlight five grantee partners of Carnegie Corporation of New York that are innovating and leading in the field of family-school partnerships and are rethinking their family engagement practices amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a renewed national reckoning on systemic racism.

EdNavigator has been providing high-touch education support to working families in New Orleans and Boston since 2015. Before the pandemic, we did this primarily by partnering with leading employers, such as the New Orleans Marriott, Tulane University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to connect employees with personal education advisors as an employee benefit. These “navigators,” including award-winning local teachers and other education professionals, met with parents and caregivers at their workplaces, offering expert advice and hands-on support to help them realize their own power, overcome challenges, and keep their children on track.

When the pandemic shuttered schools and businesses nationwide, we knew many families would struggle. We adapted in two major ways. First, we rapidly pivoted to provide virtual support to hundreds of families, guiding them through the transition to remote learning via our app, text messages, and video calls. We helped track down electronic devices, troubleshoot connectivity issues, create home learning routines, and more. In addition to providing guidance, we sought to learn from families’ creativity and resilience, sharing the strategies that worked well with others facing similar challenges.

Second, in just weeks, we created innovative new online resources for families everywhere. Most notably, we launched Camp Kinda, a free virtual summer camp for kids built around weekly “adventures” on topics like “History’s Mysteries.” Kinda campers engaged in 3–4 hours of online and offline activities each day, including daily creative projects and play-based activities. By the end of the summer, more than 40,000 families worldwide had signed up.

In October, we also began offering The Kinda Guide, a weekly online handbook for parents and caregivers inspired by Camp Kinda. By filling the guide with practical parenting tips, an “Ask a Navigator” feature, and custom, kid-friendly recipes, we hoped to relieve at least some of the mental burden on parents by curating information, ideas, and resources for them each week.

Our experiences this past year have shown us that working families are overwhelmed and desperate for help. They worry about what their children are getting out of Zoom school today and how it will shape their futures tomorrow. At EdNavigator, we continue to believe in the power of education to build understanding, empathy, and a better society. It is clearer than ever that easily accessible, personalized education support for families is essential — especially for those who are counting most on schools to open doorways to opportunity. As an organization dedicated to advancing equity and continually striving to apply antiracist principles to our work, our experiences have reinforced our commitment to confronting injustice, dismantling institutional racism, and ensuring that every family has access to great schools and empowering educational experiences.

Whitney Henderson is chief program officer of EdNavigator, a nonprofit organization that helps parents support and advocate for their children in school by assigning each an individual counselor or “navigator” who works with them to meet their children’s needs from preschool to college and career.

Photo Credit: SDI Productions/Getty Images | Video Credit: Carnegie Corporation of New York