For Immediate Release
“The official 1st Saturdays -official monthly volunteer/recruitment day kicks off October 1st, 2016,” #Familyhood is our vision and #1stSaturdays our strategy to get there. #Familyhood is a community development strategy that defines schools as the center for community development.
#Familyhood is driven by two mottos; 1) The Friends of school motto: which states, “every school shall have a functioning Student Government Association, Parent Teacher Association and Alumni Association.” After finishing college, I taught in East Palo Alto and later in Oakland Unified. One of the major differences I noticed was the schools that had these organizations functioning, provided a better education to the students. I thought, why do some have them and others do not? They should all have them! Why do we call this motto The Friends of School Motto? Because if a school does not have any of these organizations, we will be your friend and help you build them.
The second motto: #2 is called The Mo’ Better Food Motto: which states, “every school shall have a garden, a farmers market and eventually a grocery store.” Once again, from my personal experience, some schools have gardens, farmers markets and others do not. The students of the schools that have them benefit, while other students, at other schools continue to miss the educational opportunity.
As we advance education in America, it is important to document our best practices in education. I will not spend time here proving to you the benefits of students participating in Student Government Associations vrs those that do not and/or the advantage one school has that another does not because one has a Parent Teacher Association and the other school does not. We already know having these organizations on school campuses are best practices for all schools. For this reason, we say, “every school shall have them.”
If equal education is what we are after, then should not all schools enable each student the same opportunities?
We believe so and are no longer alone!
We are proud to say that President of the Oakland Unified School District, James Harris has signed on as a supporter of our #Familyhood / #1stSaturdays initiative, as well as, Oakland’s Mayor Office / Oakland Promise. Together, we are proud to say that #1stSaturdays is a global initiative that kicks off in Oakland, CA.
If you would like to support #1stSaturdays and/or start at your school, visit us at 1stSaturdays.com and sign up today!
Kind regards,
David N. Roach
Co-Founder / Director
The Familyhood Connection Inc
droach@1stSaturdays.com
