KINDRED SCHOOLS
are communities that co-create liberated and just schools.
At Kindred Communities, we work with students, caregivers, and school staff to identify and tackle the barriers that prevent schools from being antiracist, equitable, and liberated spaces. Our work with the community brings stakeholders together to connect, build relationships, and the mindsets needed to engage in a liberatory design process to create a more just school.
Read about the Kindred Journey

TO DATE, KINDRED HAS SERVED

0
school communities

SERVING NEARLY

0
students

AND ENGAGING

0
staff and caregivers

OUR PARTNERS TO DATE

  • Alexandria City Public Schools
  • Amidon Bowen Elementary School
  • Bancroft Elementary School
  • Cardozo Education Campus
  • E.L. Haynes Public Charter School
  • Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School
  • Garrison Elementary School
  • Key Elementary School
  • LAMB Public Charter School
  • Marie Reed Elementary School
  • Miner Elementary School
  • Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School
  • New York City Schools, District 13
  • Peabody Elementary School
  • School-Within-School Elementary School
  • Tyler Elementary School
  • Walker Jones Education Campus
  • Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School
  • Watkins ES

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO PARTNER WITH KINDRED?

Amidon-Bowen Elementary School

Principal Sykes received monthly coaching from Kindred, participated in Kindred’s School Leader PLC, and led an all-staff equity-focused training — all while caregivers developed an equity team that focused on forming relationships across racial lines and expanding the school’s outreach to Black families within the school community boundaries.

“[Kindred] brings people together. Kindred coached families and they pushed me to do actionable, specific things to build trust. Parents started volunteering. We also brought families into our hiring process because teachers want to be in a place where they have the support of families, and families want to see their kids taught by amazing teachers. As a community, we had the tough conversations that we could have shied away from. Those conversations became action and advocacy. We advocate for what we all want in this school: excellence. Without [Kindred’s] coaching and skill-building, I don’t believe our community would have been able to shift from what was a dysfunctional culture.”

— Principal TaMikka Sykes

E.L. Haynes PCS

The E.L. Haynes community began without a parent organization in an attempt to avoid the pitfalls of parent dynamics common in gentrifying communities, but still found caregivers to be extremely siloed from one another. With Kindred’s support, the school created a parent group with the explicit focus coming to consensus on how caregivers would support all the students at the school and focusing on how all students succeed. The work intentionally brings in voices that often are excluded and helps caregivers work toward a collective action.

“In the seat that I’m in as principal, working with ROAR [Relationships, Opportunities, And Resources, which is the family organization] has been invaluable. It has helped me feel a deeper sense of connection with families and has given me unparalleled appreciation for the diverse perspectives of families. This, in turn, has enabled me to lead more equitably and more effectively since it has empowered the school team with much richer information on our families’ views, needs, and interests.”

— Principal Brittany Wagner-Friel

ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS

Kindred provides tailored support to schools through our additional supports, which include leadership coaching, strategic advising, whole school professional development, . We help leaders, leadership teams, and full teams move forward strategically and effectively on their equity plans and supports. Contact us if you want Kindred to provide additional equity supports in your school.