REGISTER FOR NEXT WEEK'S QUARTERLY CONVENING TODAY!
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Please join the Center for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon and the Darien High School Black Student Union for a conversation about race relations on Wednesday, March 16th at 7 PM via Zoom. This discussion is made possible by Norwalk ACTS. It provides a safe space for youth to come together to share experiences, provide education, and explore equitable actions that can be taken within schools and the community. |
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We are thrilled to present our newest marketing piece, which helps to define our work and capture how we transform systems. Please tell your friends and family about the important collective impact work we do! |
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Thank you for your generosity on Fairfield County's Giving Day. Your donations help us to continue to make Norwalk a connected and equitable community where every child and young person thrives academically, physically, and social-emotionally from cradle to career. |
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In this new space, we invite the community to share local stories of acts of goodness and kindness that we can highlight. Please send to info@norwalkacts.org.
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“Too often we think the work of fighting oppression is just intellectual. The real work is personal, emotional, spiritual, and communal. It is explicit, with a deep and"
― Bettina L. Love, We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
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We hope to use this section of the newsletter to share resources that have been helpful to our race equity journey. Within our internal race equity discussions, we discuss the difficult work of moving equity from theory to practice, confronting racism within friendships and families, and our continued progress from allyship to trusted co-conspirators. Trusted co-conspirators are those who choose to take action against racism regardless of the consequences.
As part of our February discussions, we watched the clip, Dr. Bettina Love explains what she means by a co-conspirator. Dr. Bettina Love, author, professor, and abolitionist education pioneer, challenges us to ask ourselves what we are willing to put on the line for others. In the fight for racial equity, how can we wield our privilege? Is our work true risk-taking, and if not, how do we work to get there? How can we progressively use our actions to display our values, both within collective impact work and as people? How can we live the equity mindset? What are we willing to risk for others in order to build a world where Black and Brown people thrive?
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Understanding how traumatic experiences, even ones well before we form memories, affect our brains throughout our lives is critical to understanding how we handle stress. This is a must-read, especially for the early childhood community.
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SOCIAL JUSTICE & RACIAL EQUITY |
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Youth Town Hall on Teen Dating Violence Recording |
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February was Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month and CYL dedicated the month's Youth Town Hall to Teen Dating Violence. They were joined by staff members from the Domestic Violence Crisis Center. The students agreed to record this session. Please feel free to share this informative session with your networks. |
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New student and Kindergarten registration is now open. Click this link to go to the NPS registration page.
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Join NPS for their first annual NPS Elementary School Choice Fair!
Thursday, March 10 from 5:30-7:30 pm at Brookside Elementary School (382 Highland Ave). Learn About NPS Elementary Schools, Lotteries & Choice Programs!
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April 2, 8:30AM-3:30PM
This year’s theme is Where do We Grow from Here? Reflections on COVID, Recovery & Rebuilding. The workshops cover a multitude of topics and themes including Post-Pandemic Supports, Race & Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and Social-Emotional Learning with the hope of supporting the impactful and intentional work that you are already doing and will ignite new energy and ideas for future work.
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Free Online High School Support Group!
Positive Directions is starting a new FREE online support group for high school students dealing with anxiety starting Wednesdays from 4-5 pm starting March 16, 2022. RSVP today.
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Restorative Practices Advanced Training- April 6-8, 8:30 AM-2 PM (Virtual)
Don’t miss the opportunity to take the Restorative Practices Advanced training this April. This 3-day training is designed to prepare and equip participants to deliver future Restorative Practices training. Register here.
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The legislative session is well underway. We encourage all Norwalk community members to engage with elected officials to use their voices and experiences to shape policy! Join the League of Women Voters this coming weekend to meet directly with local legislators.
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Join the CT Children’s Collective’s Spring Quarterly Meeting on March 16 at 12PM to learn updates and initiatives from the OEC and SDE. Register in advance for this meeting here.
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We have created a Norwalk Out of School Time Program Locator as a resource for families to find programs that meet the needs of their children. In the past, the program locator existed only for summer programs, but we have redesigned this program locator to share all before/after school and summer programs. Our goal is that all Norwalk young people are connected to year-round, meaningful out-of-school experiences.
The program locator is simple to use to ensure that families can find and learn about your program! There is a web and mobile version of this portal, and it will be available in both Spanish and Haitian Creole.
Our first step is collecting all the information we can about the available out-of-school time programs through a program survey, which will then be translated and uploaded. We hope to officially launch and market the portal throughout our city by March 11 - it will be available in both City of Norwalk and Norwalk Public Schools communications.
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COLLEGE AND WORKFORCE READINESS |
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CareerConn 2022 is Connecticut’s largest one-day career school expo that connects students, adult learners, and veterans with leading postsecondary career schools, selected employers, and career track workshops. Now at the Mohegan Sun Arena, March 29, 2022. Register now!
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FREE Virtual FAFSA workshops for students and their families. Financial aid professionals will be available to help students and families navigate the process of need-based federal aid. Those who sign up will receive a checklist of items that they will need to successfully complete the process. These events are open to high school students across the state.
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INTERESTED IN BECOMING MORE INVOLVED? |
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GIVE WHILE YOU SHOP: Are you an Amazon shopper? Set Norwalk ACTS as your selected charity on Amazon Smile, and a portion of every purchase will be donated to transform how a community works. Get started here.
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Norwalk ACTS | [www.norwalkacts.org] |
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