“Conexiones” – a collaboration between Alexandria City Public Schools and DreamDog Foundation, which provides resources and services for our Latino parents, connecting parent to child, to their children’s education, to the school community, and parent to parent.

Once a month this group meets to provide information, resources and services to our Spanish-speaking community but also gives their feedback to ACPS. Conexiones has led to positive improvements for our Spanish-speaking parents and their children such as the availability of menus in Spanish and encouraging parents to be on school committees and participate in other school activities.

Conexiones provides an invaluable service and parents come from many schools, not just George Washington Middle School, which hosts the program, in order to participate.

“Family Links” — a collaboration between ACPS, SCAN and DreamDog Foundation provides a Nurturing Parenting curriculum for our teen parents at T.C. Williams High School. This program meets twice a week to provide information, resources and services about care, nutrition, health, nurturing and the well-being of their babies. DreamDog provides valuable support in many areas for these young parents. Open communication and interaction are key to each class. With our partners, DreamDog plans playgroups and parties so the parents can learn how to model singing, hand-plays, rhyming, dancing and reading stories to their children. And, of course, all our Family Links babies are gifted with books from DreamDog upon their arrival.