Resources to Address Racism

As a part of our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization, each edition of this newsletter will share a few educational resources for adults and children that are focused on undoing racism. Additionally, we are currently updating our racial equity resource list, which can be found here, and will continue to do so on a regular basis. 

We encourage you to spend time on a regular basis learning more about both the historical context of racism, and the current experience and impact of racism in today’s world.  We also encourage each of you, and especially our White colleagues, to continually learn more about how you can be actively anti-racist, and make a personal commitment to action.

For Adults:

For Children:


In case you missed it, read the June 2020 statement from ECIN’s directors.

Innovation Spotlight: Resilient Communities DC (RC-DC)

In 2017, a grant from the District’s Department of Health gave ECIN the opportunity to launch Resilient Communities DC (RC-DC) a place-based program focused on making sure families in high need neighborhoods can access peer-to-peer support and get connected to resources that already exist close to their homes.

The program created a Neighborhood Family Champion (NFC) for individual clusters of Ward 8 where large numbers of families with young children live. The NFC role was developed by several members of ECIN’s leadership team, including those who lead the family-run and community-based organizations Parent Watch, Total Family Care Coalition, and Health Alliance Network. Together, these leaders drove discussions about the importance of  a place-based program that leverages the natural and informal leadership that already exists within neighborhoods, the types of information and value that an NFC could and should provide, and gave insight into what it means to be a true peer support. Today, the NFCs are based out of the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative (FSFSC), a trusted organization with more than twenty years of experience serving residents in Ward 8.

“The idea is for the NFC to learn about what’s happening for these families, and then to help guide them to the right information and resources so that a family in need doesn’t have to navigate systems alone,” says Hillary Robertson, senior research associate at ECIN who helped write the original grant for RC-DC. “There’s a lot of strength and many programs already in these areas—the need was for someone to be available, knowledgeable and able to make these connections for families.”

ECIN and FSFSC empower the Neighborhood Family Champions

Each NFC provides neighborhood-based peer support and promotes knowledge and social connections via workshops and educational opportunities of interest to parents and caregivers of young children, focused on the five key areas identified in the Center for the Study of Social Policy Strengthening Families protective factors.

Simone Banks-Mackey, one of the program’s two NFCs, is leading a New Year, Better Planning workshop that has been a huge success. The first session asked attendees to create vision boards and draft personal goals for the year. There are several follow up sessions throughout the year to give participants the ability to self-check progress toward their goals.

“The focus of these workshops and all the support we offer is to help the parents better themselves so they can parent effectively or to make sure that a child is effectively taken care of and has a strong foundation to grow,” she says. “That can be knowledge, or it can be physical needs like childcare, food, clothing, medical care, or other things.”

Rhonda Johnson’s series, Parent Talk, has also been extremely popular. She partners with local resources, including Martha’s Table and HealthySteps DC, to offer people information about topics related to the protective factors that the people themselves have identified as important. These topics include employment education, day care information, and adult and childhood mental health.

The NFCs also give individual peer support for families who need help navigating the community service system and have developed a comprehensive community resource guide based on existing resources in the community that aren’t being utilized already.

However, Rhonda clarifies their role from that of a case worker. “We are peer group supporters. I understand what it’s like to be on the other side and not able to get the support you need. You are not alone. As long as we can help, that’s what it’s about, especially if we are able to help people implement protective factors that will support their kids.”

The long-term goal remains to connect with as many parents and caregivers of young children as possible and help them build the protective factors that will strengthen their families. However, the NFCs have also felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders across the region have prevented face-to-face educational sessions and in-person connections. In response, they’ve transitioned in-person workshops to webinars and spend hours every day calling, emailing, and text messaging with parents and caregivers just to check in with them, remind them of upcoming events and make sure all is well. 

Since the program’s launch, Rhonda and Simone have reached more than 130 parents and caregivers in the target neighborhood clusters 38 and 39 within Ward 8. Their work is driven by the belief that they are making a difference for families, one at a time.

The key to the success of this program, according to Claudine Sherwood, program manager of the Family Services Division of FSFSC, is more than phone calls or webinars, however. “So many of these families could easily say to Rhonda and Simone, ‘Don’t call me anymore.’ But that hasn’t been the case. Families have given them an open door and shared their vulnerabilities, and that just shows the trust that these two have earned from the people they work with.”

Both NFCs agree that they share one additional job duty that often goes unmentioned. Rhonda sums it up best: “We are also agents of hope.”

Introducing the Connected Families Video Series

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We are proud to announce the launch of a new parent-focused video series produced in partnership with the WISE Center and Appletree Schools. The series, called Connected Families, offers parenting skills to help parents of young children address common behavior challenges in their little ones. From scheduling special one-on-one time to rewarding positive behaviors, each video spends three minutes or less distilling down one strategy and how best to try it.

Watch and like our videos on Youtube or on the website, and subscribe to ECIN’s new Youtube channel to receive automatic updates when new videos are added!  

New ECIN.org Impact Story: Teamwork and Mutual Support at Children's National at THEARC

Read about how a Children’s National pediatrician and a HealthySteps DC developmental and clinical psychologist have developed a great system for working together with families and for supporting each other. 

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