One of our Statements of Understandings here at ICS is “As a beloved community, we approach complex issues with strong communication, collaboration, perspective, respect and active listening.”
There are many complex issues in our world today that directly affect our students and families, including the physical and mental health of our community. This past year, ICS collaborated with partners to address this issue through new community-wide health initiatives.
Last January, we were thrilled to collaborate with many community partners to provide DeKalb County’s first COVID-19 vaccination clinic held at a school to help address healthcare barriers faced within our community. We partnered with Refugee Women’s Network, CORE Response, GSU, and DeKalb County Board of Health to administer first, second and booster doses. Thanks to these organization’s generosity, families walked away not only with a free vaccination, but with a $100 gift card for each vaccination.
I reflected that this gift card incentive is what caused an increase in our total number of vaccinations at the second event. When I shared this with an organizer at Refugee Women’s Network, she agreed with me, but then brought to light what really made the difference in the number of vaccinations….she said that it was the trust that has been built in our beloved community…that is what really brought families to be vaccinated.
We have translators on our staff that are from many of the different language communities here at ICS, and they also work full time as teachers on our staff, thus bulding relationships with families.
Translators are integral to putting on every part of a school event like the vaccination clinics, from personalized outreach in more than 7 languages, attending after-hours events to help, and translating paperwork, flyers, and conversations while at the event. Through our translators, we meet families where they are at. This has been an intentional and integral part of making our statements of understanding a reality.
We strive to truly hear from all of our families and to connect them to the incredible resources available in our community. This year, we have intentionally expanded our efforts through hosting an all-encompassing Health Fair here at ICS. Not only were COVID-19 vaccines offered, but we also had flu vaccines, telehealth and mental health information, health information for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol and other community partners with information on healthy living.
We know that it is a privilege to educate our students here, and that we have a responsibility to honor the trust they have in us by providing available services with translation in a safe environment.
This health fair is just one small example of our 20th anniversary year theme, Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges.
Barriers are rarely broken by accident or coincidence.
Bridges rarely just magically appear.
To break barriers and build bridges we have to intentionally make small and large decisions on how we use our time and resources every single day.
It’s an intentional decision to pay our translators the going market rate for their time outside of school hours. It’s an intentional decision to provide workshops and programs based on what families tell us they want and need. It’s an intentional decision to bring outside resources into our campus, a space where families feel comfortable and safe, rather than only refer out.
We cannot wait to see what new bridges are built in the next 20 years….what I know is that they will have intentionally built on our core understandings of collaboration and complex problem-solving to construct a way towards the healthiest community possible.
"For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything."
—Owen Arthur
