Equity, Engagement & Advocacy Grant (E3)

The Equity, Engagement & Advocacy (E3) is a National Professional Development (NPD) funded project offered by the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) at the U.S. Department of Education. CU Engage is partnering with the Bueno Center to support teachers in the family-community engagement components of this grant.

In partnership with several rural school districts, teachers graduating from this project will earn a Master of Arts degree in Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity (EECD) and a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Endorsement and a Special Education Generalist (SEG) Endorsement.

Family-Community Engagement

The goal for this portion of the degree is for teachers to design and implement as a sustainable model of community engagement that is integrated into their on-going work as teachers. The focus for family community engagement used through the E3 degree is on working with parents, families, students, and educators who represent Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students and students in Special Education. The guiding idea is that more robust connections between schools, families, and communities provide a stronger basis for student success. We are drawing on principles and practices from community organizing (tailored for teachers) as the basic approach. Though there are many models of community organizing, our approach focuses on building relationships with key stakeholders to bring about some change in practices. In this model, we follow the issues that matter to our key stakeholders and build our community engagement around the voices of those most impacted by these realities. 

Our Team

Ana Contreras, Community Engagement Specialist 

Erin Kurtz, Community Engagement Specialist 

Roudy Hildreth, Community Engagement Specialist

Dennis Donovan, Community Engagement Consultant