Park Connects

Park Connects is a school-wide program designed to support our studentsā€™ health and well-being and help reduce the risk factors that contribute to unhealthy behaviors. Park Connects brings together parents, students, faculty, and the broader community.

Our Goals

Long-standing research demonstrates that prevention of unhealthy behaviors is associated with effective parenting; strong, positive family and school bonds; clear standards and limit-setting; opportunities for healthy risk-taking; postponement and/or reduction of inappropriate behaviors; and positive role models. Participants gain better understanding of:

Parent Facilitated Discussions

Sponsored by the Parentsā€™ Association, these grade level parent-to-parent events allow for relationships to develop, experience to be gathered, and an ethos of a connected community to be built. Conversation topics range across the developmental spectrum, such as how to get a five-year-old to fall asleep on their own, to drinking and driving for parents of teenage children. For almost 20 years, these discussion groups, led by trained parent facilitators, have created a culture of conversation and connectivity among Park parents, demonstrated by the ā€œPark Connects momentsā€ ā€” as parents call them ā€” that now take place every day, in the carpool line, on the sidelines of a game, or in a phone call. As decades of research confirm, thereā€™s no question that a more connected community provides a healthier and safer environment for all of our children.

For these Parent Facilitated Discussions, the Park Health Team will provide topics ahead of time (in addition to materials and resources) to help educate parents and guide their conversations. Members of Parkā€™s Health Team will be present for these discussions to answer questions and share their knowledge on what theyā€™re seeing on the ground based on these topics. After an initial conversation, Park’s Health Team will step out of the meeting to allow parents to continue the discussions led by trained parent facilitators. Topics in this portion can include the night’s themes or any parenting issues that are top of mind for parents. 

Resources

Parkā€™s Health Team has created a large database of resources (articles, books, lectures, podcasts, etc.) that will be accessible to Park parents. These resources are intended to provide parenting education about developmentally appropriate topics that parents can access in a convenient way as needed. 

Health Team Happy Hours

Get to know us! Parkā€™s Health Team will host two meet and greet happy hours where our counselors and health educators will introduce themselves and share about divisional specific goals and initiatives. Parents will be able to connect with each other and get to know our health team in an informal ā€” and fun! ā€” way.


2024-2025 Park Connects Calendar

month/date grade level/EVENT time
OCTOBER

Tuesday, October 1

Wednesday, October 9

Tuesday, October 15

Pre-K ā€“ Grade 2 Parent Discussion

Health Team Happy Hour

Grades 4ā€“6 Human Sexuality with Debbie

6:30 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

NOVEMBER

Wednesday, November 13

Grades 9ā€“10 Parent/Student Workshop

6:30 p.m.

DECEMBER

Wednesday, December 4

Grades 6ā€“8 Parent Discussion

7 p.m.

JANUARY

Wednesday, January 8

Pre-Kā€“Grade 3 Human Sexuality with Debbie

6 p.m.

MARCH

Thursday, March 6

Monday, March 10

Grades 9ā€“12 Parent Discussion

Grades 3ā€“5 Parent Discussion

7 p.m

6:30 p.m.

APRIL

Wednesday, April 30

Health Team Happy Hour

6:30 p.m.


Park Connects Team

Park Connects programs and activities are created and run by a team of Park School faculty and staff and advised by parent volunteers.  

Vanessa Pikler & Amanda Shapiro

Park Connects Co-Chairs, Parents’ Association

Amy Ancona

Lower School Counselor
aancona@parkschool.net

Debbie Roffman

Human Sexuality and Health Educator
droffman@parkschool.net

Lauren Blum

Park Connects Coordinator 
parkconnects@parkschool.net

Kara Ker & Tucker Snow

Middle and Upper School Counselors
kker@parkschool.net
tsnow@parkschool.net

Ashley Edwards

Middle and Upper School Health Educator
aedwards@parkschool.net

Park Connects Suggested Topics

Email
We would love to gather your input to ensure we address the most relevant topics that can help both our students and their family. If you have one or more topics you would like us to discuss feel free to let us know. We will do our best to address the topics or provide resources as best we can throughout the year.
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