Community Schools
FMCI embraces the Hub Schools approach with a focus on alignment across programs and organizational partners. The Hub approach strives for educational success and the physical, social, and emotional well-being of students, families, and the community. This is achieved through intentional partnerships with a range of community stakeholders designed to provide opportunities, optimize assets, and address the identified needs of the students, family, and community in an equitable and culturally responsive way. The Santee Community Center and Educare are key resources within this broader strategy that allow for the integration of programming across early education, elementary school, and the broader community. Together, needs are addressed comprehensively. Whenever possible, opportunities and services are embedded in the fabric of daily school life, and the landscape of the community.
Key ProgrammingBridge to Kinder
Every year, In partnership with FMSD our team at Educare FRC, Seven Trees FRC, and George Shirakawa FRC, conduct Welcome Orientation, Resource Fair, and ASQ -3 & ASQ: SE -2 developmental screenings this summer for the incoming Transitional Kindergarteners. Parents of the students are also offered an opportunity to enroll in evidence-based workshops. School supplies and stationery kits were provided for all participants to help little ones get a strong start to the upcoming school year.
Educare Family Resource Center
FIRST 5’s vision for the Family Resource Center Initiative is that families in Santa Clara County have the skills and capacity to promote their children’s development, ensure their children are ready for school, build strong family relationships, and create a connected community.
FIRST 5 has established Family Resource Centers (FRCs) throughout Santa Clara County that increase access to services and provide opportunities for parents/caregivers to become more engaged in their children’s healthy development, school readiness, and other collaborative efforts to improve their lives and the communities in which they live.
Raising a Reader – Baby and Me, Summer Book Bags, and Learning Packets
Raising a Reader, a national organization with evidence-based programming, has a mission to engage caregivers in a routine of book sharing with their children from birth through age eight to foster healthy brain development, healthy relationships, a love of reading, and the literacy skills critical for school success. FMCI partners with FIRST 5 Santa Clara County to offer two programs:
1) Baby and Me, a 10-week program for parents and children age 0-18 months that is offered four times per year.
2) Summer Book Bags and Learning Packets program, each week, children bring home a bright red book bag filled with award-winning books. Children are encouraged to share a book with a loved one each day. Every week each child brings home a different bag of books so that, on average, more than 100 high-quality books are rotated through the children’s homes over the course of a typical rotation cycle.
Summer Reading Book Bags
During the summer book club children were encouraged to participate in reading out loud with their parents or guardian. They engaged in materials related to their reading for the week. The book club provided the tools for children to increase their literacy goals while gaining self-confidence. The book club meets twice a week. In order to address summer reading loss, FMCI provides the necessary reading and practice tools to students for the summer. Books bags contain a combination of a reading log, books, and a grade-appropriate summer packet.
ParentChild+ Home Based Child Care
ParentChild+ HBCC is an intensive 24-week professional development and enrichment program that equips family child care providers with tools to strengthen early learning in their homes. Twice a week, an Early Learning Specialist visits for 45 minutes, delivering high-quality educational materials and modeling best practices in play, reading, and meaningful verbal interactions. This hands-on coaching approach not only enhances providers’ skills but also enriches the developmental experiences of the children in their care, fostering a foundation for lifelong learning.
ParentChild+ Home Visitation Program
ParentChild+ One-on-One Home Visitation Program is a personalized early learning initiative designed to nurture a child’s growth and development during the most critical years. Through bi-weekly 30-minute home visits, an Early Learning Specialist partners with parents, providing high-quality educational materials and practical strategies that build children’s language, literacy, and social-emotional skills. Beyond academic readiness, the program strengthens the parent-child bond, empowering parents as their child’s first and most important teacher, and laying a strong foundation for lifelong learning and school success.
Be Strong Parent Cafe
In collaboration with the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) and Be Strong Families, Parent Café provides parents with a supportive and empowering space to strengthen both personal and community resilience. Through a series of six interactive sessions, parents come together in a peer-to-peer learning environment that encourages honest conversation, mutual support, and shared growth.
Parent Cafés are designed to nurture individual self-reflection while building leadership skills and confidence. Rooted in the Five Protective Factors of the Strengthening Families Framework—parental resilience, social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development, and the social and emotional competence of children—the Cafés create opportunities for parents to explore strategies, share experiences, and learn from one another.
Beyond personal growth, Parent Cafés cultivate a sense of community belonging and connection. They foster meaningful relationships that not only support families in the moment but also build networks of trust and care that extend into the broader community, ultimately contributing to stronger, healthier, and more resilient families.
School Link Services
Students and Families First program coordinates services with Franklin McKinley to implement neighborhood programming focused on creating a robust educational pipeline by providing case management services and pro-social skills training workshops.
Pro-Social Activities for Youth
As part of the School-Linked Services program, the pro-social workshop series serves as an academic and social development intervention program for elementary and middle school students within the Franklin-Mckinley School District. The programming includes pro-social personal development activities, homework tutoring and support, physical recreation, creative arts, leadership development, and community development projects. The goal of the program is to increase the ability to promote and support social behavior and school attendance rates, as well as support families in their connection with their school communities.
Home Visit for Youth
Home visits serve as an opportunity to further bridge the gap between the school and families. Students and their families are supported with referral services for a wide range of resources such as health coverage, rental assistance, job employment, and more.