Gaining the trust of families was the biggest challenge when Traci Alter worked in child protective services. She remembered showing up at a home unannounced with allegations that threatened the family dynamic. "It can be challenging to break down the barriers to get families to trust you and know that you are there to honor their family and protect the safety of their children," she explained.
Now as a family service advocate for Stono Park Elementary School in West Ashley, Alter sees how much those experiences have benefitted her work in the school system. “In most communities, school is a safe haven for students as well as their caregivers who want the best for their children which includes getting a well-rounded education. Working directly in the school gives me the opportunity to get to know families first by connecting with them and gaining their trust which allows me to offer support and assistance without threatening the dynamic of their family.
This can lead to beautiful, strong relationships between the families, school, and the community we all live in." Family service advocates have a positive impact on schools by focusing on student achievement and bringing family engagement into the school environment. The family service advocate will help families problem solve around attendance issues and they will help provide resources to students and families, which can directly affect a student's academic success.
"I use a variety of different strategies to build that partnership between school and home. Parenting workshops are offered throughout the year on multiple topics such as parenting strategies, behavior management, literacy and math workshops, and academic curriculum. Monthly newsletters are shared with our families on literacy, math tips and tricks, educational tools to support academics at home, and current community resources.
Chronic absenteeism is a huge barrier to student success therefore attendance education, attendance incentives, and truancy conferences help problem solve obstacles a family may be experiencing to increase attendance." She emphasized the vital importance of the role that parents have in their child’s education. "I engage parents in the learning process which is essential for student success as well as improving the whole school environment," she said.
Traci Alter, holding the trophy, leads the wellness committee at Stono Park Elementary School in West Ashley. Alter’s job is also to engage with community partners for donations, reading/math buddies, Lowcountry Food Bank backpack buddy programs, and she is involved in community fairs, which bring resources directly to families. She said she also has a particular passion for health and wellness.
"I lead the wellness committee at my school, organizing wellness fairs, student and staff wellness initiatives, creating a staff wellness room, the fun run, and I helped organize a gardening club with our wonderful teachers and volunteers," she said. Participating in community events is nothing new for Alter. One of her favorite memories as a child was when she participated in her community’s annual spring carnival in New York.
"My parents and I would work on a candy creation every year and we would donate to a candy walk. I fondly remember making these creations with my mom and dad and feeling so much pride for what we created. I loved the candy walk and winning one of those awesome candy creations to bring home.
When I started as a family advocate, I wanted to make my family engagement events ones that students would remember their whole life, ones that families look forward to going to every year that bring joy and togetherness not just at the event but leading up to the event by doing an activity that the family can share and get creative together." Alter started the Stono Park Math Night in Candyland with her childhood memory in mind. Families create a candy creation for the candy walk leading up to the Math Night in Candyland.
"We strategically plan this event a couple weeks after Halloween so families can use leftover candy for this project trying not to put a hardship on families to have to purchase anything. Stono Park luckily has the most innovative and creative art teacher to help the whole school turn into a candy world. We have a life-sized gingerbread house, Gumdrop Mountain, and huge candy buttons down our two-story building.
Our math coach creates fun and engaging candy-themed math activities such as Milky Way mass and gum-drop geometry. We turn the media center into a life-sized Candyland game that the students and families can play through. All our teachers dress up as Candyland characters!" Tracy Alter started Math Night in Candyland at Stono Park Elementary School, a community event for students and families.
In its third year, Math Night in Candyland seems to get bigger every year. Alter admits that it’s the families, educators, and administrators that inspire her on a daily basis. She said she admires the resilience of people and is inspired by the complex challenges that many of the families she works with go through.
"The most rewarding work is connecting with others in their most vulnerable moments and supporting them in overcoming obstacles that seem impossible." She added, “I am constantly in awe of my administrators and teachers that I am lucky enough to work with. They put so much work every day into their student’s success, which could one minute be a math lesson, another minute teaching them breathing exercises or helping them do their hair or wash their jacket during their planning period.
Stono Park teachers not only create a positive climate within their classroom, they also go above and beyond creating learning celebrations every quarter where they transform their rooms into pollination research centers, a poetry cafe, a rainforest, Peter Pan’s Neverland or they create a weather fashion show! We are so lucky at Stono Park to have a principal that encourages and supports all our wellness initiatives in our school." Alter received her bachelor’s degree in human development at State University of New York at Oswego. She started her career as a mental health and chemical dependency counselor at a variety of different organizations.
She moved to Charleston in 2008 and worked as a child abuse investigator with the Department of Social Services. She got a job with the Charleston County School District at Mary Ford Elementary as a behavioral interventionist in 2017. She then worked for St.
Johns High School for one year in 2020 before being hired at Stono Park Elementary as a family service advocate. She is now in her fourth year at Stono Park Elementary. "Connection first and everything else second is the most important lesson I have learned in my many years of working with children and families.
There are many roles and positions in education but the common goal in all of our roles is the connections and relationships we build with our co-workers, students, families, and community to educate our students for a bright and successful future," she said..
