MassCOSH meets Families Face2Face

On March 12, MassCOSH Labor-Community Training Coordinator Jazmin Morinigo joined with partners at the Boston Educational Justice Alliance and the Boston Public Schools Families for COVID Safety (FamCoSa) to provide a workshop at the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) annual Family2Family Conference. The conference’s theme was United in Healing and Hope for our Students. The gathering was for parents, caregivers, and educators to share and learn from each other, support family engagement, promote family advocacy, and strengthen family and educator collaboration.

The event featured many workshops and updates from teachers on union contract negotiations with the city and how the pandemic has changed how schools operate. The MassCOSH/BEJA/FamCoSa workshop gave an overview of BuildBPS and how to become involved in the project. BuildBPS is a 10-year education and facilities master plan for the Boston Public Schools reflecting a $1 billion commitment from former Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. Now in its second phase, it aims to modernize schools to provide more spaces that facilitate 21st-century learning, build new school buildings, and ensure greater equity of program placement to meet the needs of English learners, students with disabilities, and other populations, among other goals.

The workshop also trained teachers and parents on how to conduct a healthy schools walk-through. MassCOSH reviewed the tools parents, teachers and students can use to identify degrading infrastructure that can lead to unhealthy learning and working conditions, signs of mold, and cleaning practices that can exacerbate asthma in students and school workers.
This was also Jazmin’s first in-person training since joining MassCOSH this past August. You killed it Jazmin!