Engaging Families and Communities featuring Joseph Otter: Director of School Community Partnerships, Lansingburgh Central School District

A new episode of NYKids Deep Dive is ready for you – just in time for the new school year! In this episode, Assistant Director of NYKids Aaron Leo meets with Joseph Otter, the Director of School Community Partnerships in Lansingburgh Central School District. Listen to the full episode here!

Joseph Otter’s Biography

In his role as Director of School Community Partnerships, Joseph Otter’s work includes the Trauma Sensitive Schools initiative, Equity, Inclusivity & Diversity efforts, implementation of grants and supervision of the social work department. Before joining Lansingburgh CSD, Joseph Otter was an assistant principal at the Neil Hellman School, a school for students with emotional-behavioral disturbance, and prior to that served for 16 years at Capital Region BOCES providing professional development, technical assistance and consultation to schools, agencies and members of the New York State Education Department’s technical assistance networks.

The Podcast Episode

It was a pleasure to learn all about Director Otter’s experience engaging families and communities in Lansingburgh – a topic which NYKids has written about for the School Community Journal and Child & Youth Services.

In this episode, Director Otter describes a range of programs and practices designed to build strong relationships with families and the wider community. Some topics we explore are:

• What the most pressing needs facing families and communities are
• How to overcome obstacles to meet families’ needs
• Insights gained from partnering with families and communities
• The future of family and community engagement

A few key take-aways and quotes from Director Otter:

• How districtwide initiatives and partnerships with community organizations are being used meet students’ and families’ needs
  • “When those [basic needs] aren’t in place, it’s harder for kids to do well in school”
• How to support students’ mental health and ensure they can access services and resources
  • “I’m hoping that over time there will be even more support and normalization of the idea of mental health and wellbeing being part of the goals and missions of schools.”
• How to collaborate with families as partners and gathering feedback from them
  • “You have to find ways to go to them… we need to make an effort to be at other places at other times for [families].”

Tune in to listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

You can get the latest news about our research through NYKids’ website. We encourage you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!

As always, we invite you to reach out with comments or questions or a research request at nykids@albany.edu.