“If you want to take your students to the next level, this is the place to be.”
Arlington ISD family engagement specialist Eric Phillips was talking about Arlington ISD’s Family Expo, where local families get connected to community summer resources. 
“We are reaching the end of the school year, and we know we’re approaching summer, so our families will be looking for access to resources in the summertime” said Aaron Perales, who leads the Arlington ISD family and community engagement department.
Over 75 vendors offered resources like summer camps, STEAM activities and literacy programs, like the summer reading programs through Arlington ISD libraries.
Tiffany Alexander, the program manager for Tarrant County Kids, has been attending the event for the last three years. She said the event is life-changing for many families, and she loves helping parents help their families.
“We’re here to support their kids and move them to the next step.” 
“The event has been growing each year,” Phillips said. “There’s a great energy that’s here every year, and parents and families are really connecting. That’s what I like to see – the kids having fun and parents getting resources.”
The Family Expo morphed out of a different event originally established by Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated, XI Theta Omega Chapter. The local sorority has been serving the citizens of Arlington since 1982 and has the motto, “Service to all mankind.”
“It’s our 28th year and it started out as a Black history program that just spread because we saw a need to provide financial and health literacy to the community,” said AKA president Dr. A’Donna Cooper.
Arlington ISD and Alpha Kappa Alpha joining forces has been a recipe for success. 
“We have had this amazing partnership, which is now the Family Expo and Resource Fair where we bring in STEAM activities now that both parents and children can participate in,” Cooper said.
Perales couldn’t agree more.
“We are very proud of it because it truly reflects the intent in the way that it’s organized and planned out,” he said. “It stays within our community to support the community.”
In the end, hundreds of students walked away with a handful of free information, freebies, a good meal and overall a fun day. Parents walked away with loads of resources that will help their students keep growing this summer.