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Parents In Action

After parents graduate from our 16-week programs, they are invited to participate in alumni activities to continue developing their leadership skills, to practice their advocacy skills, and to increase their knowledge on education and other topics they might be interested.

If you are interested in learning more about upcoming alumni activities, please contact the PSP Alumni Affairs Coordinator at (213) 629 – 2512. Or download our quarterly newsletter here [INCLUDE LINK], where you can find information about current activities and opportunities to continue to be an active member in the program.

Alumni Activities

Sacramento Fieldtrip in April
Eighteen our most active parents from throughout the Los Angeles region participated in “The State of Latino Issues” Briefing and Advocacy Day in Sacramento on April 2007.

This event was sponsored by MALDEF, the National Council of La Raza, Latino Issues Forum, and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California to provide Latinos a hands-on training on the political process and how to advocate for their issues at the state level.

The briefings included information in the areas of education, health, and immigration. Parents met with elected officials the following day to express their support on several education bills.

Parent Reunion
The PSP program held a reunion for parents who graduated from 1999 to 2007 in Los Angeles. Alumni had the opportunity to network with other parent leaders, discuss their parent projects, and share success stories.

Family Picnic
Parents from MALDEF’s PSP program and other organizations in the Parent Organization Network (PON), enjoying a family picnic while networking with parent leaders from the Los Angeles area.

Pre-school Forum
MALDEF hosted a forum on pre-school to gauge parents’ knowledge on the subject and to increase parents’ knowledge on child development, identifying special needs and knowing legal rights for students with disabilities, and accessing quality preschools.

Advocates in Action

In March 2009, PSP classes from the Chicago area partnered with Latinos Progresando in creating “Advocacy Day,” where parents participated in a phone-a-thon and urged their local representatives to support the reintroduction of the D.R.E.A.M Act. Inspired by parents in Chicago, parents in the Los Angeles opted to support the same cause by calling and sending one-thousand letters to their representatives.

PON’s R.ES.P.E.C.T for Parents Campaign

PON has realized that may schools and districts have policies and practices for parent engagement but fail to implement them. As a result, they created the Parent Engagement standards to make clear what parents expect from schools to better enable them to work together toward student success. To start off the campaign, schoolhouse meetings will be hosted through out the Los Angeles area that will focus on the “Communication Standard.” The goal of this standard is to improve communication between schools and parents areas and regions where PON members are located. If you are interested in learning more about, and participating in the campaign, please contact the PSP Alumni Affairs Coordinator at (213) 629-2512.

PON Parent Engagement Standards:

Communication
Ongoing, two-way communication between school, staff, and parents on school programs, student progress, and student needs that is effective and timely. Communication must occur across different mediums and be parent-friendly as well as culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Supporting Student Success
School staff maximizes parent learning and opportunities to support student success. This requires full disclosure and assessments of school programs and services in addition to parent notification and training.

Relationship Building
School Staff maintains a welcoming environment for all parents and develops and maintains personal, productive relationships with all parents. These relationships should be nondiscriminatory, respectful and trainings should be provided.

Health and Safety
School staff maintains a safe and clean learning environment for all students, parents, and staff. Safety concerns are balanced with adequate supervision and fair discipline policies. Resources, referrals and trainings should be provided.

Decision-Making
Authentic parent and community involvement is evident in school decision-making structures and process where authentic parent engagement is vital. Equip parents and demonstrate community ownership of the school.

Current member organization in Los Angeles County:

Alhambra Unified School District

Asian Pacific American Legal Center
www.apalc.org

Lynwood Unified School District

Lynwood Save out Students

Montebello Unified School District

Parents for Unity

Alliance for a Better Community
www.afabc.org

Pasadena Unified School District

Instituto de Educación Popular en el Sur de California
www.idepsca.org

County Wide – Various Districts

California Association for Bilingual Education
www.bilingualeducation.org

Los Angeles Unified School District

African American Parent/Community Coalition for Educational Equity
www.aapccee.org

Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative
www.bhlc.net

Central American Resource Center
www.carecendc.org

Community Asset Development Redefining Education
www.cadre-la.org

Community Coalition
www.cocosouthla.org

InnerCity Struggle
www.innercitystruggle.org

Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches
www.lametro.org

Los Angeles Urban League
Parent Pioneers - Urban Education Partnership
www.laep.org

Watts/Century Latino Organization
http://clnet.ucla.edu/community/wclo.html

The Parent School Partnership would like to thank the following sponsors:

Bank of America,   JP Morgan (formerly WaMu),   Marguerite Casey Foundation,   BP,
United Way of Greater LA,   Sempra Energy,   Comcast,   Sodexo,   Polk Bros Foundation,
Toyota,   Kroger, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.