Parent Advocacy for Change

The Parent Advocacy for Change component attends to these needs by taking advantage of the energy offered by this group of Black parents, Community Based Organizations, and Early Learning Program administrators who are committed to improved outcomes for Black children and their families . The associated workshop series in partnership with BEAM Village, will be completed in three phases. Each phase addresses both the history Black parents have navigating systems as well as, the steps necessary to develop parent change agents who are equipped to take an active role in enhancing policies, procedures, and practices toward Black student success. Consequently, there are three types of activities for each session:

Relationship Building, where parents receive time to 1) voice concerns via group share and comment card “Q and A”, 2) get updates on progress of system response to concerns and 3) see “what’s working” presentations highlighting the actions of caregivers/teachers who excel at culturally responsive teaching and the Black students who succeed because of them. Training, where parents learn 1) the language, policies, procedures, and practices employed by systems, 2) advocacy, conflict resolution, and community organizing techniques and 3) community resources that are available for Black student support[LB1] . BPAT - Parent-Driven Change Working Groups, where parents collaborate with PPS administrators and educators to outline and implement solutions to issues within the district involving Black student outcomes. Between workshop days, these working sessions continue as subcommittees that report on progress at the start of this portion of the workshop agenda. To be effective, the proportion of workshop sessions used for these three components shifts from being heavy on relationship building and training in Phase 1 to a focus on working groups in Phase 3.  BPAT members are also tasked with recruiting and training additional Black parents too.