Mayor Rahm Emanuel visits Award-Winning Parent Mentor Program at Funston Elementary School

Mayor highlights program as successful model for parent engagement

CHICAGO, IL – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited Funston Elementary School’s Parent Mentor Program, highlighting it as a successful model for parent engagement. Funston, in partnership with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, was the first school to start the Parent Mentor Program back in 1995 and has seen hundreds of parent mentor graduate. Since 1995, the Parent Mentor Program has expanded to 42 CPS schools and 16 additional schools across Illinois engaging 420 parents in the classroom on a daily basis, giving a helping hand to 10,000 low-income early childhood students. Expansion of the Parent Mentor Program was one of the points included in the plan for the Mayor’s Office of New Americans.

“The most important door a child walks through for education is the front door to the home, and programs like the Parent Mentor Program help provide a critical connection between the front door of the home to the front door to the school,” said Mayor Emanuel. “We are working to build a school system that provides all children with the high-quality education they deserve to succeed, no matter where they live. And with parents as active partners in our children’s education, there is no limit to what our children can achieve.”

The Parent Mentor program, which is a partnership between a community-based organization and a local school, brings layer upon layer of benefit to schools and communities. Parents learn how to help their own children while getting actively engaged in school improvement, students receive extra individual attention, teachers get support and learn about the community, and the school climate is improved by the consistent presence of additional caring adults. Parent mentors— primarily low-income Latino and African American women—grow as leaders for themselves, for their families, for their schools and for their communities.

“Funston Elementary was a level 3 school and now it is level 2, on our way to level 1. This is the direct result of the social, emotional and academic support systems provided by the parent mentor program in collaboration with the school, teachers and community partners,” said Funston school Principal Nilma Osiecki, “Programs like Parent Mentors are vital to growing, vibrant communities.”

Over the past 17 years, LSNA and Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) have developed the Parent Mentor program in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in the Northwest and Southwest sides of Chicago. Interest in the Parent Mentor program is spreading like wildfire. In 2011, Harvard Education Press published a book on the program, A Cord of Three Strands: A New Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools.

How the Parent Mentor Program works: After a 5-day leadership training, parent mentors volunteer in the classroom with students four days a week, and come together as a cohort one morning a week for ongoing training and reflection. This Parent Mentor model has improved student test scores and built strong relationships among parents and staff. As part of a cohort in their schools, parent mentors grow as leaders, transforming their schools and communities.

Replication: The Parent Engagement Institute (PEI), housed at LSNA and SWOP, trains community-based organizations and school districts interested in replicating the Parent Mentor program. The Parent Mentor program is now operating at 42 schools in Chicago Public Schools and 5 communities outside Chicago (Aurora, Bolingbrook, Chicago Ridge, the Quad Cities, and Skokie). PEI is expanding the Parent Mentor program to 11 new Illinois organizations in collaboration with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Parent Mentor programs have also started in Detroit, Silver Spring, Denver, and rural Colorado.

SAVE THE DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 10:30AM-12 Noon Parent Mentor Graduation – Over 400 parent mentors graduate from 59 schools. Location: Darwin Elementary School 3116 W. Belden, Chicago, IL

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society.

For more information, visit www.icirr.org.