Parent Engagement Project
Parents finding their own voice...
LEAD is currently focusing on organizing parents with children living in poverty who are attending public elementary schools in the City of Dayton to enable them to develop their own voice and advocate for positive educational change.
A pilot program is currently underway at the Westwood PreK-6 Community School in the Westwood community where the parents have identified childhood trauma as the issue they want to address. Through regular weekly meetings since September 2018, the parents have done research on childhood trauma, its impact on child development, its affect on educational development and the emerging local and national movement toward development of trauma-sensitive schools. They have planned and conducted an interview with the principal at Westwood to determine what the school is currently doing to address the extensive presence of childhood trauma in the children attending the school.
The meetings are an opportunity for parents to share with other parents their concerns and hopes for their child/children’s education and future -- to share together your hopes, your concerns, your questions about the development and schooling of your children. This will involve shared conversation, both listening and speaking, facilitated by facilitators, initially to identify your children's needs and opportunities across a full spectrum of their lived experience. This is a time to focus on issues facing your families, your community and your school. It is a time to share personal experiences and to learn from each other. It is a time to ask questions and to get answers about how things work and how to make a difference.
This project will be ongoing, with the recruiting of additional parents, the development of an action plan by the parents to recommend changes in the school and community. Parents are already talking about ways they can educate other parents about childhood trauma and engaging them in organized action on behalf of their children, the school and the community. Westwood is designated as a "community" school with responsibility for reaching out and serving the larger community. LEAD staff and volunteers have facilitated the recruitment, training, and engagement of the participating parents in this process and will continue to develop leadership in the parent group at Westwood and expanding to other elementary community schools in Dayton.
LEAD will develop parent engagement groups in each of the elementary community schools in Dayton serving children living in poverty. Developing parent voice and power to effect change in the quality of their children's development and education, particularly through institutional change, is the dominant focus of this project.
LEAD is currently focusing on organizing parents with children living in poverty who are attending public elementary schools in the City of Dayton to enable them to develop their own voice and advocate for positive educational change.
A pilot program is currently underway at the Westwood PreK-6 Community School in the Westwood community where the parents have identified childhood trauma as the issue they want to address. Through regular weekly meetings since September 2018, the parents have done research on childhood trauma, its impact on child development, its affect on educational development and the emerging local and national movement toward development of trauma-sensitive schools. They have planned and conducted an interview with the principal at Westwood to determine what the school is currently doing to address the extensive presence of childhood trauma in the children attending the school.
The meetings are an opportunity for parents to share with other parents their concerns and hopes for their child/children’s education and future -- to share together your hopes, your concerns, your questions about the development and schooling of your children. This will involve shared conversation, both listening and speaking, facilitated by facilitators, initially to identify your children's needs and opportunities across a full spectrum of their lived experience. This is a time to focus on issues facing your families, your community and your school. It is a time to share personal experiences and to learn from each other. It is a time to ask questions and to get answers about how things work and how to make a difference.
This project will be ongoing, with the recruiting of additional parents, the development of an action plan by the parents to recommend changes in the school and community. Parents are already talking about ways they can educate other parents about childhood trauma and engaging them in organized action on behalf of their children, the school and the community. Westwood is designated as a "community" school with responsibility for reaching out and serving the larger community. LEAD staff and volunteers have facilitated the recruitment, training, and engagement of the participating parents in this process and will continue to develop leadership in the parent group at Westwood and expanding to other elementary community schools in Dayton.
LEAD will develop parent engagement groups in each of the elementary community schools in Dayton serving children living in poverty. Developing parent voice and power to effect change in the quality of their children's development and education, particularly through institutional change, is the dominant focus of this project.
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