Our Work
Investing in Parent Leadership
fighting for our children
We are passionate parent leaders in our children’s schools, our communities, our cities, and our states who are leading change to make life better for all children and families. UPLAN members offer a founding Vision and Policy Platform for Families and Children, the mainstay of the principles that guide us, and the issues and public policies that matter most to families like ours.
Our most immediate policy focus areas are: 1) calling for a new federal Office of Parent Engagement, 2) increasing resources for and affordability of early care and education, 3) protecting immigrant families, and 4) implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in a way that supports these goals.
We believe:
Parents know best what works for their communities and should be meaningfully involved at all levels of policy making and creation in any policy that has an impact on children and families.
Every family should have access to affordable early care and education, including childcare.
Families shouldn’t be torn apart by broken immigration policies. Children who were brought here to this country deserve a chance to make it as successful youth and adults in the only country they have ever known.
Each child deserves a quality public education, including adequate resources and supports for diverse learners, bilingual education, and equitable and just funding so that students in low-income and communities of color have access to all the support and resources that they need.
No family should live in poverty and all families should have access to resources that they need for success. We seek economic justice and security for all families. For children and families to be successful and healthy, we must work to end poverty and the racial and gender income and wealth gap.
All children should be able to be raised in safe communities and no parent should have to fear for the safety of their children, based on the color of their skin, religion, or other reasons.
No child or family should go hungry. All families should have equal access to affordable, healthy foods and assistance programs that give them the tools to make healthy living a reality.
All individuals have a right to a living wage, family leave, paid sick days, and safe working conditions.
All families should have access to safe and affordable housing.
All families should have access to clean environments, including safe and drinkable water and air free of pollutants.
UPLAN Video Features Power of Parents
If you invest in a parent, you have invested in the whole nation.
Grace Ssebugwawo
Federal Way, Washington
Investing in Parent Leadership
In UPLAN, we build each other up as parent leaders. We learn from each other, and from one another’s organizations. Our aim is to make sure that our hard earned knowledge about what really works is part of decision making at the local, state, and now national level.
UPLAN convenes parent leaders and groups to share the best of leadership development and organizing. We offer training on parent leadership, organizing and policy issues from a parent’s perspective. We work to increase the capacity of organizations to embrace and build parent leadership.
As parent leaders, parent organizing groups, and parent civic engagement initiatives, we believe in the incredible potential of parent leaders to make change in their lives, families, communities, and policies. As we look across our own initiatives and others, we recognize that there are common values and practices that successfully build and support the leadership and civic engagement of low- to moderate-income parent leaders and parent leaders of color.
Effective parent leadership and engagement initiatives . . .
Recognize that parents are experts on their own lives, communities, and issues that affect their families.
Start where parents are both geographically and in their lives.
Encourage and enable parent leaders to select and work on issues that matter to them.
Involve parent leaders in the decisions about issues, strategies, structures, and operations of the organizations with which they work.
Value relationships and listen to all voices, especially those that have systematically been excluded and work together to amplify these voices.
Implement proven parent leadership development models—many of which connect the personal to the political.
Intentionally create space for parents to build peer-to-peer relationships and support.
Are strengths-based, helping parents to see themselves as leaders and develop more leadership skills over time.
Consciously share power and operate with a collective leadership model in groups of parents, our initiatives, and our organizations.
Actively commit to further equity and social justice.
Work to build analysis in and of our work, taking a close look at issues such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability, language, and age.
Continually reflect and evaluate our methods as we work together to build a just world for this and generations to come.
We thank the Dignity in Schools Campaign for their inspiration on these values and principles.
As a parent leader and a change agent that advocates for my family and community, I know that parents are crucial stakeholders in the decision making process. There should be no decisions made for our families and community without us being at the table and not just on the menu.
Toyin Anderson
Rochester, New York
The Ripple Effect of Parent Leadership
Parents Making a Difference
Many of you may have your own story about what happens when parents real-life experience is in the equation as decisions are made. All of us have a story about what could be different, that would make day to day life better for our families. UPLAN helps get our voice into the mix; we hope you will be encouraged to explore your own leadership. We know that parent leadership has a far-reaching and lasting impact toward achieving equity for children and families.
The Annenberg Institute took a look at us, and they call what we do the “Ripple Effect.”
“As public officials and parent leaders increasingly work together on issues and programs, collective action to improve conditions and outcomes for children gains momentum, resulting in more public forums, more public will to support education, and more formal inclusion of valued parent leaders in decision-making. Civic climate improves and the whole community benefits.”
“When parent leaders speak out, their voices carry the authority of lived experience. They understand how gaps in social, health, and educational services limit their children’s future in critical ways. They learn to work with parents across boundaries of education, race, income, language, and culture.”
“When elected officials and policy-makers listen to parent leaders, they become more aware of how their actions affect children and families, especially those who lack income or education, or who are marginalized by race, language, and culture.”