Parents for Healthy Homes

Presented by Samika Douglas, Tabitha Williams, and Alex Markham

Learn about healthy housing and the hazards that could be in the home. Acquire the skills to connect and build your group’s collective power with other parents to continue spreading awareness with the power to declare issues and to demand change.

Parent Voices California

Presented by Jennifer Greppi, Maria Luz Torre, Candy Duperroir, Lou Hernandez, Maria A. Jandres, Elsa Quintanilla-Henriquez, Belia Rivas, Jacquelyne Gettone, Kristel England-Keefe, Stephanie DeAnda, Iesha Foster

Join Parent Voices leaders to learn about the History of Welfare and child care policy in the United States. We don’t know where we are going unless we know where we came from. We stand on the shoulders of many sisters and brothers who fought before us! Come to this interactive workshop to see how you can be a part of the welfare and child care movement!

Collaborative Parent Leadership Action Network (CPLAN)

Presented by Sharita Fauche and Ivelisse Caraballo

In this workshop, we will: 1) help families learn how to read School Profiles to identify some of the issues in their specific school, while also exposing some of the racial and special education inequities; 2) provide effective strategies to build a parent-led Parent Council which includes different means of communications; 3) help families understand why school culture & climate is important.
Workshop Documents:
– PCO Roles and Responsibilities

National Parent Leadership Institute (NPLI)

Presented by Toyin Anderson, Leo Callejas, Donna Thompson-Bennett, and Carolyn Lee-Davis

In a high level overview, this workshop will introduce how to make the school budget process more accessible and engaging for parents. We will highlight key tenets of parent engagement in schools, tailored to the budget conversation. We will discuss how to examine it with a policy lens of equity & inclusion. Then, we will put these skills into practice by examining a section of a recent school budget that was facing a budget gap that needed to be addressed.

Join us to learn more about UPLAN – how we started, the development of our policy agenda, our governing structure, and our vision and principles. This interactive session will be a dialogue with seasoned UPLAN members and is ideal for new members and partners.
Workshop Documents:
– UPLAN Handbook

Family Leadership Network / Choice for All

Presented by Sara Morrison

I will be sharing and providing information regarding how to navigate through the special education system and the rights parents have with regard to their child/children who have special needs.

OneAmerica

Presented by Shereese Rhodes, Nimco Bulale, and Kafia Abdillahi

This workshop hopes to foster awareness about legislative advocacy among the UPLAN community. Following this session, participants will: feel empowered to be active advocates for issues affecting our communities, both now and in the future; learn how to effectively develop and disseminate an advocacy message; increase awareness of advocacy issues and opportunities; learn how to have a legislative visit, how to research your legislator, and tell your story effectively.

Workshop Documents:
– How to talk to legislators
– Managing your message
– Media Interviews Tip Sheet
– Message Framework
– Speak your Language Flyer – English
– Speak Your Language Flyer – Spanish
– Speak Your Language Flyer – Somali

Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLÉ)

Presented by Kris Buchmann and Erica Gallegos

At OLÉ, we spent years visiting child care centers and our state office that issues child care assistance contracts to build lists of parents and educators to organize around early education. But, the problem remained: we spent a majority of our time with little results and always encountered gate keepers. We needed a more efficient model that allowed us to find parents and early educators across the state, so we turned to Online to Offline organizing. What we found is that 81% of American adults are on Facebook and the average Facebook user checks it 14x per day! So, we decided to change up the way we organize, and we’ve learned a lot in the process!
Workshop Documents:
– OLE and O2O Presentation

Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)

Presented by Aiyana Knowles, Yolanda Corbett, and Nicole Johnson-Douglas

In this session, PAVE parent leaders will share examples of when they amplified their voices to get to transformational change in our education system. They will give an overview of the advocacy strategies and tactics used to push elected officials to make changes on the education issues that matter most to them, and how we can best support other parents to advocate for the success of all students. They will share the impact of what an organized and collective parent voice can achieve, what resources and systems were made available for them to succeed and why parent voice is integral to systemic change.

Parent Engagement Academy

Presented by Mayra Murillo-Smith and Maria Elena Meraz

The workshop participants will be asked to see their role in their children’s development of their social emotional learning to start developing the topic. Then the activity of “Still Face” will work in groups of 4-5 participants, with one participant pulling up the YouTube video and the group will in turn analyze their experience viewing the video. Participants will also gain exposure on the activities and dynamics that promote social emotional learning through the use of a handout, which in pairs the discussion topic would allow them to reflect on their children’s competencies and what they would be inclined to participate in given the opportunity. Finally, participants would correlate the activities that could be done outside of school to impact their school going experience at every stage. The session materials were developed with the new ESSA principles in mind and has been implemented with success with parents in various schools throughout Southern California and Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. We can do the curriculum in English and Spanish with one language managed during the session with translation. Facilitators will be both bilingual and can handle the curriculum in both languages.
Workshop Documents:
– Factor Description 1
– Factor Descripcion 1(Espanol)
– Factor Description 2
– Factor Descripcion 2 (Espanol)
– Factor Implementation
– Factor Implementacion (Espanol)
– English Flyer
– Spanish Flyer

Presented by Adrián Pedroza

We have hit the pavement in our communities organizing, convening, and building community power. Naturally we gain an understanding of the political process through these experiences, and many times we consider taking a leap to run for elected office as a way to amplify community power and voice. We invite you to this session to hear and engage in a story about how Adrián took this leap four years ago to run for a County Commission seat in Bernalillo County/Albuquerque. He will share his lessons learned, battle stories, and grassroots strategies. This session is meant for those who are considering running for elected office, getting involved in electoral politics, or just want to learn more about how campaigns work from a local perspective. This session will share non-partisan information and is meant to share a story about political activity that is separate from non-profit organizational functions and activities.

Abriendo Puertas / Opening Doors

Presented by Zully A. Rodriguez and Marisela Ruiz

How much do you know about emotions? How can you identify and regulate your emotions? The tools provided in this workshop will help us as parents take better care of ourselves, and teach our children strategies for emotional health.

Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities

Presented by Dr. Kirk E. Harris, Arthur L. Anderson and Isaiah Rogers

Father involvement and engagement has many dimensions, including: 1) working with fathers on their own goals with respect to their self-sufficiency and objectives related to building their parenting skills; 2) engaging fathers with their co-parent and helping them manage the challenges and opportunities associated with shared parenting; and 3) leveraging the role of fathers in helping to advance the health and well-being of families and communities. This session will provide insights into these issues from the voices of fathers and engage participants in the discussion about how father engagement and involvement advances family strengthening.

COFI

Presented by Donna Carpenter, Lettie Hicks, and Tracy Occomy Crowder

This workshop will present the history of parents organizing for a collective and formal voice in Illinois early care and education policy and the win of the creation of the new Illinois Family Advisory Committee. The facilitators will share the process as well as details on the structure, funding and plan for the creation of the Family Advisory Committee.

Hustle Mommies

Presented by Ariel Rainey

This workshop discusses why it’s important to engage the millennial parent demographic and how to speak their language when educating on current issues. Many organizations drop the ball on engaging this demographic and as they are ranking as the largest generation, we must learn how to get them involved in the fight for better policies for their families and communities. This workshop will inform attendees about how to use social media for education and activism, how to simplify policy, and how to develop programs for millennial parents.

Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE)

Presented by Gabriela Rios, Blanca Alvarado and Julia Sosa

This workshop will analyze the role that family system values, and cultural practices play in a student’s college persistence and graduation from college. Parents will walk away with tools to become strong advocates and supporters of their children’s educational attainment.

Ohio Head Start Association, Inc.

Presented by Amanda Yancey and Alecia Murray

Developing a relationship begins with a story; YOURS! Your story is important to ensure parent voices are heard and understood. Sharing your story with your local community, state, and federal legislators helps policy makers make important decisions regarding our children.