April + May 2023 Newsletter
A Note From Your PEI Team
Dear Parent Mentor Family,
Whether you are a current or former Parent Mentor, an educator, an organizer, and/or a champion of the Parent Mentor Program, we invite you to join us to celebrate our 10TH ANNIVERSARY as a Statewide Parent Mentor Program at the Parent Mentor Convention on Wednesday, May 24th 9:30am - 2:00pm at House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., Chicago, IL. We are proud to announce that our Keynote Speaker for the Convention will be Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to learn more!
Many of us can remember the excitement 10 years ago in 2013, when we gathered for our first Statewide Parent Mentor Convention at Daley College. The energy, power, and potential was palpable—we felt in our bones that it was our mission to keep growing and opening this movement to more parents and schools.
In 2013, the Parent Mentor Program was in 57 schools. In 2023, we are rooted in 225 schools across Illinois. 10 years later, we still feel in our bones that it is our mission to keep strengthening and growing the Parent Mentor movement. We are in the home stretch of our state budget campaign for $13.5M in FY24, and should hopefully know the outcome by the time we gather for Convention May 24.
Thank you to everyone who has helped foster this movement of growth, leadership, and radical love—from 1995 at Funston Elementary in Logan Square to 2013 at Daley College to 2023 at House of Hope.
See you there!
The Parent Engagement Institute Team
featured story
Campaign for $13.5M in the General Revenue Fund for Parent Mentor Program Continues
Parent Mentors and our partner organizations are continuing their hard work in the campaign for $13.5M in the General Revenue Fund for the Parent Mentor Program. Over the last few months, parents have met with a record number of our elected officials across the state of Illinois. Check out the highlights below!
Palenque LSNA
Senators Omar Aquino and Cristina Pacione-Zayas and State Representatives Eva Dina Delgado, Jaime Andrade, Lilian Jiménez and Will Guzzardi meet with Parent Mentors and Palenque LSNA staff.
DISTRICT OUTREACH INITIATIVES
To meet with Parent Mentors, Senator Willie Preston visits Dr Martin Luther King Jr Academy of Social Justice and Senator Robert Peters visits Parkside Elementary Community Academy.
Enlace Chicago
Enlace Chicago Parent Mentors meet at several schools with State Representatives Edgar Gonzalez, Theresa Mah, and State Senator Celina Villanueva.
Las Boconas
First ever Parent Mentor Program site visit and meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch! Thank you to Las Boconas, West 40 ISC, and Bellwood School District 88's school McKinley ElementarySchool for hosting. Truly a pleasure.
Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP)
SWOP Parent Mentors meet with State Representative Cyril Nichols in his office.
Indo-American Center
Indo-American Center Parent Mentors share their stories, testimonies with State Representative Kevin Olickal at Daniel Boone Elementary School.
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council had their state legislators out today to visit Parent Mentors from eight different schools.
Garden of Prayer Early Education & Intervention Center
Representing five different schools in the Kankakee School District, the Garden of Prayer Parent Mentor Group met with State Representative Jackie Haas.
A PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE
Brentano Math & Science Academy Principal Reflects on ‘Beautiful Change’ Brought by Parent Mentors
In a letter written earlier this month, Principal Seth Lavin of Brentano Math & Science Academy outlined just how impactful the power of the Parent Mentor Program can be on a school, its staff, and the school community at large. Read the letter below:
LADDERS OF OPPORTUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Congratulations to Esmeralda Torres on Earning Paraprofessional License
Originally from Jalisco, Mexico, Esmeralda Torres has called Chicago home for 14 years. Esmeralda started as a Parent Mentor and then became a Parent Mentor Coordinator at Pasteur Elementary. Always wanting to do more to support the students, she recently became a math tutor at Pasteur through the CPS Tutor Corps program.
This past year, with the support from the Ladders of Opportunity team at the Parent Engagement Institute, she attended preparation classes for the WorkKeys exam in order to apply for a Paraprofessional License. We are thrilled to share that she passed both the reading and math exams and has been approved for her permanent Paraprofessional License!
Esmeralda's next step is to be hired as a bilingual teacher assistant. Esmeralda shares how integral the support from the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) was to achieving her goals: "They motivated me to fight for my goals, and provided me with the necessary tools to achieve it,” she says. "It's never too late to achieve your goals."
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE WORKSHOP
Upcoming Workshop Series To Focus on the Meaning and History of Restorative Justice
In this workshop series, we re/imagine what Restorative Cultures look and feel like in schools. We are imagining, and actually, reimagining or remembering what Restorative Cultures are, which are cultures that are historically rooted in relationships that promote restoration and compassion, as opposed to punishment and indifference. To explore this re/imagination phase, we must also explore the history of how restorative culture were replaced with a punitive one.
Workshop Objectives:
Examine the connection between Race, Ability, and School Discipline
Identify the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Envision a future where we invest in helping children learn how to take care of themselves and each other.
About the presenters:
huu nguyen
is a cultural worker and organizer whose being is steeped in different cultural practices that are all grounded in unwavering values of a commitment and praxis to restorative and transformative justice principles. She was born in Vietnam, raised in North Carolina and awakened in Chicago, where she calls home, living on the southside with her partner and two teenage daughters.
Mayra Sarabia
is a Parent Engagement Institute Program Support Manager, where she coaches parent mentor partner organizations in adapting the Parent Mentor Program to their own school communities and helps pilot the Ladders of Opportunity initiative. Mayra got her start at Southwest Organizing Project as a Parent Mentor, then as a Parent Mentor Coordinator, then as an organizer working for education and immigrant justice.
Monica Soto-Espinoza
is a Parent Mentor Coordinator/Organizer & proud Parent Leader with Palenque LSNA. She strongly believes in healing through learning/unlearning behavioral patterns and systems of oppression. She believes healing starts internally and then can ripple outward powerfully.
SPRING WORKSHOPS
Upcoming Workshop Schedule
Wednesday, May 3: Healing and Restorative Justice
Wednesday, May 10: Healing and Restorative Justice
Wednesday, May 17: Healing and Restorative Justice
Wednesday, May 31: Beyond the Classroom Series - Celebration! And Summer Opportunities and Activities/Resources
All workshops take place on Zoom and are offered at two times:
11:30 am - 1:00 pm: English, Spanish, Mandarin or Arabic
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm: English or Spanish.
DISABILITY JUSTICE WORKSHOP UPDATE
Disability Justice Concludes Successful Workshop Series With Spanish Cohort
The Parent Engagement Institute’s Program Support Manager Ana Laura Narro, who is overseeing the Disability Workshop’s Spanish cohort, stated the workshop series has been a great success. Maria Castillo, the instructor with Family Resource Center on Disabilities shared that this cohort’s sessions have been highly participatory, engaged, and interactive.
Reflecting on the sessions, the parents in attendance expressed their gratitude for what they learned, the help they received, and the invaluable resources that have been shared with them because it has allowed them to feel empowered and more informed about what they can do for their children and others. Learn more about their experiences in the quotes below.
“First of all, as a mother because I didn't know many things about how to advocate for my children at Lee School. But after meeting Maria and attending her workshops, my personal empowerment has been more effective. I have been able to get one of my children evaluated to get better educational services and I have been able to help other parents in their need for guidance and resources.”
—Reinalda Lara, Parent Mentor Coordinator, Lee Elementary/ SWOP
“This training has helped me a lot in my day to day life as a mentor. In the classroom it has helped me a lot to be able to handle situations with the children in class, and to know how to deal with each one. Each child learns in their own way and at their own time, patience, affection and all the learning helps us to be better parents, better educators, better parent mentors. Well, this training for me has been very important in my life, it has helped me to understand things that I didn't even know how to handle. In my family we have a member with autism; that is why for me it was very important to be part of this training, to understand more about the subject because for us it is new. I thank you in advance for this learning opportunity; I hope to continue to nurture myself with more information.”
—Mayra Tinoco, Parent Mentor, HACES, Waukegan, IL
PEI BIRTHDAY SHOUT-OUTS
April & May Birthdays at the Parent Engagement Institute
Fanny Lopez-Benitez
Director of Innovation and Evaluation, Parent Engagement Institute, Palenque LSNA
Fanny was born in Mexico City Mexico and moved to the Bensenville, Illinois with her family at age 13. Experiencing displacement and difficulties finding affordable housing at a young age became the seed that grew Fanny into the advocate she is today; along with the fight for immigration rights.
She earned an undergraduate degree from Dominican University in River Forest and her masters degree at University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Her studies and various jobs led her into organizing and gave her extensive experience supporting communities of color in Illinois with project management, community-based research and evaluation, community organizing, bilingual popular education, and mentoring.
Fanny is on a mission to co-create spaces rooted in radical love, joy and mutual aid with other oppressed folks to achieve our collective healing, transformation, and liberation. The stars aligned when she joined the Parent Mentor Program after applying for the Director of Innovation and Evaluation position with Palenque LSNA.
Although her mission is important to Fanny, what supersedes all of that is what brings her the most satisfaction and joy: her two children with her husband David Martinez. In her down time (as if there is such a thing with a working mom), she enjoys reading, writing stories, dancing, and solving puzzles. Fanny looks forward to planting seeds of liberation with her children and other future generations!
Rebecca Walz
Innovation and Evaluation Data Analyst, Parent Engagement Institute, Palenque LSNA
Rebecca joined the Parent Engagement Institute following several years of volunteering and working in community organizing as well as 10 years of teaching 8th grade and high school in Chicago Public Schools.
Growing up, Rebecca listened to her mom tell stories of how her Milwaukee public high school was finally integrated in the 1970s – more than 20 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education. She realized that public schools were shaped by social, political, and economic forces and that she should care about how they were organized and whom they benefited.
When Rebecca learned of the opportunity to support the Parent Mentor Program and apply her new skills from recent studies in education policy, she jumped at the chance. Rebecca is inspired by how the Parent Mentor Program empowers parents to share their culture, wisdom, and perspective with teachers and public education stakeholders. In her free time, Rebecca is learning how to play soccer and exploring the DMV with her partner, Pablo.
