HISTORY

Together with our neighborhood schools, Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) founded the Parent Mentor Program in 1995.  Parent mentors, mainly Latina and Black mothers, help fill persistent equity gaps in their children’s schools by tutoring students in classrooms 2 hours/day. From this immersive classroom experience -- supported by weekly training on instructional practices and community organizing -- the Parent Mentor Program cultivates a strong cohort of leaders at each partner school. United as a group, parent mentors support each other to pursue their dreams; nurture a welcoming and culturally responsive school climate; and organize around broader community issues to build power for working families.

The result?  Parent mentors have led and won campaigns on community schools, immigrant rights, safety, housing, and more.  The biggest victory, however, may be the success of thousands of parent mentors’ own kids.  Leading up to the 20th Anniversary of the Parent Mentor Program, LSNA did a long-term study that found 92% of children of parent mentors had graduated from high school, and of these graduates, 87% were attending or graduated college.

Scaling Up the Parent Mentor Program: The Parent Engagement Institute

In 2005, Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) successfully replicated the LSNA Parent Mentor Program, and it quickly spread across their neighborhood schools. As interest began to grow and Harvard Education Press published a book on the Parent Mentor Program, LSNA and SWOP formed the Parent Engagement Institute (PEI) to train community organizations and school districts on the model.

In 2012, LSNA and SWOP won our first joint Parent Mentor victory: establishing a $1 million-line item in the state budget to expand the Parent Mentor Program across Illinois. In 2019, we won an increase to $3.5 million annually.

PEI is the steward of this IL Statewide Parent Mentor Initiative. We train, coach, and mentor 30 grassroots community organizations. This year, 1,100 parents from 150 high-poverty schools graduated from the Parent Mentor Program in Illinois. 175 parent mentor organizers and coordinators – mostly staff who came up themselves through the Parent Mentor Program – participate in PEI’s yearlong calendar of professional development and meetings. 

The Parent Mentor Program is a victory that feeds other victories. The Parent Mentor Program has proven to be a wildly successful model for community organizations to build their grassroots leadership capacity. Whether in Chicago or in smaller school districts, and across a range of racial and ethnic communities, we have seen organizations and schools grow strong Parent Mentor Programs and adapt them to their own neighborhood context.

Nationally, PEI trains community organizations outside of Illinois. Classroom and community parent engagement models based on the Parent Mentor Program are currently running in rural Colorado; rural Arkansas; Asheville, NC; Newark; and Boston.