PARENT MENTOR PROGRAM
School Year 2019-2020
This school year, PV worked with the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) and local elementary schools Haines and James Ward to bring the Parent Mentor Program (PMP) to serve diverse and high need populations. The program is designed to empower parents to be engaged in their schools and build deep lasting relationships with the teachers and their community. PMP also empowers parents to organize an event to be influencers in addressing current challenges faced by the community.
Each school has a team of 8 Parent Mentors who all volunteer two hours in a designated classroom where they are mentored by a teacher and work one-on-one and in small groups with children. Parent Mentors also attend regular leadership workshops and trainings to build leadership skills, receive instructional practice, restorative practice, and community education so they may become long-term leaders in their schools and communities.
The goals of the program for our parent mentors are to:
- Learn to work with children from teachers
- Better understand the school system
- Learn skills to support their child at home
- Build leadership skills
- Give back to the community
- Get access to higher education opportunities
By better understanding the education system, parents would be able to help youth navigate through their schooling and improve academic achievement. Through the program, parents would also gain a sense of community responsibility and leadership that can be passed on to youth, reinforcing the values, mindset, and skills that PV’s programs work to instill in youth.
Currently, parents are actively helping the community to be more engaged in Census 2020. They are educating others its importance and getting trained to be come questionnaire assistants. Look out for more updates on their progress!
我最初是经 Ms Ma 得知这个家长辅导计划的。听了Ms Ma的介绍后，我觉得这是一个很有意义和时间灵活的项目，于是决定参加。教育孩子不仅是学校和老师的责任，也是家长的重任。在班房里帮助老师和学生，让老师减轻了工作量，也让学生明白到除了老师之外，家长们也重视他们的学业，愿意参与到他们的学习过程当中。每个星期的培训内容不仅能被运用到班房，也对个人的生活有帮助，再加上与其他家长的交流和分享，我能学习到更多教育自己孩子的方法。这个计划让我意识到我能慢慢走出自己的舒适区，敢于发表自己的意见。自己做的事情虽然小，但其实是很重要的。我觉得这个辅导计划很值得被推广到更多的学校和鼓励更多家长参加。这个计划能帮助家长与学校建立更密切的关系，让家长深切体会到学校和老师面临的教育挑战和学生的学习情况，也让参与的家长多了一个学习经验，一份理解和一份团结。
I was introduced to the parent mentor program by Ms. Ma. After I heard about it, I thought it was a very meaningful and time flexible program, and I decided to participate.
Education is not only a responsibility of schools and teachers, but it also falls on parents. Helping teachers and students in class reduces teachers’ workload and makes the students to be aware that not only teachers care about their academics, but parents do too. They are more than willing to be a part of students’ academic life.
Friday workshops trains parents on communication skills that can not only be applied in classrooms, but in personal life as well. In addition, I was able to learn many different strategies to interact with my children while listening to other parents who shared their experience. This program has encouraged me to walk out of my comfort zone as I have gained courage to voice out myself in school. Even though what I have made was a very small step, but it was for sure a very important one.
I believe this program should be expanded to more schools and we should encourage more parents to join. This program helps to build the relationships between schools and parents. It helps parents to truly see the challenges faced by teachers and schools, it empowers parents to learn, to understand, to unite. It takes a community to raise a child.