About Parent Leadership Teams
Our Parent Leadership Teams (PLT) address an education issue at the local level. While parents take the lead, we offer operational support, as well as skill-building resources and connecting parents with networks to continue to push for the education they desire for their children and their communities.
We believe that, by building the community, access, and leadership of parents within Chicago’s resilient, yet under-resourced, communities and by addressing the issues that matter most to these communities, we can significantly advance educational equity. Together with these locally led teams, we’re building a network of deeply knowledgeable and powerful Black and Latine parents –whose children make up 85% of CPS students – ready to demand better for their children.
How PLTs work
A K1C Parent Champion, defined by their ongoing work with K1C to push for broad policy and system improvements, leads each PLT. PLT leaders recruit a group of 10+ parents who will support them in their ongoing efforts. K1C staff works closely with each PLT leader to establish a clear vision for each local plan with measurable milestones and outcomes, meeting facilitation, interaction and advocacy with key decision-makers, budgeting, and other work necessary to see the effort succeed.
The network of PLTs meets periodically to learn in the community, share ideas, and align on approaches that could work across Chicago’s Northwest, South, Southwest, and West Side neighborhoods and schools. This network informs one another and decision-makers (e.g., school and district leaders), ensuring that investments and initiatives are inclusive of the needs of CPS families while also establishing relationships and coalitions between parents across schools and regions.
PLTs Activating Citywide
Katrina Adams, Burnside
Raising Household Incomes
Katrina recognizes the importance of raising household incomes and breaking generational poverty for families. She leads her team in efforts to bring resources and awareness about economic issues that affect her community.
Quintonelle Allen, Oakley Square
Support for Diverse Learners
Quintonelle leads her team in work to support diverse learners by attending awareness events, sharing resources, and increasing parent participation in understanding the importance of this topic.
Yadira Trinidad de la Cruz, Back of the Yards
Parent Involvement in Safety at Mansueto
Yadira leads efforts to improve traffic safety at Mansueto School. Yadira works on outreach to community leaders to raise awareness of the need to improve traffic safety in the community.
Denise Dyer, Englewood
Parent Voice/Involvement at Englewood STEM
Denise leads various efforts to increase parent participation at Englewood STEM HS. Some of the topics Denise addresses in parent involvement include Local School Councils, teamwork and collaboration, and other topics related to education equity.
Blaire Flowers, Austin
Safety & Readiness
Blaire’s PLT has been working with community leaders to improve safety for CPS schools. They developed a partnership with CPS Chief Officer of Safety and Security Jadine Chou. The team hosts house meetings to hear parent issues and concerns and provide opportunities for others to join their efforts.
Dennis Gatheright, Morgan Park/ Beverly
Active Father Engagement South
Dennis’s team is focused on increasing father involvement at school. He collaborates with his team consistently and plans events that appeal to fathers to help in his recruitment. Something that his team learned has been to “seek to first understand and then to be understood” and to value everyone based on the journey that they are on.
Lilia Guevara, Archer Heights
Traffic Safety
Lilia leads her team's efforts in increasing parent participation to bring awareness about traffic safety. Lilia has led her team to City Hall to present her concerns and met with community leaders and other organizations to bring awareness to her campaign.
Mary Long, Greater Grand Crossing
Future of Hirsch
Mary leads her team in improving parent involvement and making sure parent voice is heard concerning programs they want to see at Hirsch. She encourages parents to join various school events, partner with community leaders, such as elected officials and LSC members, and talk to the school board.
Lorena Lopez, Back of the Yards
Awareness of Resources
Lorena and her team created a webpage of resources that gets updated regularly. Lorena leads her team effectively, creating opportunities to visit other community-based organizations, meet their leaders, and disseminate information to the community about local resources available to them.
Marietta McDuffy, North Lawndale
West Side Parent University Support
Marietta has developed relationships with other local and state-level organizations that have helped her movement toward parent and grandparent inclusion and voice.
Maria Owens, Greater Grand Crossing
Quality Programming
Maria understands the importance of buy-in by elected officials and community stakeholders. Maria leads her team making quality programming accessible and engaging with the support of parents, community, and state leaders.
Ricarda Pedraza, Back of the Yards
Bullying
Ricarda has learned to advocate confidently and communicate effectively. Her team focuses on bullying, where it stems from, and how to prevent it. She seeks to increase parent participation and knowledge on this topic.
Edgardo Ramirez, Little Village
Traffic Safety
Edgardo understands that building trust with parents is important and he likes to lead by example. Edgardo leads his team in finding and speaking with decision-makers to fix maintenance issues at his school as well as going to City Hall to speak about traffic safety.
Brenda Rivera, Humboldt Park
School Safety
Brenda leads her team in increasing parents' participation and helping them understand the difference between parent committees. Brenda also works on improving communication between schools and parents.
Jose Quiles & Norma Lopez Murillo, Belmont Cragin
Parent Rights
Jose and Norma lead parents within their community by providing workshops, classes, training, and a community-building space. They bring relevant and engaging information to parents on school safety and education.
Jaqueline Vargas, Gage Park
Traffic Safety
Jaqueline leads her team in hosting and attending community events and meetings related to traffic safety. With the help of K1C, Jaqueline leads her team in finding decision-makers, power-mapping, and motivating them to speak up about traffic safety issues that need to be addressed and fixed within her community.
Julia Vega & Gabriela Oria, Little Village
SEL Supports
Julia and Gabriela are collaborating with K1C and Dominican University to create a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) certification pathway for parents within their community. Julia and Gabriela want to build an understanding of the importance of mental health and social-emotional learning within their communities to better support all students.
Carolina Velarde, Back of the Yards
Healthy Food Options at Hamline
Carolina leads her team in collaboration and engagement. Carolina and her team are working on efforts to bring a monthly healthy food market to Hamline Elementary and the community. They believe students focus better when they have full and healthy stomachs.
Consuelo Martinez & Alma Sigala, Back of the Yards
Back of the Yards Library
Consuelo and Alma co-lead a PLT advocating to bring an independent library to the Back of the Yards neighborhood. They are strong leaders who lead by example and seek to bring resources and opportunities to their communities for families and students.
Rosy Loya, Humboldt Park
Playground at Carlos Fuentes
Rosy is determined to increase parent engagement in all capacities at school. She is passionate about bridging gaps for parents so that all students can excel. Rosy is currently building her PLT team and with K1C support, she will focus on advocating for a safe inclusive playground at Carlos Fuentes Elementary School.