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, Foster Park
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, Garfield Park
Support for Diverse Learners
Quintonelle is working to ensure that all activities are accessible to students with disabilities or other learning needs at Al Raby High School. Her goal is to facilitate open and respectful discussions about diverse perspectives and experiences. She would also like to increase parent participation in activities and programming.
Yadira, Mansueto
Parent Involvement in Safety at Mansueto
Yadira leads efforts to improve overall safety as well as 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, 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, Austin
Redesign Safety
Westside Inc. began as a response to the lack of parent representation in CPS Covid safety committees. After gaining insight into how those committees operated, CPS dissolved them and introduced the Whole School Safety Plan. Now that the plan is in place, it’s crucial that parents actively participate in Local School Councils (LSCs) and PACs to ensure their voices are heard in these critical safety and planning decisions.
Lilia, 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, 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, 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.
Rosy, Humboldt Park
Traffic Safety at West Park STEAM
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.
Marietta, 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. She has partnered to establish both a non CPS Parent University in partnership with Illinois Action for Children and CPS Parent University within the Lawndale Community.
Maria, 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. Her team also lobbies for the reallocation of funding for updated facilities, critical needs assessment, implementation of programming to address scholars' natural abilities and social-emotional needs, professional development of our educators to implement progressive programming, and social-emotional support for our educators and staff.
Ricarda, 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 & Corey, Little Village
Family Safety & Well-Being
Edgardo & Corey understand that building trust with parents is important and they like to lead by example. They lead their team in finding and speaking with decision-makers to improve issues that are important to parents at their school.
Brenda, Humboldt Park
Parent E2 (Engagement & Empowerment)
Brenda is continuing her work to increase Parent Engagement & Empowerment at Clemente High school, and is now expanding these efforts to Westinghouse HS. Her team works to empower Parent Leaders with the knowledge and tools to effectively understand and participate in PACs, (Parent Advisory Councils), BACs (Bilingual Advisory Committees), and LSCs (Local School Councils). They focus on implementing best practices to ensure meaningful, informed, and sustained family involvement in school communities.
Jose & Norma, Belmont Cragin
Parent Rights
Jose and Norma focus on educating parents in their community on how to effectively address their issues and follow proper protocol at the school's local level. By conducting workshops, they guide them to become great leaders and engage in the Local School Council (LSC) at their school.
Jaqueline, 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 & Gabriela, 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, 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.
Alma & Consuelo, 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.
Minijoie, Auburn Gresham
Awareness of Resources
Minijoie recognized that many families in the community are unaware of the resources available to support student development. She firmly believes that you can’t get help if you don’t know where to look. Motivated by this, her goal is to bring together a team of parents to develop a one stop shop resource hub that makes information about educational programs, enrichment opportunities, and community services accessible to everyone called The Greenbook. Its sole purpose is to ensure that families have the tools they need to help their students and families thrive.