Who is stand for children?
- Stand for Children got its start from June 1, 1996. On this day, over 300,000 people got together to march for children at the Lincoln Memorial. It was the largest demonstration for children in United States history, and was recognized as “Stand for Children Day”.
- At the demonstration in 1996, Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks called on the crowd with the phrase “If I can sit down for justice, you can stand up for children”. This inspired the crowd and created a momentum that returned home with the participants of the demonstration. They went back home ready and willing to improve their children's future through education.
- In 1999 there were over 209 state and local victories that gained $6.7 billion for educational investment in children by Stand, and policies/investments of 5.6 million to improve children’s lives were attained through the organization. Today, they work in 11 states to close achievement gaps, pass strong policies through the state and local politics in order for all children get access to quality public education.
“Our mission is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, college or career training.
To make that happen, we:
1. Educate and empower parents, teachers, and community members to demand excellent public schools.
2. Advocate for effective local, state and national education policies and investments. Ensure the policies and funding we advocate for reach classrooms and help students.
3. Elect courageous leaders who will stand up for our priorities.”
Social Context:
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Stand is working to bring equity and opportunity to low income and people of color in our education system.
The organization understands that certain people hold more privilege than others, and they want to ensure that all students and families regardless of their situations or backgrounds have the same quality education that is accessible. With our low graduation rate, they've recognized that all students and families are impacted disproportionately, and they want to change those statistics. |
Unmet Needs for Reynolds and Stand for Children
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My Responsibility to stand and parents of reynolds
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University Studies and Goals:
Each of the goals above are carefully thought out, and have been planned with the ideas of diversity, communication, social responsibility and critical thinking.
- As I work to build retention, action, and an engagement of parents, I understand that communication will have a large part in making this goal successful.
- Communication in collaboration with diversity will allow me to reach out to more parents in effective ways. Having the ability to connect with Spanish speaking parents will bring in people with varying experiences, concerns, and give them a place at the table to also participate and learn through Stand.
- I have had to make time to think critically about how I can ensure that I reach my goals, especially when I begin to craft presentations, translate text, and connect with parents over the phone and in person through tabling and presentations.
- I take it on as my social responsibility to bring parents into the conversation when they otherwise might be left out. It is my job to make information accessible to them with collaboration of school staff to inspire and foster success in high school for both parents and their students.
Execution and Results
Parent recruitment/community events
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Reynolds/centennial 9th grade success event
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Retention & action
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next time: |
My supervisor and I had spent a lot of time on making sure that this event was as successful as could be. Her previous event had very high attendance with moderate engagement. Our goal this time around, was to engage the same amount of parents, but give them more opportunities to participate and as questions.
We began by making sure to contact as many parents as possible. The event prior to this one, phone calls were made the week of the event. For this event, we wanted to make sure to give enough notice for parents, so we phone banked two weeks out and kept track of those who said they would be in attendance and those who couldn't make it. We also made note of language spoken to ensure we can communicate and have translation available for these families in the future. We also created flyers to post as well as communicated through email on behalf of Reynolds High School. As we created the presentation, we spent a lot of time debating whether we should split the Spanish speaking group and offer them their own presentation. We faced dilemma because we wanted to include everyone and give them the opportunity to participate and ask questions in the way that best feels comfortable to them. However, we also saw the value of having the groups mixed together, so parents can hear each others perspectives and questions as well. Based on the last event, there was very little participation from Spanish speaking families who had to wear headsets to hear the presentation translated in Spanish. We decided to proceed with separate presentations, as one of the Spanish speaking parents we worked with had told us that the translation service was too formal and hard to understand. Although we put a lot of time and effort into phone banking and got an extensive list of over 40+ people confirming their attendance, we were able to turn out about 30 people with volunteers included. There are many things that could have contributed to a lesser attendance that we just can't control, and for the next event we will try automated phone calls in combination with personal calls. This way we can save valuable time two weeks before the event and can dedicate more time to building relationships with parents who have already engaged with us before. Through the presentation process, we wanted to focus on making sure we had opportunities for parents to ask questions and make comments. We began with an icebreaker that had questions to get them thinking about the ways their students are similar and different to themselves. This proved to be a great opener, as parents were very engaged and opened up about their relationships with their students in very positive ways. After every couple of slides, I had many parents asking me questions about the topic, and we had staff from the school available in our presentation to elaborate further and answer more of the specific questions that I was unfamiliar with due to being from an organization outside of Reynolds. This is something that we will make sure to always offer, as staff from school and parents need that opportunity to get to know one another and have their questions answered at every event we hold. At the end of the event, we went back to our meeting area where that question and answer time occured with school staff, and we also helped parents fill out credit recovery forms, signed pledges, and exchanged information for the future. Our attempts to establish relationships with community organizations were long and very time consuming. We would reach out through email to representatives and due to the busy nature of nonprofits and busy organizations, we would not receive responses or would receive them weeks after the initial contact. I think that for next time when I reach out to organizations, I will opt to contact them through phone call instead to try and save time. A phone call might be a better method of communication when we are on the ground working everyday. |
Progress:
Parent Engagement
With a smaller group from last time, I could see that parents felt more comfortable participating in our event. I was able to address parents by name, and everyone in the group felt comfortable introducing themselves. I could see the pride that they had when they talked about their children, as well as the hope they have for their success. As they began to learned about high school credits, credit recovery, and ParentVue they immersed themselves in the material and really made an effort to find ways for their involvement in their students success. They asked for more information and explanation when something didn't make sense, and they felt confident taking what they learned and applying those tips and new knowledge at home and in the future. I have no doubt that I will continue to see these parents in our future events, as they continue to learn and engage with their students high school success. |
Career Building
Through this partnership with Stand, I have grown more in my professional development as a result. I went into this arrangement wanting to get more experience working with my own community of Spanish speaking folks. I was able to practice my Spanish, and engage in scripted and free flowing conversation. Thanks to the practice, I feel more confident entering the workforce in the future feeling more prepared to help my community in their own language. I also got to experience the process necessary to create and implement an event as an organizer. The importance of building relationships, as well as making meetings and material accessible has to always come first. The more you work with others, understand their specific wants and needs, then the better we can tailor our work to help them take charge and act for their future success. |
my final thoughts...
In this experience, I have had the joy of working with my talented supervisor who never stops working to put families and their students first. She works to give parents the tools necessary to achieve success, and along the way she offered me the same opportunity. I enjoyed every minute of my capstone project, and I will never forget the feelings I felt while I presented to Spanish speaking families. I felt the most reward from my interactions with the families. Seeing them really express their hopes and concerns, but also understanding what is required of them, and how they can be an aid to their children gives me the most satisfaction. Seeing that they were so receptive and supportive of each other, reminds me how much we already know what we need, and when we share with each other our knowledge, skills and experience we can make our life, and the lives of others better.
From here on out, I will take what I learned here with Stand, and continue to do work with them as a volunteer. I will take my new found skills and capabilities and put them to work in ways that I can continue to help others grow, learn, and take action over their lives. I want to work in housing and eventually make my way over to the City of Gresham, where I can put all of my experiences from Stand and my future jobs to work for the residents of my hometown.
From here on out, I will take what I learned here with Stand, and continue to do work with them as a volunteer. I will take my new found skills and capabilities and put them to work in ways that I can continue to help others grow, learn, and take action over their lives. I want to work in housing and eventually make my way over to the City of Gresham, where I can put all of my experiences from Stand and my future jobs to work for the residents of my hometown.
Noche de ÉXITO de noveno grado |
9TH GRADE SUCCESS NIGHT |