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Programs: Oregon Parent Education Center

Oregon Parent Education Center (OPEC)
52 TOT trained parent facilitators from around Oregon came together to learn and share on June 11th for a 5 hour Convivio (conference) at the Oregon Parent Education Center.  The group discussed positive strategies to advocate for students within schools and the importance of effective parental involvement.  The next Convivio is scheduled for October 29th.  

 

OPEC is based out of the Jim Ramsey III Community Center in NE Salem

The Vision

Parental involvement and empowerment are critical factors in student achievement and life success. The vision of the Oregon Parent Education Center is that all parents and families will have the information, resources, and support they need to become meaningful participants in their children's education.  Empowered with new knowledge and leadership skills, parents and families will become key stakeholders in closing the achievement gap between Latino children and their peers in Oregon.  Using a grassroots leadership development model combined with culturally-and-linguistically competent approaches, the Center will maximize its parent empowerment programs based upon popular education models for organizing parents along with support groups, literacy classes, and a social service referral program to holistically address the socio-economic barriers parents and families may be experiencing. The Center is designed to be a well-recognized and trusted place where  [CV1] Spanish speaking and low-income Latino parents can come to receive assistance and support from peer-counselors/facilitators; free from language or cultural barriers that may have alienated them in the past from becoming more engaged in their children's education or in issues or policies that directly affect them. 

Background

The formal opening of the Oregon Parent Education Center in February 2010 provided an opportunity to celebrate ten years of advocacy and parent education in the Salem-Keizer area, while launching an exciting and new expansion of services and programs.  The Center is part of the Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality, an organization with a long history of working and partnering with organizations and individuals to provide resources, programs, and support for  Latino, low-income, migrant, and limited-English proficient families so that they may find and access resources in the community while gaining self sufficiency and empowerment.  SKCE uses grassroots leadership development models for services and programs so that families become engaged community leaders and stakeholders with the ability to have a voice on policies that directly impact them.

Programs and Services

Parents and community members visiting the Center will find:

  • Peer-counseling from workshop facilitators on issues covered in the workshops, including:
    • Grade level standards - where students should be in each grade and how to find out how children are doing meeting benchmarks,
    • Conflict resolution with teachers,
    • Rights and responsibilities,
    • What NCLB means for all children and youth,
  • Parent Support Groups,
  • Assistance finding programs for kids in the summer months and vacation times,
  • Information on post-high school opportunities - including applying for and finding colleges, applying for scholarships, and filling out financial aid forms,
  • Parenting workshops and classes in the evenings,
  • Charlas and support groups on current topics like gang and drug prevention,
  • A reading library for younger children, and information on sending younger children to school ready to learn, and
  • Information on birth-five opportunities and programs.

Over the last two years, SKCE provided over 500 hours of professional development training for 11 parent facilitators to develop their skills on popular education models for organizing and empowering parents. These include teaching strategies, love and logic methodologies, meeting facilitation and planning, conflict resolution and work plan organization.  These well-trained parents now teach SKCE's Educate and Inspire workshops at the Center.  In 2009, there were 50 workshops throughout Salem-Keizer attended by 1,320 parents (with quality childcare for 1,640 children).  Summer workshops were held at the Jim Ramsey III Center.

Reaching out and connecting with parents at schools is critical to the Center's success.  SKCE has key communicators in place at schools throughout the district.  These parents regularly talk with parents and help them navigate education issues.  Workshop facilitators also interact with parents and have an opportunity to create a personal relationship with school parents.  Fostering these relationships will assist in drawing people to the Center.  In addition, staff will continue to work with school counselors and specialists to explain the resources available at the Center and encourage them to refer parents.  Over 200 people attended the grand opening and are already spreading the word.

Apart from SKCE, Mano a Mano Family Center is located within the Jim Ramsey III Community Center and provides direct and indirect social services for families.  One Mano a Mano program, LUS (Latinos Unidos Siempre), offers youth leadership development programs.  This wraparound approach draws community members into the Center.

In addition to supporting Salem-Keizer parents, the Center is also the hub for the Training of Trainers (TOT) program, an offshoot of the Parent Organizing Project (POP), which offers facilitation training and support for other communities and school districts interested in adopting and implementing the Educate and Inspire curriculum. The Center is a place for TOT partners to receive technical assistance from experienced facilitators and trainers.  They can also borrow and design resources for their community.  In 2009, the TOT worked in Beaverton, Eugene, Newberg, Hillsboro, Medford and Canby.
           
A Typical Day

On a typical day at the Center there are facilitators practicing for upcoming presentations and putting together outreach materials, community partners drop by to talk check in on projects and check out new resources, TOT staff is planning upcoming events outside of Salem-Keizer, and instructors are preparing for evening classes and homework help for youth.  Parents are reading to their kids, checking out resources, and dropping in to ask questions and, most importantly, get the answers and support they need to help their kids succeed in school and life.   On a typical day SKCE is closing the achievement gap through effective parental involvement, empowerment and popular education.