Elev8_Ames_Mentor_EYS_03_15_11092

Elev8 Parent Mentor Program at Ames Middle School Chicago:

eric@smittyimage.comGloria Bedillo had never served as a school volunteer before, or thought of herself as a leader. But within XX months of the day her daughter enrolled at Logan Square’s Ames Middle, all that changed. Suddenly Bedillo found herself serving as a classroom assistant, a family book group leader, a truant outreach worker, a member of the local school council, and chair of the school’s No Child Left Behind Committee. REACTION FROM HER—IS SHE SURPRISED? While Bedillo is one of the more active parents at Ames, she is hardly unusual. Inner-city schools often bemoan the lack of parental involvement, but Ames has it in spades: 20 parents are volunteering or working for modest wages at the school almost daily at a variety of jobs through Logan Square Neighborhood Association’s Parent Mentor Program. “It’s an enhancement to everything we do,” said Ames Principal Thomas Hoffman who credits the program’s parent truancy outreach workers for helping to raise the school’s average daily attendance rate more than two percentage points in the past two years. LSNA launched the Parent Mentor Program in 1995 as a way to give parents, mainly Hispanic women, the skills and confidence to get more involved in their children’s education. Since then, the program has trained more than 1,300 parents at nine neighborhood elementary schools as classroom mentors for struggling students.But learning how to assist students and school staff is just the beginning. Parent mentors are encouraged to become leaders in their schools and politically active in their communities. And they are urged to pursue personal goals, such as finding employment or pursuing further education. Many have gone on to take ESL or GED classes offered at Ames and four other Logan Square elementary schools.Maria Marquez, a former parent mentor who now coordinates that program at Ames, went even further. She enrolled in LSNA's “Grow Your Own” program which helps Logan Square residents earn undergraduate degrees in education and land jobs in Chicago Public Schools, helping to alleviate the bilingual teacher shortage. More than 20 other parent mentors have done likewise. “Had it had it not been for the Parent Mentor Program I would not be going to Northeastern [University],” she said.For Bedillo, joining the program was no less transformative. As a former substance abuse counselor with an associates degree in social services, she had always enjoyed helping people. BUT OUTSIDE HER CIRCLE?, she had been hesitant to speak her mind. “She was kind of quiet when she first started, not wanting to say a lot,” Marquez recalled.But in the safety of the parent mentor group—LSNA trained a dozen this fall—she began to speak up, said Marquez. “She's a little bit more confident about her opinions.”During one meeting, when a mother complained that her son was unable to get reduced city bus fare because he couldn't prove he went to Ames, Bedillo volunteered to ask the principal about providing student IDs. The principal agreed to do so. WHAT MADE HER DECIDE TO DO THAT.The other mothers were impressed, said Marquez. Later, when she asked for volunteers for the school’s No Child Left Behind Advisory Committee, they quickly nominated Bedillo as chair, said Marquez.“I was like 'Me?' Bedillo recalls. “They were like, 'Yes, you.'”Bedillo, a friendly woman with a ready smile, initially signed-up as a parent mentor because of concerns about school safety, which provided to be unfounded, she said. But that first step was a gateway. “The more I get involved with my daughters school,” she said, “the more I want to be involved.”Her sudden interest surprised her daughter, Jaileen Martinez. “I was shocked about it. I just thought of my mom as a house mom.” The 7th-grader was also worried. “I was kind of scared because I thought she would embarrass me,” Jaileen acknowledged. But she needn't have worried. Her friends thought Bedillo was cool. “When they see me they're like, 'Where's your mom?'” And rather than embarrassed by her mother's involvement at the school, Jaileen found herself impressed. “She's so into it. Her trying to help somebody makes me want to do the same. She motivates me.”Parents in neighborhoods like Logan Square often don't realize how eager schools are for their participation, said Marquez. That's especially true for those immigrating from Mexico or other Central American countries, she explained.In Mexico, parents don’t ever question the teacher or principal, said Marquez. “You can't come into the classroom because it’s invading their domain.”But the parent mentor training makes it clear how much they are valued, not only by recruiting them to serve in a variety of additional roles—safety patrol, truancy outreach, after school tutorCK—but by building their confidence. Before parents step foot in the classroom, they get two weeks of training on the school's math and reading curriculum and also on personal development and leadership. The training continues for two hours a week throughout the school year. Parents without degrees often imagine they don’t have much to offer the school, said Leticia Barerra, another Parent Mentor alumna who now manages the program for LSNA. When parents realize they have lots of skills and talents they can offer to the school, they feel important and useful.” CAN BEDILLO COMMENT ON HER EXPERIENCE?Parents also need to know they have the right to speak up to authority, she said, whether to the principal, the alderman or their state representatives. “They didn't realize how much power they could have,” Barerra explains. “As soon as they know, they start making phone calls.” During last school year's training, a group of mothers suddenly decided to visit the alderman and demand traffic-calming measures around the school: They got their way. After this year's initial training, parents spontaneously teamed up to go door to door to encourage their neighbors to vote. ASK BEDILLO ABOUT THIS.HOW MANY TIMES THIS YEAR, past and present parent mentors have hopped on a bus to Springfield to lobby legislators on immigration reform. NEED A LITTLE MORE HERE“We're speaking out and being heard and not being afraid,” Bedillo said. “We're not just parents now. Were being heard as a group and working together.”After that, came back and was speaking more passionately.Gloria already had associates degree. Benefits mothers as much as students. many gone on to get bachelors degrees and become teachers in the community. Feeds into Grow Your Own,HeadBedillo said she initially decided to join the mentor because her daughter, a 7th-grader, was nervous about attending the new school which she heard had a lot of fighting and bullying, rumors that later proved to be unfounded. Parents receive xx hours of training over xx weeks before they are each assigned to a classrooms two hours a day Monday through Thursday. Bedillo assigned to a math class and then a science class, helps all students but particularly those who are still learning English. QUOTE FROM TEACHER ABOUT WHY THIS IS HELPFULIdea is to make parents realize that they can be part of school. in mexico, not welcome.Bedillo is from Puerto Rico, immigrated to Chicago at three and grew up in Spanish-speaking household. Graduated from St. Augustine college with an associates degree in social services and worked as a substance abuse counselor until 2008. Never been active in school before. When her daughter went to Nixon, didn’t have those opportunities. NEED TRANSITION.Comfort of group, started speaking up. went to principal. Got ids. Then chosen for no child left behind, also on local school counsel.now that I got involved as a parent mentor at my ds school ive felt the need to get more inv and more invRecruited to do extra work for modest hourly wage. Part of elev8 programs. Ames part of elev8 program, extra funds to do truant outreach—phones disconnected and many parents don’t realize kids not in school. money also for literacy ambassadors.Recently she and her daughter visited another neighbor and read about seeds. Youngest participant in 5th grade, the oldest his grandmother. Xx said bedillo’s daughter, who also went along.Role models for their kidsBedillo’s daughter said she was worried when her mother was going to volunteer, meant they would walk to school together each morning. thought she was going to embarrass me. Surprised to find that her friends thought her mom was actually pretty cool. Now she’s motivated. Also part of the Elev8 program where afterschool tutoring raised her math grade c TO A. mother also able to help out more, with parent mentor traning. huge confidence boost. Set her sites on selective high school marine biology. mother as an inspiration.The award-winning program was launched xx years ago and now operates at nine neighborhood schools including Ames. Since its founding, LSNA has trained over xx parents to mentor struggling students in the classroom. But mentorship is just the beginning. The program trains parents, mainly Hispanic women, to become leaders in their schools and politically active in their communities. It also recruits them to serve in a variety of additional roles at the school from safety patrol to neighborhood book group leader.Gloria quotesThe more I get involved with my daughters school the more I want to participate, the more I want to be involved.Speaking out. To the needs that I see that we need. And not being afraid. Speakingout and being heard. Safe place to do that. I see solutions and bepeople workingwith it. We'rebeingheard. Wer'not just parents now. Were beingheard as a group and working together.encouraging them to become leaders in their schools and politically active in their communities.

 

Done