Issue Areas

Organizations could select up to 18 issues that they primarily worked on. The leading three issues were K-12 education, early childhood education, and racial equity (Figure 3), while the fewest work on LGBTQ+ rights, hunger (which may be encompassed by economic justice), and Native rights. The survey revealed that most organizations worked on multiple issues. On average, organizations reported working on five issues, and only 19 organizations reported working on only one issue.

Figure 3

What issue does your organization primarily work on?

Geography

At least one parent leadership organization operated in every state, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico (Figure 4). By far, the most organizations were located in California, followed by New York, Connecticut, and Colorado. South Dakota, Idaho, Utah, and West Virginia had the fewest number of organizations, commensurate with their small populations. The overwhelming majority (n=136) had programming in only one state.

In what states does your organization have programming?

Organizations varied in terms of their operating reach. The state-level was the most common geographic area in which organizations reported operating, followed by the city level (Figure 5). More operated in rural areas, compared to suburban areas. Eighteen operated nationwide. Note that organizations could select as many categories that applied, so an organization that selected a multi-county level may have also selected both suburban and rural.

FIGURE 4

In what states does your organization have programming?

Organizations varied in terms of their operating reach. The state-level was the most common geographic area in which organizations reported operating, followed by the city level (Figure 5). More operated in rural areas, compared to suburban areas. Eighteen operated nationwide. Note that organizations could select as many categories that applied, so an organization that selected a multi-county level may have also selected both suburban and rural.

FIGURE 5

Which of the following best describes the area in which your organization operates?

Demographics

Organizations reported demographic information to the best of their ability. On the whole, organizations worked with a multi-racial and multi-linguistic group of parents (Figure 6). Only 16% of organizations (n=29) noted that only one racial group was represented. Conversely, 15% (n=28) noted that all eight groups were represented. Black parents were the most common racial group represented, followed by Latinx parents, and then White parents. Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander parents were the least common group represented. In over 50 organizations, half or more parent leaders speak a language other than English as their first language. All but 34 organizations reported that at least a few of their parent leaders speak a language other than English as their first language.

FIGURE 6

What racial/ethnic groups are represented among your parent leaders or organizers?

The overwhelming majority of organizations engaged mostly women, with 19 engaging only women (Figure 7). Conversely, just one organization engaged only men, 17 engaged no men, and 102 engaged only a few men. The majority of organizations worked with very few parents who identify as non-binary and none or a few parents who identify as transgender.

Figure 7

Gender Identity: How many of your parent leaders identify as…?

The Who, What, Where, of Parent Leadership Organizations

This section illustrates organizations’ key issue areas, geography, and demographics.

Quick Facts

• Most of the organizations surveyed identified themselves as family and community engagement, advocacy, leadership development, and community organizing groups, while 51 also identified as service providers.
• The majority of organizations (n=104) were founded by parents
• For membership-based organizations (n=48), the median number of members was 225. Members include core parent leaders and other active community members, which organizations sometimes refer to as their “base.”
• The median number of parents who participate in leadership development per year was 40.
• Almost half of the organizations have operated for more than 20 years, while only 10% had existed for 0-4 years.

What Do Parent Leadership Organizations Offer?

This section illustrates issues how organizations emphasize social justice, leadership development opportunities they provide, and how they support parent leaders holistically.

Quick Facts

• On average, organizations offered 35 hours of leadership development to parents in the past year, with a minimum of one and a maximum of 200.
• The median number of hours was 20 (note that this figure may have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic).
• In open-ended responses, a number of organizations highlighted the values undergirding their work with parent leaders.

       -Some reported being intentionally multiracial

       -Many noted that they center racial justice in their parent leadership development work.

• Others report working in an intentionally relational way, prioritizing authentic relationships among parent leaders and staff, with shared decision-making, mentoring, and pathways for parents to become paid staff if desired.

Social Justice Emphasis

By far, the most common issue emphasized by leadership development programming was racial justice, followed by economic justice and disability justice (Figure 8). Sexual orientation justice, transgender justice, and religious justice were the least common issues emphasized.

Figure 8

Does your leadership training curriculum or facilitation intentionally emphasize any of the following issues?

Leadership Development Opportunities

Organizations offered a wide range of leadership development opportunities (Figure 9). Consistent with traditional leadership development and political organizing, meetings with public officials and support with public speaking were the most common. Community-engaged research or participatory action research was the third most common opportunity. Additionally, a large number of organizations offered mentoring and healing activities, which highlights how organizations provided holistic supports.

Open-ended responses revealed that most organizations support parents leaders in developing the tools to advocate and organize for policy and practice change, including skills for interacting with policy-makers, communications skills, and strategies for navigating civic spaces. Many organizations – in particular, those supporting young people with disabilities and their families and caregivers – emphasized strategies for navigating systems and advocating for oneself and one’s children.

For some organizations, leadership development means building organizing skills that parents can apply to a range of issues that matter to them. For example, Transform Education Now notes, “We focus on the skills and  tactics necessary to organize rather than the issue. Issues are  secondary to the training and leadership that parents grow in.”

In some organizations, parent leaders developed and carried out individual civic projects (e.g. starting community resource centers, increasing park safety, ending punitive discipline in schools, designing certification programs for home daycare providers, etc.), while parent organizing groups built collective campaigns to demand new resources or policies, for example, expanding access to drivers’ licenses, expanding Medicaid, or securing more funding for education. Many organizations also worked with parent leaders to prepare them to take on civic leadership roles such as serving on task forces and advisory boards or holding elected office.

Relationships are central to leadership development. The Parent Leadership Training Institute (PTLI) of Solano County, California noted:

"I think our biggest success would be the community bonds that develop among parent leaders. Not only is each class like a small family but the broader alumni group is also really very close and so supportive of each other.”

Supportiveness among alumni takes many shapes, for example, supporting a family financially when they have lost their home in a fire or campaigning for an parent leader alum who is running for a school committee. Many organizations also have pathways for parent to continue to work within the organization: 

“While we only have only one full time staff member, our parent leaders who are stipend in positions of support are all past alumni of our program. We believe the parents are the power and we put parents in all places where decisions are being made around policy.” -Washington State Parents Ambassadors

Figure 9

Please mark any leadership development training opportunities your organization offers?

Holistic Supports

Organizations offered parent leaders a wide range of supports, with parent outreach (i.e. engaging parents in the community), parenting support, and educational supports as the most common (Figure 10). On average, organizations offered five supports to families, out of a possible 13.

In open-ended responses, many groups highlighted how their leadership development approach is driven by and responsive to the strengths, needs, and interests of the parent leaders they engage. Notably, some organizations provide childcare, meals, interpretation, and financial stipends to facilitate sustained participation.

Figure 10

Please mark any programming, support and services your organization offers parents who are part of your leadership or organizing work.

How do Parent Leadership Organizations Operate?

This section illustrates information about staffing, funding and shared decision- making.

Quick Facts:

• Overall, parent leadership organizations had small staff. The median number of full-time staff was six and the median number of part-time staff was three.
• On average, 63% of the staff were Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC).
• About two-thirds report an annual budget of less than $1 Million.

Funding

There was a wide range of budget sizes among organizations, with about two- thirds reporting an annual budget less than $1 Million, while one-third have a budget of $1 Million or more (Figure 11). Twenty percent have a budget of $500,000 to $1 Million; 25% have a budget of $100,000 - $500,000; and 20% have a budget under $100,000.

Foundations were the most common source of funding for organizations, followed by individual donors, and then government (Figure 12). (Note that organizations could choose their top 3 funding sources).

Figure 11

What was the total size of your actual budget for the last completed fiscal year?

Figure 12

Please check off your organization’s top 3 funding sources.

Shared Decision-Making

Decision-making in key areas was shared between staff and parents in most organizations, particularly around focus issue areas, programming, and strategies/ tactics. The least shared decision-making happened around organizational budgets and hiring (Figure 13).

In open-ended responses, organizations said they created space for leaders to share knowledge, learn from each other’s expertise, and design curriculum around the issues and topics that parent leaders care most about. Some organizations described participatory processes for identifying priorities and co-designing curriculum with parent leaders. Parent leaders served on boards and in formal decision-making roles in many organizations, as well as being employed as staff who provide leadership development and training.

Figure 13

Who in your organization makes decisions about the following?

Organizational Wins and Successes

In open-ended survey responses, parent leadership organizations named several successes and wins from the past three years, including developing organizational capacity, building power, and achieving policy wins.

Developing Organizational Capacity

Organizations described winning new funding to expand their staffing, pilot new curriculum and programs, or expand existing work. Organization partnered with other agencies, school districts, cities, and states to provide parent leadership training or specific support to parents and youth or to strengthen their advocacy efforts. Organizations discussed such leveraging partnerships and coalitions as an organizational win.

“Our parents worked closely with community members, county commissioners and the health department starting a campaign to reduce lead in homes. We demanded elected officials to fund our children."--Parents for Healthy Homes

"Recognizing the need of ELL (English Language Learner) families to engage with their schools and leadership opportunities, the Prichard Committee piloted ELL-CIPL [Commonwealth Parent Leadership Institute] with Spanish speaking families in 2020-2021. We worked with this group to identify the specific barriers for ELL families. An example of this success was the state level recognition of [harmful] background check policies and the presentation of this barrier by CIPL to the Kentucky Education Commissioner. 2022 built on this success by having 2021 graduates lead the new ELL-CIPL class in their language with Prichard funding interpretation for English speaking staff members.”-Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Several organizations also shared how they maintained momentum, funding, and services during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, groups used virtual meetings and training to engage their members during the pandemic. Several groups successfully engaged more parents through virtual outreach; some even used television and radio to reach out to community members.

Policy Wins

“We recently led the fight to repeal anti-immigrant policies in Colorado that prohibited people who cannot prove lawful presence from accessing public benefits. Our directly impacted members led this fight and organizations coalition and legislative sponsors followed their lead.” — Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition

“Supporting parents to advocate for the Manifesto for Race Equity for Parent Leadership in Early Childhood Systems at the national level has resulted in its inclusion in several state and county policy frameworks, including the Massachusetts Family Engagement Framework. Supporting staff to align their agencies with the Manifesto has resulted in five communities adopting stipends for parent leader roles and three communities adding paid positions for parent leaders.”  — Parent Leader Network, an initiative of the Center for Study of Social Policy

Several organizations described winning millions of dollars toward critical issues. Parent leaders and youth organizations helped to pass local and state-wide policies or legislation to further their areas of interest. Some of their collaborative wins are listed below:

• Expanding education, afterschool, and early childhood funding (Many organizations)
• Adopting district bilingual education policies and new supports for bilingual families (ARISE Adelante; IN*SOURCE)
• Expanding Medicaid coverage (Family Voices of Colorado; Family Voices of Wisconsin; Kids and Caregivers)
• Expanding rental assistance (NM CAFe; The Platform of Hope)
• Expanding access to driver’s licenses (Faith in New Jersey; Make the Road New Jersey)
• Securing public benefits for undocumented immigrants and repealing anti-immigrant policies (Partnership for Community Action; Quad Cities Interfaith; TODEC Legal Center)
• Passing paid family and medical leave policies (Family Forward Oregon)
• Removing police officers from school campuses and advancing restorative justice practices (Black Parallel School Board; Communities United; Community Asset Development Redefining Education (CADRE); Sacramento Area Congregations Together)
• Eliminating fines and fees in the juvenile justice system (Ubuntu Village NOLA)
• Increasing state minimum wage (Rights & Democracy (VT & NH))
• Including Black parents on district-wide advisory councils (Philadelphia Home and School Council)
• Expanding school-based mental health (Innovate Public Schools)
• Extending the age of eligibility for youth with disabilities to receive special education services above age 21 (Statewide Parent Advocacy Network)

Building Power

"Some of our power parents have gone on to create other organizations or nonprofits to help other parents who have children who have children with disabilities to continue the work that we originally started and guided them with to begin with. Our youth self-advocate program to prepare transition age youth for life beyond school has expanded from a mere 20 students to hundreds across a school district that we ended collaborating with."--Arkansas Support Network

"Parent in the Parent Engagement Program have gone on to pursue other leadership positions in their PTA, School Improvement Teams, Board of Education, County Commissioner level, etc. Parents completed projects such as a kindness rock garden at an elementary school, a PTA transformation that included parents of color in ways they had not been included before, and the continuation of K-12 Safe Zone training regarding creating safe and inclusive classroom." --Parents for Public School of Pitt County, North Carolina

“CPLAN: Collaborative Parent Leader Action Network was part of a coalition that influenced the historic ‘Yes on 3’ campaign in Boston, a ballot question to change school committee membership from mayor-appointed to community elected. CPLAN contributed to this 79% yes by interviewing a city councilor on a radio show whose audience is predominantly people of color, creating a video informing residents about the history of the school committee, its power and impact on educational policies and budgets, and the change their vote would make.”--Collaborative Parent Leader Action Plan

Organizations were able to build power toward long-term systemic change. Parents and young people built connections with other parents and key leaders, participated in advocacy and lobby days, served on influential task forces, joined committees and boards, and had decision-making roles in different contexts. The organizations also built parent and youth leadership within their organization, with members taking ownership of meetings and programs after being supported through education and training. For example, one organization engaged parents in a year-long leadership workshop to help them become advocates for their children on critical legislative issues. Another organization had Latinx parent leaders leading their own groups with only minimal staff support.

Some strategies organizations used to accomplish their policy wins included:

• Getting petitions signed
• Surveying communities
• Door-knocking to support their campaigns
• Testifying at crucial meetings and hearings
• Participating in lobby and advocacy days
• Providing leadership and advocacy training for parents and youth

Read Findings II Section

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