Thunderbirds Charities has awarded a $25,000 grant to ALL In Education to support our efforts to ensure that students in Arizona are achieving academic success in their K-12 education. This partnership will provide ALL In Education with the support to expand the impact of the Parent Educator Academy (PEA), a program aimed at addressing the critical communication gap between schools and families, supporting parents and caregivers in navigating the school system, and developing their agency to influence decisions that affect their families and communities.
The Parent Educator Academy began in 2020 in response to the sudden need for families to navigate virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program garnered strong community interest and participation, especially from multilingual, Latino families. Since 2020, ALL in Education has successfully delivered PEA to five cohorts of over 550 caregivers across various schools in Arizona.
The goal of PEA is to equip Latino and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) parents and caregivers with practical, actionable information to create meaningful, sustainable change that ensures ALL students have the opportunity to reach their full potential and thrive. With a demonstrated track record of increasing participants’ self-confidence and self-efficacy, the PEA curriculum guides participants through foundational coursework focused on navigating the education system and parental rights, skill development in effective communication, the significance of early literacy and math, and provides a vehicle for collaboration between participants and school representatives.
In a testimonial, one of our PEA Alumni recounted, “The Parent Educator Academy has impacted me in a great way since without this course I would feel lost in terms of the opportunities and rights that my children have as students, thank you for showing me the direction and thus being able to support them on their path as students in this country.”
Leveraging the power of effective and meaningful family engagement in students’ educational journeys because it is a critical factor in student success, PEA works with parents and caregivers in predominantly underrepresented and low-income communities. The program is offered twice during the traditional academic year, in English and Spanish; each cohort is eight weeks long, includes two 90-minute virtual sessions weekly, and culminates in a graduation celebration. The virtual setting allows participants to attend without the challenges of securing child care or transportation. While PEA directly serves parents and caregivers, the knowledge and skills they gain greatly benefit their students, their child(ren)s’ teachers, and school administrators.
The funding provided by Thunderbirds Charities will provide the critical support to double the number of parents and caregivers served, specifically in the Roosevelt School District in South Phoenix.
Learn more about our organization and our programs at https://allineducation.org/.
This grant is part of the Fall 2023 cycle. View a list of all Recent Grantees.