Twenty six years ago, two Black girls from Bayview-Hunter’s Point embarked on a journey to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to fight to end the conditions they witnessed their mothers survive as a result of the criminalization of poor folks. Today, as Black mothers, we have joined our organizing experience to co-support the development of more parents who deserve access to a transformative family engagement experience while supporting their child/ren in public school.

As new co-Executive Director, I spent my first year learning how a small and mighty organization weathers the storm of the continued de-prioritization of Black, Brown, immigrant and undocumented families. 

During 2021-2022, Bay Area PLAN:

• Held 3 Organizing 101 series for 45 public school parents
• Had 450 one-on-ones with parent leaders
• Held a weekly Hour of Wellness with Black parents and their families
• Held weekly parent meetings with immigrant and undocumented Latinx parents
• Gave out $62,000 in Thriving Family Funds to help families recover from pandemic-related issues such as loss of housing/employment, utilities backpay, etc.
• Held an end of year celebration sponsored by Bowlero, Public Advocates, Youth Together, Rainin Foundation, Akonadi, Black Organizing Project and Coleman Advocates, for 50 Black and Brown parent leaders and their families

We did this all while managing the aftermath of our own families being impacted by the pandemic as well. We did this with lots of compassion, grace, and support from our community of supporters, funders, donors and cheerleaders.

From the decision to loosen CDC Covid regulations to the historical village cry to keep small community schools open in OUSD to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it is clear that we must stick to the fidelity of our non-negotiable: We must develop the leadership and build the power of parents, families and communities to transform our public schools.

Yet, building the power of parents to lead school transformation requires harnessing our collective commitment to racial justice and systems change. Alone, PLAN staff and leaders cannot organize the solutions to the problems that have been unveiled through the COVID-19 Pandemic. We need your support to broaden our unity and create the sustainable organization necessary to win in every school, district and county our organizing agenda.

Currently, districts, cities and counties are identifying what is best for Black, Latino and Immigrant students in our public schools without our input. Millions of dollars are being spent on solutions that do not result in restoring Black, Latino and immigrant families economic and educational challenges resulting from the aftermath of Shelter-In-Place. In fact, many of the investments are back filling lost positions, programs and other resources that have no direct connection to the loss in jobs, loss in educational opportunities that we have heard loud and clear in our Keep Our Kids Safe Campaign.

However, we can change this right now. We can support dynamic parent leaders to be in district, city and county meetings advocating for themselves on how these resources should be used to support their recovery. We can provide them with stipends, training and coaching that strengthens their confidence to charge ahead and hold these systems accountable to Black, Latino and immigrant students and their families. We still have time to change the trajectory of millions of dollars. And, once we win, we will need to fight for the next two years to make sure those investments get to Black, Latino and immigrant students and their families.

We need 300 supporters to give every month to be adequately resourced by our community and fully share in the responsibility to build the power of parent leaders!

With 100 supporters giving every month, we will be able to:

1) Expand our Parent Organizing Fellowship from 10 Fellows to 20 Fellows
2) Expand our leadership coaching to 50 more parent leaders
3) Advocate for Alameda County and 9 school districts to increase their engagement of Black, Latino and immigrant students and their families in all budget decisions over the next two years

Will you donate $5 every month and join our Leadership Circle to develop #StrongParents for #StrongPublicSchools?