Parent Leadership - Our Keystone to Success

What is it that differentiates UrbanFUTURE from other organizations that providing mentoring? The biggest difference is our emphasis on involving the parent. In fact, we believe that without engaging the parent as a leader in their child's education, we will see mediocre results that are less likely to be lasting. That's not to say a child cannot benefit from having an adult mentor, but generally, to have a sustainable, lasting impact in that child's life, the parent or some other responsible adult has to be involved and leading the change.


To UrbanFUTURE, parent leadership is parents leading the child's goal accomplishment process, holding a child accountable for his/her (in)actions, encouraging the child to succeed and acting as an advocate for the best interest of the child. Parents who fulfill these roles, will likely see their son or daughter develop into a good student and a good person.


There are many barriers that exist in engaging parents. In some cases a cultural and language barrier exist for parents. While a parent may wish to help a child with homework, a lack of English may prevent that from happening. A similar situation exists for parents who have to work in the evenings and are unable to provide homework help for the child despite their desire to do so. Other parents may not have the necessary skills themselves to help on difficult math, science or writing assignments. Still others may be operating under a veil of ignorance in which they don't know of their child's deficient skills due to satisfactory grades (another topic for another day, perhaps). Finally, there are some who are well aware of their child's struggles, but don't know what they can do to help. The combination of many of these can lead to parents who appear apathetic to their child's education.


UrbanFUTURE turns that apathy on its head. By telling parents that they can not only help their child, but they can lead their child's education they re-gain control of the situation. We do this by setting high expectations for parents and challenging them to step up their efforts. We offer opportunities for them to network with other parents. We provide trainings for how they can work on goals with their child, help them improve their literacy and even how to better communicate with an adolescent child. We encourage them to come to the school to help out, sit in the classroom and talk with teachers. As parents become more comfortable in their role as a leader, their child in turn will see how much the parent truly values a good education.


It's when the parents come to see and believe in their own possibilities as parents that their child sees and believes in their possibilities as person.