Inviting Parents to Shape the Community
Operation Shoestring’s parent program works holistically with Shoestring parents and other family members to support their current needs and as they plan for their future. From cooking classes to support groups, our work strives to support all aspects of a family’s life—including their civic life! This past semester, six Shoestring parents attended IDEA’s Parent Leadership Institute and dreamed up the change they’d like to see in their community. PLI is a six-week program designed to “organize and mobilize JPS parents and community members to become advocates for their homes, schools, and communities.” This is the second cohort of Shoestring parents to participate!
In this program, parents imagine, design, and pitch an initiative they feel would improve their community. Shoestring parent Mykel describes her project as a program that will teach high schoolers a trade and give them the opportunity to earn money at the same time. The apprenticeship program Mykel is dreaming up would help teens “buy things that they feel like they need or want or help their mother or family member, whoever that they feel like you need to help” and would help teens enter career fields or become entrepreneurs.
Mykel says a typical PLI session includes brainstorming, research, and building relationships with her fellow participants. “We’re networking with each other and helping each other continue on and navigate through our project. We know the difficulties that we may come into face, any difficulties that we may encounter doing our research or collecting data for the program that we’re trying to start or hoping to start,” says Mykel and so she appreciates the friendships she’s built with other participants in her cohort.
Courtney, a Shoestring parent who is also a participant in PLI, says that her idea to create spaces for teenagers to learn art, music, sound engineering, and dance is important because
“Often, we find ourselves telling our teenagers what they can and can’t do, what they do like and what they don’t like. And we never really give them the opportunity to showcase their talent and, you know, show us what they actually like.” She thinks it’s important for youth in our community to have an opportunity for their voices to be heard and their talents to be shown.”
And we believe it’s important for all parents in our neighborhoods to have the same chance—that’s why we work with community partners like IDEA!
At Operation Shoestring, we work with a diverse coalition of community organizations, congregations, and businesses to address immediate needs while also collaborating to catalyze opportunities for families in our community. As Courtney says: “Operation Shoestring gives my child an opportunity to have a family outside of their family…. and, you know, who doesn’t love to have more family?”