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Advocacy in Schools: Working with Parents. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Counseling and Human Services cholcom1@jhu.edu.
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Advocacy in Schools: Working with Parents Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Counseling and Human Services cholcom1@jhu.edu
Quality education is a civil right. However, many of our nation’s children, overwhelmingly those of color or from low-income backgrounds, are being denied the education they deserve, trapped in underperforming, under-funded, and often segregated schools. It is both a moral and economic imperative that we close the opportunity gap and ensure that all children have access to the high quality education they will need to succeed in life.-Wade Henderson President and CEO Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Advocacy Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause; especially the pursuit of influencing outcomes; the practice of supporting someone to make their voice heard.
Advocacy Acting with or on behalf of an individual to: • …respond to institutional or systemic barriers that impinge upon development and well-being • …proactively challenge the status quo to effect social change
The ASCA Model and Advocacy “Advocating for the academic success of every student is a key role of school counselors and places them as leaders in promoting school reform”
The ASCA Model and Advocacy • According to the ASCA Model, school counselors’ (and other counseling professionals’) advocacy efforts are aimed at… • Eliminating barriers impeding students’ development • Creating opportunities to learn for all students • Ensuring access to a quality school curriculum • Collaborating with others within and outside the school to help students meet their needs • Promoting positive, systemic change in schools
Advocacy for Parents and Communities • Parent advocacy can focus on the needs of parents,parents have substantial needs for support and resources. • Or, when we talk about parent advocacy we can mean advocacy by parent groups for children with a disability
Are You An Advocate For Student Success?For Parents? For Communities?
Other Relevant Facts • School Suspension Rate: 7.3% (2009) • Children in households where the household head is not a high school graduate: 10% (2008 • Children in households where the household head has a bachelor’s degree or higher: 39% (2008) • Children that speak a language other than English at home: 14% (2008)
Other Relevant Facts • Women without early prenatal care: 19.8% (2008) • Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000): 8% (2008) • Teen Birth Rate (per 1,000): 32.7% (2008) • Children 17 and below without health insurance: 9% (2007)
Do YOU advocate for the students and parents in Maryland who are the most marginalized?
Which Parents Need Advocates? • Low Income Parents • Parents of Color • Parents of Students with Disabilities • ALL PARENTS/FAMILIES
Professional Counselors Can…. Make a Difference! ADVOCACY IS ONE TOOL THAT WE CAN USE!
Assumptions About Counselors and Advocacy • Counselors are in a position of institutional power and privilege in relation to our students/clients (Counselors Have Access to Information!) • Clients can advocate for themselves! However, there are certain groups of students/families that are the recipients of institutionalized oppression.
Empowerment • Interpersonal interactions between the counselor and the student or client working within the socioeconomic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical context. • Facilitate the parent’s sense of overall self-efficacy • Giving parents information and the “permission” to act on behalf of their children
Examples of Parent Empowerment • Assist a parent approach teacher or school about problem or concern. Empathize with the parent and problem solve without blaming the student or parent. • Talk to parent about his/her environmental challenges (e.g., family issues, poverty) and then strategize what the parent can control or do about his/her circumstances
Social Action • Counselors’ participation in the larger sociopolitical context to remove barriers faced by his/her students/clients • Childcare • Employment issues • Community rights • Combatting discrimination, inequities, etc. in community
Examples of Social Action • Counselor advocating for policy changes that affect students’ parents (e.g., workforce, childcare) • Counselor advocating for school policy changes that directly impact parent involvement and student achievement (e.g., lack of rigorous course-taking, lack of parent involvement emphasis in school mission, parent conference practices)
ADVOCACY DISPOSITIONS • Must be aware of and embrace professional advocacy role • Must be willing to take risks in helping individual students and groups of students meet their needs • Must recognize that parents are the best advocates for their children. We must help parents feel empowered to be advocates • Must recognize the need for the removal of systemic barriers and inequities
ADVOCACY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS • Knowledge of resources • Knowledge of parameters (e.g., policies, procedures, legal issues) • Knowledge of mediation and conflict resolution • Knowledge of advocacy models • Knowledge of systems perspective (school-family-community partnerships) • Communication skills • Collaboration skills • Problem assessment skills • Organizational skills • Self-care skills
Parent/Family Strategies • Invite Dialogue • Monitor the tone and body language of face-to-face interactions • Empathize • Beware of “ghosts.”
Parent Advocacy GroupsMaryland • Baltimore Education Network • IMPACT Silver Spring • Maryland Coalition of Families for Children’s Mental Health • Maryland PTA • MD Justice • The Parents’ Place of Maryland
A single parent struggling to meet the financial needs of her elementary aged children
An immigrant, working, mother trying to “fit in” among U.S. born parents at a PTA meeting
An unemployed father worries about his ability to pay for his daughter’s college education
An African American couple ponder over how to advocate for their 6th grade African American son who they believe is receiving less attention and support by his teachers.
An Asian family does not know how to help their learning disabled child do better in school. Also, they are struggling with with the “stigma” of having a child with a disability.
A 17 year old male “comes out” to his family. The parents feel alone and unsure how to cope with their feelings about their son in a community that has harassed gay youth.
A Prayer for ChildrenBy MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMANWe pray for children Who sneak popsicles before supper, Who erase holes in math workbooks, Who can never find their shoes.And we pray for those Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, Who never "counted potatoes," Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead, Who never go to the circus, Who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money. And we pray for those Who never get dessert, Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, Who watch their parents watch them die, Who can't find any bread to steal, Who don't have any rooms to clean up, Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, Whose monsters are real.
We pray for children Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, Who like ghost stories, Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub, Who get visits from the tooth fairy, Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone, Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those Whose nightmares come in the daytime, Who will eat anything, Who have never seen a dentist, Who aren't spoiled by anybody, Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, Who live and move, but have no being.We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must, For those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance. For those we smother ... and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
