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EDUCATION ORGANIZING Español
The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council’s Education Sector is made up of concerned parents of elementary school students who come together to create positive change in their child’s school. A variety of projects have been taken up in order to better the education of all of the students in Brighton Park. The Education Sector parents come together in a variety of ways to help strategize about bringing about this change.
School Construction Campaign
One of the principle areas that the Education Sector of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council has been working on is the issue of overcrowding in our schools. All of the schools in the neighborhood are overcrowded and the average class size far exceeds the state average. Parents from one particular school began organizing around the overcrowding concern because it greatly affected them on a day to day basis. Columbia Explorers Academy was forced to begin a year round school year begun July of 2006. This meant that students would be split up into four “tracks” which would each attend school for three months and then have one month off. This immediately decreased the school’s population by one quarter. The problem with the year round system is that there is no guarantee that children of the same family would be placed on the same track. This becomes especially difficult for single parent families and families where both parents work.
Luz Y Esperanza Women’s Group
The Shields Elementary School based women’s group worked in collaboration with Mujeres Latinas en Acción to complete two levels of a leadership training course. The participants of the group are now able to use their learned skills to observe their surrounding community and move to create positive change within the community and the schools their children attend. One area that the Luz Y Esperanza participants have begun to organize around is the domestic violence issue and its affects on the community as a whole.
Columbia Explorers Women’s Group
Another group has come together of mothers from Columbia Explorers Academy. This group was formed this past school year and has been working on creating a strong group dynamic. We are fortunate to use the COFI (Community Organizing and Family Issues) curriculum to help strengthen the group and help create a sense of unity among the participants. This curriculum puts emphasis first on each participant and their family as a source of inspiration for creating change.
Success in School Workshops
As the school year begins, workshops at the local schools will begin providing parents and students the opportunity to establish and implement positive study techniques and habits that will help the student achieve success throughout the academic year. These “Success in School” workshops are given over the course of two months allowing families to test drive the techniques and to better share successes and challenges with other participants. These workshops are then repeated towards the end of the school year in order to provide assistance to students and families in getting back on track with their new found techniques and strategies.
TIF Campaign
At the beginning of this year, the Stevenson/Brighton TIF was created to bring about development to the Brighton Park neighborhood. Together with the Housing Committee, the Education Sector has begun working towards the creation of an oversite committee including local aldermen that would ensure the inclusion and involvement of the community in deciding what development comes in to the community and in what way the funds generated by the TIF will be used. We believe that new school construction and affordable housing that is truly affordable to community members needs to be a priority in new development.
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