[Youth-list] Parent Power. Hartford Courant

Sun Oct 21 04:13:06 PDT 2007

courant.com/news/local/hc-ctparent1021.artoct21,0,1671892.story 
Courant.com
Moms, Dads Urged To Be Stronger Advocates
By SUSAN CAMPBELL 
Courant Staff Writer 
October 21, 2007 

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Participants in a Saturday parent advocacy meeting came dressed mostly in  
their Sunday best, which was fitting because the meeting of the advocacy group  
CT Parent Power felt like a revival.

When speaker Marilyn Dunkely, a  Middletown mother of five, encouraged 
audience members to register to vote, she  was greeted with cries of "Go ahead!" and 
"Tell the truth!" from the audience.  When Debbie McCusker, a Waterbury 
parent, encouraged parents to go to their  children's schools, she got raucous 
applause.

And when the spotlight  shifted to the legislators who'd come to the meeting 
at Hartford's Learning  Corridor - among them, Sen. Jonathan Harris, D-West 
Hartford, Sen. Toni Harp,  D-New Haven, and House Majority Leader Chris Donovan, 
D-Meriden - they weren't  addressed by their titles. They were Jonathan, 
Toni, and Chris. And they, too,  led the parents in cheers, while each agreed to 
help push a family-friendly  agenda in the legislature.

CT Parent Power is a 5-year-old grass-roots  nonprofit organization, said 
Tauna Idone, the organization's community  coordinator. Members learn to advocate 
for their children, speak with  legislators, rally voters, and encourage 
other parents to get involved.  

Other states have tried similar programs, but Connecticut's may be  unique in 
its scope, Idone said. Connecticut's organization provides bus rides  to 
events like Saturday's, and child care at the events. While parents gathered  for 
break-out sessions mid-morning, their children danced, played basketball,  and 
painted portraits in supervised classrooms at the Learning  Corridor.

Speaker after speaker Saturday gave the altar call to the  cheering crowd of 
300 or so to get vocal about their children's lives. They  bemoaned 
Connecticut's income and health insurance gap. (A handout Saturday said  roughly 350,000 
people - 71,000 of them children - are without health insurance  in 
Connecticut. Eight of the 10 people without health insurance have  jobs.)

They talked about the difficulty of choosing between filling a  prescription, 
or buying milk and cereal for breakfast.

A highlight at the  meeting was the group's annual survey. The 1,500 
Connecticut parents polled were  most interested in, in order, schools, health care, 
early learning, family  income supports, and how their children spend their 
time when school's not in  session.

Some parents, like Lydia Sanabria, of East Hartford, came to  Parent Power 
through the state Commission on Children's Parent Training  Leadership 
Institute, which prepares parents to advocate for their  children.

"I wanted to become more educated on how to navigate the school  system," 
said Sanabria, a mother of three. "Schools tell you what they think you  need to 
know, according to them. My children can't necessarily speak for  themselves. 
I am their voice."

Some parents came because they have  children with special educational needs. 
Some came because they thought their  schools weren't including them in 
important decisions. All were charged with  staying active in the democratic 
process.

"We're all in this together,"  Harris said, to cheers.

Dr. Janice M. Gruendel
Governor's Senior Policy Advisor on  Children and Youth
Co-Chair, CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet
Member,  Youth Vision Team & PK-16 Council
Home office:  203-481-9940
Blackberry: 203-824-4766
Mail to: 28 Juniper  Point
Branford, CT 06405

"The people  of Connecticut, and history, will judge us by whether we 
accepted our  stewardship simply to preserve the comfortable status quo or whether we 
seized  it with boldness of purpose. I, for one, am emboldened." Governor M. 
Jodi Rell,  CT State of the State message, 2005

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