Parent Unions

What is a "Parents Union" chapter?

Parents Union chapters are the basis of the Parent Revolution organizing model.  Each chapter has several very important features.  They are:

Parent-only: Community members, educators, and others can and do support and work with a Parents Union chapter, but only parents can be members and take leadership roles.

School-based: Each chapter must be tied to a specific school, and only parents with children currently attending that school are allowed to be members.

Action oriented: Each chapter commits to actively organizing and fighting for kids-first change at their school.

Structured: Each chapter must have certain structural elements in order to affiliate with Parent Revolution, including a 5-10 parent steering committee with differentiated roles, a membership of at least double the steering committee, and other elements.

Affiliated with Parent Revolution: Each chapter votes to sign a thin MOU affiliating themselves with Parent Revolution.  The MOU commits Parent Revolution to helping provide organizing expertise, policy expertise, and technical assistance to the parents, and in exchange parents agree to fight for kids-first change at their school.

Why use a "Parents Union chapter" organizing model?

Parents Union chapters help drive effective parent empowerment organizing in several key ways:

Parent-led, parent-driven reform: By giving parents a safe space to organize amongst themselves, the chapters allow parents to effectively build power without interference from others

Develop genuine parent leadership: A Parents Union chapter cannot exist without strong, genuine parent leadership at a given school.  By creating formal leadership structures tasked with creating and building real, vibrant organizations, each chapter builds leadership capacity amongst its member parents.

Policy analysis: Each chapter has a Policy Coordinator on their steering committee tasked with working with Parent Revolution's Policy Director to help the chapter analyze their school and develop a list of demands.

How do I start one?

Click here to sign in to our online organizing system and start organizing parents at your school, or email us at organizing@parentrevolution.org.

Documents

Click here to download a copy of our Parents Union chapter MOU.

Click here to read through an electronic copy of our Parent Power Handbook, an A-Z guide to organizing parents at your school around kids-first change.