Parent Mentor Program

We believe Families are the backbone of individual success

In 2018, The ACE Project partnered with the Southwest Organizing Project and the Logan Square Neighborhood Association to implement the Illinois statewide Parent Mentor Program. Though we have mostly focused on out-of-school time activities previously, this program aligns us closer with local schools districts as we work together to increase parent volunteerism across all grade levels.

The goal of the Parent Mentor Program is to build leaders in the home, the school and the community. Our mentors, who are parents within the school district, start with a 15 hour training, which focuses on relationship-building, leadership identification and development, support, creating safe and nurturing school communities, and an introduction to basic duties and responsibilities within the school. Following training, the Parent Mentors are placed in a classroom to work alongside a teacher with students either individually or in small groups. They work in the classroom for at least 200 hours over the course of a school year and upon completion of these hours, they receive a stipend, which helps professionalize the program and build soft work skills like timeliness, consistency and accountability.

It’s been excellent to hear from the cohorts of Parent Mentors about their experiences with the program. So many have shared their revived passion and their plans to pursue careers in education, social work, and community development. For ACE, this program will increase the number of coaches qualified to lead the academic enrichment, social-emotional learning, and homework assistance aspects of our comprehensive program. Overall, we believe that by reinforcing the relationships between students, their families, and their communities, we will close the achievement gap that limits opportunity and success; by expanding this program to additional communities, schools, and states, we help uplift the community voices that inspire solutions.