Organization: Parent’R’Us
Country: Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Spain
Education level: Primary, Lower Secondary, and Upper Secondary
Organization type: Nongovernmental organization
Family involvement:Providing Resources, Shifting Mindsets
Overview
In 2018, a consortium of eight organizations, ranging from international NGOs to local schools, came together to develop a parent mentorship program, Parent’R’Us, to improve family involvement towards improved educational access and learning for children of low-income, minority, and immigrant families. Parent’R’Us aimed to shift family, teacher, and school leader mindsets around the value and role of parents (Parent’R’Us, n.d.). It specifically targets entrenched negative assumptions about disadvantaged parents, such as the belief that these parents are unable or unwilling to support their children’s development. The program operates in four different countries: It supports Roma communities in Hungary and Romania while working with migrant families in Portugal and Spain (E. Salamon, personal communication, June 23, 2021).
How does it work?
Parent’R’Us works by training and convening a team of school-based mentor managers, mentors, and mentees. Mentors are a group of parents from disadvantaged backgrounds with local knowledge and confidence navigating the schooling experience. They are supervised by mentor managers who are mostly school staff members, often teachers, who already deeply know the local community. Mentees are parents who are also from disadvantaged backgrounds but have more difficulty engaging with their children’s education (Green, Warren, & García-Millán, 2021); E. Salamon, personal communication, June 23, 2021).
The program began with the selection and training of all mentor managers. Managers underwent a process of reflection and coaching that encourages them to identify their misconceptions about parents. Core discussions included discourse around how schools often prioritize learning and life goals that devalue community knowledge, precluding parents from sharing their diverse talents, such as carpentry or cooking. Mentor managers then train and support parent mentors to employ an assets-based mindset, challenging prior assumptions about the capacity of disadvantaged parents to support their child’s education. Finally, mentor managers use their community ties to match parent mentors with a group of one to three mentees.
After intentional matching, mentors and mentees take charge of their own experience. They collaboratively decide when to meet and what to discuss. Mentorship sessions often address emergent issues, such as a parent’s discomfort responding to a written note from school about poor student behavior. More fundamentally, however, this relationship is a process of mindset shift. It seeks to empower parents as confident partners in children’s learning. For example, mentors will dispel notions that parents are incapable teachers by asking, “Who taught your child to walk and talk?” Additionally, mentors coach teachers on core parent-teacher challenges. For instance, they might guide teachers in putting themselves in the shoes of parents without formal education who have been asked to support their child’s homework without structured support. In both cases, parent mentors can act as mediators between the school and the family, helping identify root causes of tensions.
Parent’R’Us leaders believe that peer mentorship requires local knowledge and autonomy. Rather than prescribe a global curriculum, program leaders continuously learn from experiences and work to develop adaptable best practice toolkits. These resources currently include a systemic review of parent mentorship models and self-assessment tools for mentors and mentor managers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, mentorship took place in neutral, safe spaces, such as community centers, offering free coffee and drinks. Lockdowns as a result of the pandemic led mentors to reimagine meetings in accordance with local health requirements. Mentoring conversations sprang up in homes, parks, or online.
What makes it work?
The key to the success of the Parent’R’Us model lies in leveraging the champions that already exist within a community, with pedagogical expertise and strong ties to schools. These assets enable managers to both facilitate mentorship practices and knowledgeably connect mentors and mentees with traits in common. The organization encourages these mentor managers to view their role not as trying to change parents but as creating an authentic reciprocal relationship that leads to mutual understanding and growth. The idea is to break down self-confidence barriers by explicitly framing everyone involved as learners as well as teachers. Mentors are chosen from among the most engaged parents from disadvantaged backgrounds; they serve as living examples and trusted role models who demonstrate that school engagement is possible no matter one’s background. They help peers navigate often-bewildering school policies and structures, which they have successfully overcome. Mentors leverage their status as their mentees’ peers to create a unique bond and promote school engagement. Through the program and their training, mentors and mentees forge an even stronger relationship with their schools.
The program uses an assets-based, reflective approach to working with parents. Participants and volunteers regularly complete exercises to identify areas of strength and growth, opening the door to additional self-development opportunities. For example, mentor managers complete ongoing self-assessments focusing on core competencies such as communication, conflict management, and emotional intelligence. Based on their responses, staff members with a particular skill set facilitate continuous learning opportunities for those still growing in that area. As an overarching focus, Parent’R’Us works to foster parental self-confidence. Through mentorship and trainings, it reassures parents that they are doing a good job and are capable of making changes at their school. Additionally, the program encourages schools to eschew focusing on traditional measures of parent involvement like helping with homework or attending parent-teacher conferences. Instead, staff members embrace more expansive understandings of engagement. This ranges from encouraging parents to speak up at assemblies to requesting resource support from the school staff when they are in need.
A central objective of Parent’R’Us is to dispel beliefs about disadvantaged parents not having the capacity to contribute meaningfully to their child’s education. Mentors and managers work with staff to more deeply understand parents’ experience and unique assets—for instance, by sharing the results of self-assessments. Parent’R’Us focuses on ensuring heads of schools understand the need for change. Managers and mentors use empathy-building exercises to show how typical modes of interaction can close the school off from families who are not fluent in the language of instruction or are new to the school system in the given country. The program reports that once heads of school verbally value parents’ diverse skills and competencies, from language to art, it sets a tone for the larger school community.
What is the impact?
Parent’R’Us has measured impact through surveys, observations, and group discussions with mentees’ children. According to internal self-reports, the organization found an increase in active collaboration between parents and their schools (E. Salamon, personal communication, June 23, 2021). Managers noted that parents grew increasingly confident in school communication. Parent’R’Us also saw more enthusiastic engagement, higher levels of school-reported well-being, and higher grades among target students. Students also noted they felt more accepted in the school community as a result of the program. Finally, the project led to mindset shifts among the education staff toward low-income, minority, and immigrant families as greater understanding led to more productive interactions. During its first two years of operation, Parent’R’Us served families across 50 schools (E. Salamon, personal communication, June 23, 2021). Ultimately, the program seeks to build an equal partnership between parents and school staff—one that is both responsive and supportive.
Resources and testimonials
- Systemic evidence review on parent mentoring models
- Self-assessment tool for mentor managers
- Self-assessment tool for mentors
Roles
Staff:
- Parent’R’Us staff members identify and train mentor managers.
- Parent’R’Us staff members collect insights from participants and use it to create toolkits on parent mentorship best practices.
- Mentor managers match mentors with mentees and train mentors in engagement and mentorship best practices.
- Mentor managers work with mentors to shift mindsets among the school staff about disadvantaged parents.
Families:
- Parent mentors engage regularly with their assigned mentees.
- Parent mentees reach out to mentors for ongoing support.
Resources required
People:
- Staff members to provide trainings and ongoing support for mentor managers
- 12 mentor managers per locality
- 5-10 mentors per mentor manager
- 1-3 mentees per mentor
Place:
- School or community space for trainings and mentorship
Financial
- Managers, mentors, and mentees participate voluntarily
Technology:
- Optional smartphones and computers for virtual meetings
References
Green, C., Warren, F., & García-Millán, C. (2021, September). Spotlight: Parental Education. HundrEd.
Parent’R’Us. (n.d.). About the project. https://www.parentrus.eu/about-the-project.html