Innovate’s Impact Over the Years
Innovate Public Schools is building the power and capacity of Black & Brown parents to demand high-quality education for their children.
Learn about Innovate’s efforts toward realizing our collective vision for a high-quality school experience that cherishes and affirms every student, and prepares them for a lifetime of opportunity and choice.
It’s estimated that Black & Latino students faced up to 16 months of learning loss due to pandemic school closures, a gap that was exacerbated for our communities due to largely inaccessible remote learning options and limited access to education recovery programming. At the same time, Black and Latino communities faced a power imbalance that’s existed in this country for centuries, further hindering their ability to make long-lasting change in the education system. To remain responsive to community needs, we’ve spent the past three years deeply investing in several high-level organizational shifts:
- As part of an extensive Theory of Change process, we redesigned our program model to funnel even more organizational resources to long-term power-building through community organizing for parents and education stakeholders.
- We strengthened relationships with local partners across Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Los Angeles Counties.
- We made moves at the state level through stewardship of Innovate’s Statewide Parent Leader Board, a dedicated group of parent-organizers who represent interests from geographies across California.
- We cemented structures and practices that support our internal commitment to equity, including introducing a new permanent role for Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.
- We welcomed a swath of new board members, each strategically invited in order to represent the diversity of Innovate’s network of education stakeholders across variables of race, gender, professional experience, age and geographic location.
It is good practice for an organization that has been around for over a decade to take a current temperature check – to reflect, celebrate wins, talk about challenges, and underscore the who, the why, and the what that is at the center of the work. The COVID-19 pandemic, and all that it unearthed about the magnitude of educational inequity in this country, was that temperature check for Innovate.
INNOVATE’S IMPACT
400
400 research meetings with decision-makers and elected officials have been organized and led by Innovate Parent Leaders.
95%
95% of parents surveyed feel like their voice truly matters at Innovate.
1,156
1,156 Parent Leaders and Community Advocates from 22 states across the country have been trained through COTP, The Jose Arenas Parent Leadership Institute, and SLP.
We’ve been organizing alongside parents since 2012. When parents lead, results follow.
Bridging the Gaps in Education
When families and communities stand as steadfast allies in a child’s educational journey, schools transform. Our amazing network of parent leaders has helped schools become more inclusive, supportive, and capable of meeting the diverse needs of every student.
Unleashing Parent Power for Education Justice
Parents Organizing for High-Impact Tutoring
Parents Organizing for Language Access in Special Education
Building Power Across the Country:
Raise Up Utah
Innovate’s Partnership and Training team partnered with Raise Up Utah and the Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging to provide community organizing training programming for leaders across 13 cities in Utah.
The power building sessions brought together 132 leaders to be trained on Innovate’s proven organizing model and engaged leaders in an Issues Assembly to help refine their collective strategy for advocating for a strong pipeline of BIPOC teachers and accessible mental health care for Utah students.
A Pathway to Black Student Excellence: Akela’s Story
Akela Wroten Jr. became an Innovate Parent Leader in 2018, fueled by a deep commitment to championing the success of his five children and all Black students within LAUSD.
Akela organized with the Black Student Achievement (BSA) parent leadership team, spearheading a community action that resulted in the creation of the Validated Plan: Promoting and Access for Black Students, a commitment from the district to invest funding and resources toward closing the achievement gap for Black students in Local District South.
Nationally Recognized for Building Parent Power: Bellwether Report
In August, Innovate Public Schools was featured in an essay collection by Bellwether, a national nonprofit that exists to transform education, alongside other exceptional organizations being recognized for their commitment to building authentic parent power.
“The idea of building more organizers across the United States, expanding the opportunity for multi-ethnic democracy and leaders who can really lead efforts in their local communities and schools, is really something that we want to be a part of and continue to to strive for,” said Innovate CEO, Michelle Vilchez
Innovate Public Schools fights hard to keep a seat at the table for low-income Black & Brown parents and the needs of their children.
Every dollar donated to Innovate funds not only the community organizing training programs that inspire parents to take action, but also the critical supports that make it possible for them to engage – things like childcare which give parents the availability to lead meetings with elected officials or translation and interpretation services that make official documents and research meetings accessible for parents who primarily speak languages other than English.
If you have questions, or would like to donate through some other means (e.g., stock donation, donor-advised fund, or ACH), please reach out to us at [email protected].