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WHITTIER PARENT LEADERSHIP
& ADVOCACY PROJECT
Combining leadership development, community education and school-based community organizing Pilsen Alliance’s Education Staff facilitate the multiple components of the Whittier Parent Leadership & Advocacy Project (WPLAP) and its newest Community School partnership at Whittier. The Whittier Parent Committee, Lideres Buscando Respuestas y No Evasivas (Parent Leaders Seeking Answers not Evasiveness) is made up of 30+ Whittier mothers. This woman-centered organizing initiative helps members empower themselves and lead school-based organizing efforts to improve their children’s education. In doing so, Lideres addresses the root causes of the pervasive disenfranchisement that often plagues low-income immigrant mothers and the communities in which they live.
While Lideres has focused their attention on the Whittier School Expansion Campaign, they have expanded their activism into the realm of public school and Local School Council preservation. The Pilsen Alliance is creating valid participatory alternatives in the decisions that are affecting the public schools and our communities.
Victories
- Winning state expedited lead and asbestos abatement at Whittier Elementary School. After several public actions, Lideres pressured the Chicago Public School and Alderman Solis to remove contaminants and related health risks from Whittier school.
- Designating Whittier Elementary School as a Community School. Citing the significant parent involvement created through Whittier Parent Committee, the Campaign to Expand Community Schools and the 21st Century Learning Centers invited the Pilsen Alliance and Whittier School to join its 2004 Community Schools cohort and receive a 3-year and 5-year grant to expand after-school and community programming at the school.
- Pilsen Alliance members defend Whittier’s Middle School against CPS Plans to Close. In response to CPS’ 2008 School Closing Plan, Lideres members, parents, teachers and P.A. members defend CPS’ plans to close down De La Cruz School, which serves as Whittier’s middle school. After multiple rallies and strong testimony by Whittier stakeholders, CPS keeps De La Cruz open one more year to allow 7th graders to graduate as well expanding Whittier to include 7th & 8th grade.
- Whittier Leadership Development. Specifically designed for women, these workshops enhance self-esteem, build leadership skills, and help build a sense of community among participants. Pilsen Alliance has graduated 75 women/mothers since 2005.