CADRE

Organizing Activities

Community organizing activities:

  • Community-based engagement and recruitment – door-to-door and community (churches, shopping centers) canvassing in targeted neighborhoods to engage and recruit parents in independent setting and manner that reaches parents who do not frequent school campuses
  • Community-based human rights documentation – organizers and trained parents going door-to-door to survey and conduct surveys and in-depth interviews regarding experiences with parent participation and school discipline
  • House meetings – targeted meetings after relationships are built with parents who live near each other and share CADRE’s vision for more in-depth discussion and sharing of stories
  • Action committees – convening parent committees on an ad hoc basis related to specific actions to engage parents in planning and decision-making
  • Membership meetings and building – holding Parent Action Meetings every 4-6 weeks to provide information, generate parent feedback, activate parents in events, and build relationships with one another; providing members with critical services as needed
  • Core leadership groups – implementing parents as organizational and campaign-specific decision-makers through regular meetings that entail political education, strategic planning, and consensus-building
  • Developing policy solutions – drawing analysis of problem and ideal solutions from parents, engaging feedback on solutions, and identifying policies versus practices, identifying responsible parties, and developing demands (action committees, leadership groups)
  • Engagement of public officials – engaging school, District, or State-level officials as needed in order to share community-based research, policy solutions, and demands
  • Monitoring policies and practices – training core leaders and new members to monitor, share results, and assess accountability gaps
  • Building alliances – core leaders and staff entering into appropriate and strategic coalitions
  • Developing new knowledge – transcribing community-based documentation into call to action reports/policy demands with parent voices
  • Building organization – engaging members and core leaders in the development of organizational values and principles in order to build a parent-led, union-like entity that can alter the balance of power between South LA schools and parents long-term

 

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