Our Work
South LA parents and families are at the center of everything CADRE does.
Rooted in South LA. Led by Parents. Building Systems That Heal.
Every day, CADRE supports Black and Brown parents in South Los Angeles to transform the systems that shape their children’s lives. Our work strengthens the leadership of parents — especially those most impacted by inequitable school practices — and builds collective power to achieve racial and educational justice. For more than 25 years, South LA parents have been the driving force behind every campaign, every policy win, and every school that has had to reckon with its treatment of children.
We believe that lasting change begins with the people closest to the problem. By investing in South LA parents, CADRE helps families reclaim their voices, challenge systemic racism, and create schools and communities that nurture every child’s humanity. When parents are organized, informed, and supported, they become the most effective advocates their children will ever have.
Above all, South LA parents dealing with unfair school discipline, hostile school environments, or schools that are simply not listening deserve more than sympathy. They deserve power. They deserve a community standing with them. That is what CADRE has built, and that is what keeps growing.
Parent Leadership Development
Coalition & Movement Building
Policy Change & Accountability
Healing & Collective Care
Self-Determination
Parents Leading the Change
Our work is guided by South LA’s most powerful experts — parents themselves. Through our organizing model, CADRE strengthens advocacy skills, deepens racial solidarity, and cultivates leadership rooted in justice and healing.
Building Capacity for Change
Parent training, advocacy, and organizing strategies that help South LA parents understand their rights at school, challenge unfair school discipline, and shift systems and culture in LAUSD schools.
Changing the Story
Storytelling and narrative campaigns that humanize South LA parents, challenge stereotypes, and counter school retaliation against parents who speak up.
Promoting Healing & Unity
Programs that center emotional restoration, community care, and Black–Brown solidarity.
Resident Power & Youth Leadership
Supporting the next generation to lead with compassion, accountability, and collective purpose.
Learn More About Our Beginnings
Our Strategies
Base Building
Recruiting and engaging South LA parents to share experiences, build trust, and organize around shared human rights goals.
Coalition Building
Partnering with allies locally and nationally to strengthen collective impact and elevate parent voices in the movement for justice.
Leadership Development
Parents as organizers. Parents as advocates. Challenging inequitable systems and leading their communities with compassion and courage.
Policy Change
Designing and advancing parent-led policy solutions that shift power and hold schools accountable for racial justice.
Campaigns & Movement Building
Driving long-term campaigns to end pushout and create healing-centered schools, while joining allied movements for broader systemic change.
Community Resilience & Healing
Prioritizing wellness and collective care so that parents and families can sustain long-term leadership and transformation.
Why CADRE’s Approach Works
When South LA parents organize together, systems that once ignored them start to change. South LA parents come to CADRE carrying real experiences. Children suspended without explanation. Schools not listening to parents who show up and speak up. IEPs being ignored. Unfair school discipline that follows kids from classroom to classroom. CADRE exists because these experiences are not isolated incidents. They require organized, sustained parent power to change. South LA parents deserve to be heard.
2 Decades of Impact
Building sustainable parent power since 2001.
90% Reduction in Suspensions
Achieved through parent-led advocacy in LAUSD.
Hundreds of Trained Leaders
Developing lifelong advocates and organizers.
Coalition Power
Founding partner of the Dignity in Schools Campaign and state-wide movements for educational justice.