Camden’s Parents Invincible Launches United Parents Council
Shirley Irizarry. Photo courtesy of Shirley Irizarry.
AC JosepH Media
CAMDEN — In 2021, Parents Invincible launched the “United Parents Council” a cohort of parents representing a cross-section of schools in the city.
Community Outreach Organizers helped train parents on how to be effective advocates and informed them about key developments in Camden’s public education system.
Parents Invincible is a parent-led organization aimed at helping families access resources and services as well as navigate the city’s educational system. Their mission is to ensure parents have a seat at the table and ensure their voices are represented in key decisions.
The United Parents Council represents parents from schools across the city and from different school types. As PI’s team learned more about their new council members, they heard about the unique challenges facing parents homeschooling their children.
Parents Invincible saw an opportunity to expand its community outreach efforts to assist other homeschooling families in the community. This year PI received a grant from Vela Education Fund to assist their efforts in serving the needs of families in Camden.
PI is sponsoring a cohort of homeschooling families from Camden to learn more about how they can best serve the needs of the families. Parents Invincible will continue to work closely with them to provide assistance and resources.
The intent is to dedicate a portion of the grant to purchase resources such as curriculum, text books, school supplies and equipment. They will also finance field trips and provide a meeting space for families to connect and students to socialize.
Shirley Irizarry, Executive Director of Parents Invincible states: “In all the years I’ve worked with families, I have met many who opted to homeschool for various reasons. Once the decision is made and they withdraw their students from the school district, families are often left with little to no resources to purchase curriculum, supplies and other materials toward their children’s education.
“The per-pupil allotment simply does not follow the students once they are homeschooled. We’ve done our research and discovered homeschooling cohorts exist to provide space for families to share ideas, assist each other with instruction, or to just provide extra-curricular activities for students. I feel Parents Invincible is uniquely positioned to provide this space and opportunity, the first ever in the City of Camden and hope upon completion of this initial cohort, more funding and resources will become available to continue to enhance homeschooled students’ education”
About Parents Invincible: Parents Invincible seeks to be viewed as representing parents across the entire city, regardless of school type. We support all high-quality schools: District, Renaissance, Charter, Vocational, and Parochial. Above all, we believe in school choice and respect parents’ decisions. Our job is to make sure they have access and information to make the best-informed choice in a high-quality school.
The registration form can be found at: https://forms.gle/EZDGbFshbvGxQWtA7.
Follow Us Today On:
Note from AC JosepH Media: If you like this story and others posted on Front Runner New Jersey.com, lend us a hand so we can keep producing articles like these for New Jersey and the world to see. Click on SUPPORT FRNJ and make a contribution that will do directly in making more stories like this available. Thank you for reading.
About Author
