Updates
 PLAN receives Chinese for Affirmative Action’s Flame of Justice Award
Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN) wishes to extend its deepest gratitude for receiving the Flame of Justice Award at the CAA Celebration of Justice on June 4th, 2007. Working with the parents in Visitacion Valley Parents Association has been a tremendous inspiration and has helped build our capacity to serve a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual base of parents. PLAN’s Flame of Justice is truly a reflection to all VVPA parents have achieved with the support of our programs. CAA’s work inspires us to keep fighting for educational equity and economic and social justice for families.
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PLAN SURVEY: PLAN is creating
a social justice agenda for families for 2007!
You can be a part of
it! Please take a moment to tell us what’s important for you
and your family for the New Year by filling out our Parent
Platform SURVEY! Your feedback will help decide which issues
PLAN will focus on over the next year. Our goal is to survey
500 parents—you can help by passing the surveys out at your
next meeting or event and returning completed copies to PLAN
by fax or mail!
English • español •
Chinese
Parent leaders will present our 2007 Parent Platform to a
panel of Bay Area legislators at our Budget Action Forum,
Saturday, March 17, 2007, in Oakland—Save the Date!
Return all completed surveys by email, fax or mail to:
Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN)
405 14th Street, Suite 1400, Oakland, CA 94612
Fax: 510-444-7527
michelle AT parentactionnet DOT org
Questions? Call Michelle Matos at 510-444-7526 (444-PLAN)
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 2006 Accomplishments
download the flyer
Engaged more than 300 parents in building and advocating
for a multi-issue platform for educational equity, quality
child care, economic justice, and parent representation
Advocated
for and won key platform issues, together with PLAN member
organizations,
including:
- Return of $2 billion owed to K-12 schools
- Expanded child
care eligibility, including $67 million in the 2006-07 State
Budget
- No cuts to services for families on CalWORKs
- Strengthened
10 parent-based organizations in the premier
of PLAN to
LEAD Training of Trainers—an intensive, 6-month capacity-building
program—and enrolled 11
organizations in the Class of 2006-07
- Trained more than 50
Bay Area parents to be more effective leaders in their children’s
schools through PLAN’s Leadership in Education training
series
- Educated more than 5,000 potential voters on key issues
affecting children and families in
the November 2006 election through our Fall Parent Action
Forum
- Recruited more than 20 organizations and 50 individuals
to join the PLAN network!
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 Wendy Vielman, Parent Activist:
July 23, 1974–July 17, 2006
The PLAN Leadership Council mourns the loss of Wendy Vielman.
Wendy was a dynamic parent leader and activist. She was an
active member of the Leadership Council of the Bay Area Parent
Leadership Action Network from January 2005 until she passed
away in July 2006, right before her 32nd birthday.
She represented
the San Francisco chapter of Parent Voices, where she was
an active steering committee member, and also served on the
Members Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Health Plan,
Asthma Relief for Kids Campaign, the Save Bernal Preschool
Campaign, and the CEWR (Coalition for Ethical Welfare Reform)
Board, among others. She graduated from SFSU with a Masters
in Social Work and was a Case Manager for the Cal Learn program
at DHS in San Francisco.
Maria Luz Torre,
San Francisco Parent Voices organizer, recalls: “I cannot
forget a public hearing at the Bernal Heights Library where
Wendy said, ‘We cannot keep pushing our children to the back
of the bus. These are mostly Latino children and children
of color. All children deserve the best we can offer them.’”
Wendy leaves behind two beautiful boys, Lorenzo and Dysson
Vielman. Contributions can be sent to Wendy E. Vielman Trust
Fund, c/o Lorenzo and Dysson Vielman, account # 0175-921428,
Wells Fargo Bank, 2190 Willow Pass Rd., Concord, CA 94520.
Wendy, we will miss your gentle strength, confidence, and
determination, and above all, your constant determination
to fight for quality child care with justice for families. |
PLAN graduates 10 organizations from PLAN
to LEAD
Training of Trainers program!
(from left to right) Kneeling: Christina
Wong and Winnie Lau, Chinese for Affirmative Action/Center
for Asian American Advocacy; 1st row: Veronica
Neal, Trainer; Gloria Vargas and Amapola Obrera, Hawthorne
Family Resource Center; Jennifer Freitas, Parent Voices – Southern
Alameda County; Bobbi Lopez, Tenderloin Housing Clinic; Jamie
Lopez, Hawthorne Family Resource Center; Kido, Youth Together
at Skyline; 2nd row: Aimee Fisher, Our Family
Coalition (hidden); Marco Berger, Parent Services Project;
Siu Cheung, Coleman Advocates/Parent Advocates for Youth;
Gloria Ramos, Hawthorne Family Resource Center; Sandra Fewer,
Coleman Advocates/Parent Advocates for Youth; 3rd
row: Daniel Lamons, Fight Back Partnership of Vallejo;
Hugo Morel, Parent Services Project; Verlena Johnson, Our
Family Coalition; Alysabeth Alexander, Tenderloin Housing
Clinic; Rebecca Aced-Molina, Trainer; Not pictured: Henry
Hitz, Oakland Parents Together; Jidan Koon, Youth Together
at Skyline.
Bay Area Parent Agenda
Wins Commitments from Legislative Panel at March 18th PLAN
Action Forum
 More than 40 Bay Area parents gathered Saturday,
March 18th to speak out to legislators on top issues of concern
to children and families. The priorities were based on the
results of 175 parent surveys gathered by PLAN’s regional
Leadership Council between January and March of 2006, which
asked parents to rank top priorities for child care, economic
justice, education equity, and parent representation.
Parents spent the morning preparing testimony for a panel
representing four Bay Area legislators, including Senator
Migden (SF), Senator Perata (East Bay), Assemblywoman Chan
(Oakland), and Assemblywoman Hancock (East Bay). The panel
agreed to support the following:
- Providing greater access to quality, affordable child
care for low-income parents through an update to the income
eligibility level for child care to current levels (75%
of the State Median Income)
- Providing families on CalWORKs with the services they
need to become self-sufficient (such as transportation,
domestic violence, and child care assistance) by voting
against the $114 million cut to supportive services that
Governor Schwarzenegger proposed
- Exploring the creation of a housing subsidy loan fund
that encourages landlords to rent to low-income families
- Ensuring all California children have access to excellent
education by fighting for repayment of the $3.2 billion
the Governor owes California schools under Proposition 98
and, over the longer term, fighting for increased revenues
for education through higher taxes on the richest Californians
- Ensuring parent voices are included in budget priorities
through a series of Town Hall Forums on the State Budget
in various Bay Area districts
- Evaluating the implementation of Item #5 in State Board
of Education Policy 89-01 to ensure that school districts
receive the support they need to implement parent involvement
policies
- Setting up follow-up meetings between the elected officials
and parent delegation to discuss these concerns and proposed
solutions in greater detail.
PLAN’s Leadership Council will be planning follow-up
actions, including a call-in day on April 13th, in-district
legislative visits, letter-writing, and more to hold the legislators
accountable to their commitments. If you’d like to get
involved, please contact Melia at 510-531-7526, michelle AT parentactionnet DOT org.
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 Parent Priorities: PLAN
Survey Results
PLAN surveyed 125 parents from throughout the Bay Area between
January and March of 2006. Parents ranked their top priorities
for child care, education, economic justice, and parent representation.
The results of the survey were used to build the parent agenda
for PLAN’s March 18 Parent Action Forum.
Download the survey results
English — español — Chinese
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 Honoring Robin Ortiz-Young, 1959–2006
Robin Ortiz-Young, an extraordinary parent advocate
and trainer, passed away March 11, 2006, in her Berkeley home
after a long illness. Robin was one of the original trainers
for PLAN to LEAD, the parent advocacy curriculum now housed
within the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network (PLAN).
She was a trainer with PLAN from 2004–2005.
Robin’s compassion, generosity, and commitment
to empowerment and leadership development touched literally
hundreds of lives. She was a champion not only for her own
children, who attended Berkeley public schools, but for all
children, youth, and parents struggling to achieve education
equity. Her gifts as a counselor, mentor, and trainer are
unparalleled. Parent leadership training and practice has
been forever enriched by her contributions.
We will miss Robin dearly.
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