Grants

Innovate Public Schools

Project Title

As a final general support grant

Date

Mar. 07, 2024

Duration

15 months

Description

Parents have a unique and critical role in improving our public schools. In communities where parents are connected and deeply engaged, public schools tend to be more effective. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit whose mission is to build the power of parents and communities to demand and support the creation of world-class public schools, helps parents organize and advocate successfully for better schools in their communities and hold the system accountable to the needs of their children. Continued support from the Corporation will enable Innovate Public School to continue building their National Organizing program, through which they train and support other education organizations to build their capacity to organize parents. This includes a six-month Community Organizer Training Program (COTP) and three-day National Parent Leader Institutes (PLI). Through this renewal, Innovate will 1) continue the work of building the capacity of parents and families to organize, advocate, and demand high-quality schools for their children and 2) refine and launch their new strategy for national parent power-building.

Project Title

For general support

Date

Mar. 09, 2023

Duration

12 months

Description

Parents have a unique and critical role in improving our public schools. In communities where parents are connected to each other and deeply engaged, public schools tend to be more effective. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit whose mission is to build the power of parents and communities to demand and support the creation of world-class public schools, helps parents organize and advocate to successfully push for better schools in their communities and hold the system accountable to the needs of their children. This renewal grant will support Innovate Public School to continue building their National Organizing program, through which they train and support other education organizations to build their capacity to organize parents. This includes a seven-month Community Organizer Training Program (COTP) and three-day National Parent Leader Institutes (PLI). Through this renewal, Innovate will also supplement with customized consulting and coaching, as they support partner organizations to put these learnings and practices to work in their unique local contexts.

Project Title

For general support and project support of the Online Learning Literacy Initiative to help close the digital divide

Date

Mar. 10, 2022

Duration

12 months

Description

Parents have a unique and critical role in improving our public schools. In communities where parents are connected to each other and deeply engaged, public schools tend to be more effective. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit whose mission is to build the power of parents and communities to demand and support the creation of world-class public schools, helps parents organize and advocate to successfully push for better schools in their communities and hold the system accountable to the needs of their children. This renewal grant will support Innovate Public School to continue building their National Organizing program, through which they train and support other education organizations to build their capacity to organize parents. This includes a seven-month Community Organizer Training Program (COTP) and three-day National Parent Leader Institutes (PLI). Through this renewal, Innovate also plans to continue developing and evolving the Online Learning Literacy Initiative (OLLI) pilot program, which allowed them to train hundreds of parents during the pandemic on digital literacy and how to access online resources to support their children’s learning at home.

Project Title

For project support of programs that train and develop effective community organizers and parent leaders

Date

Mar. 04, 2021

Duration

12 months

Description

Parents have a unique and critical role in improving our public schools. In communities where parents are connected to each other and deeply engaged, public schools tend to be more effective. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit whose mission is to build the power of parents and communities to demandand support the creation of world-class publicschools, supports parents to build organizations in their communities that can successfully push for better schools and hold the system accountable to the needs of their children.Organizing work is driven by the people closest to the problem. This renewal grant will support Innovate Public School’s work to continue building their National Organizing program, through which they train and support other education organizations to build their capacity to organize parents. This includes a10-month Community Organizer Training Programand three-day National Parent Leader Institutes. These programs work in tandem to develop effective community organizers, as well as to develop their parent leaders, building sustainable school reform efforts in communities across the country.

Project Title

As an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic for general support

Date

Sep. 10, 2020

Duration

7 months

Description

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, overnight, millions of parents became their child’s primary teacher. Most families across the nation, especially in under-resourced communities, were facing a new challenge, unprepared and with little guidance. During this time many have also learned that their children are far behind grade-level and struggling in different subject areas. Innovate Public Schools, a Corporation grantee whose mission is to build the parent and community demand for world-class public schools, and to accelerate the growth of these schools, particularly for low-income students and students of color, seeks support to advance their mission during this important time in education. With support from the Corporation Innovate will continue their parent organizing, research and policy, schools and national training work. In response to the global pandemic, this will also include developing a new program that adapts the “promotores” model, people who are well-connected in their local communities, a go-to tech-savvy resource to support parents navigating remote learning.

Project Title

For support of programs that train and develop effective community organizers and parent leaders

Date

Mar. 05, 2020

Duration

12 months

Description

There is a growing momentum in the field that community organizing, and parent advocacy are critical to achieving significant change in our education system. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit organization founded in 2015, is working towards filling this particular demand by developing the leadership skills, communication abilities, and organizing capacities of parent leaders from local organizations so that families themselves drive the movement toward school improvement. Innovate’s flagship programs, the Community Organizing Training Program and Parent Leadership Institute have trained over 650 parents, providing them with the professional training needed to lead reform efforts and advocate for equitable policies and practices in their communities. With renewed support from the Corporation, Innovate will continue building their National Organizing program in 2020, focused on training education organizations to build their capacity to organize parents with the goal to develop effective parent leaders and advance grassroot strategies and sustainable school reform efforts in communities across the country.

Project Title

For project support of the Online Learning Literacy Initiative: 'Promotores' program to help close the digital divide

Date

Dec. 10, 2020

Duration

12 months

Description

Due to the pandemic, overnight, millions of parents became their child’s primary teacher. Most of them, especially in under-resourced communities with struggling schools, had very little support in doing that. Many whose children had been behind grade-level or otherwise academically struggling pre-pandemic found themselves needing even more support with the introduction of remote learning. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit whose mission is to build the power of parents and communities to demandand support the creation of world-class publicschools, stepped up tohelp hundreds of families continue their children’s education and access onlinelearning opportunities. With support from the Corporation, Innovate Public Schools will launch an Online Learning Literacy Initiative to support distance learning and develop a model that could be implemented by partners nationwide. Specifically, they will design and pilot the “promotores” (supporters) initiative. “Promotores” are tech-savvy people who are well-connected in their local communities, and who will support low-income parents and parents of color as they access and select appropriate online learning for their children.

Project Title

For support of programs that train and develop effective community organizers and parent leaders

Date

Dec. 06, 2018

Duration

12 months

Description

There is a growing understanding in the field that community organizing and parent advocacy are critical to achieving significant change in our education system. Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit organization founded in 2015, fills this particular demand by developing the leadership skills, communication abilities, and organizing capacities of parent leaders from local organizations so that families themselves drive the movement toward school improvement. Innovate’s flagship programs, the Community Organizing Training Program and Parent Leadership Institute have trained over 440 parents, providing them with the professional training needed to lead reform efforts and advocate for equitable policies and practices in their communities. Through continued support from the Corporation, Innovate will deliver its flagship programs, expand coaching to new focus cities, and offer deeper support across all partner organizations, including workshops for parents and assistance in advancing coordinated grassroots strategies.

Project Title

For national organizing work, including the Community Organizer Training Program and the Parent Leader Institute

Date

Dec. 07, 2017

Duration

12 months

Description

The education reform movement has created new opportunities for many children and high-quality schools, but for low-income families in underserved communities, the pace of transformation has been slow. There is a growing recognition that community organizing and parent leadership are essential to achieving significant change, including opening and sustaining high-quality schools and systemic changes within districts and states. Innovate Public Schools (Innovate) fills this particular demand by developing the technical abilities, public speaking skills, and community organizing capacities of parent leaders so that the families themselves collectively advocate for better schools. Professional training has been critical to Innovate’s mission. Its flagship Community Organizing Training Program (COTP) and Parent Leadership Institutes (PLIs) develop the leadership of parents in the Bay Area since 2015. The Corporation’s grant will enable Innovate to scale its programs nationally, train 150 parent leaders, and support leading organizations including KIPP and Navigator Schools on effective community organizing for school reform.

Project Title

For national organizing work, including the Community Organizer Training Program and the Parent Leader Institute.

Date

Dec. 08, 2016

Duration

12 months

Description

The national education reform movement has begun to see the power of engaging the people closest to the issues – in particular, low-income families in failing schools – but organizations often lack the expertise and capacity to effectively engage and organize the parents of these families. Over the past several years, Innovate Public Schools (Innovate) has emerged as a national leader in community organizing for education reform. This grant supports Innovate’s national organizing work, including their Community Organizer Training Program and National Parent Leader Institute, which work in tandem to train and develop effective community organizers and parent leaders in order to build effective and sustainable school reform efforts in communities across the country.