For Parents, a Can-Do Spirit That's Catching

"The group that walked in in September was very different from the one that left in May," said institute coordinator Fay D. Slotnick. "They really had found their voices. They had a sense that they had rights, and they knew how to solve problems and how to do it in a noncombative way.

"One of the exercises we do is to have everyone give a speech at Week 10 and again at Week 20. The difference in the speeches was remarkable. You could see the growth and self-assurance."

But it took a lot of work for all of them to get there. Every Friday night for 20 weeks, participants attended classes led by trained facilitators at the Minnie Howard School, with such titles as "How to Define a Problem and Work Toward a Solution," "Learning How a Community Works," "Language: Packaging and Moving Agendas" and "Budgets -- From Wallets to State -- It's All Money and Priorities." The institute provided free meals before class and child care, if needed.

Participants learned about networking, whom to call to get answers and how to work with the opposition. They each took on a civic project and met with mentors. They read thick briefing books and policy papers and listened to speakers such as state Del. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) talk about how government works.

Santiago realized that she was most concerned about her son Raymond Collazo, 15, then an eighth-grader at Hammond Middle School. He was reading below grade level. Although he qualified for special services from a reading specialist, she worried that it wasn't enough. He tried an after-school reading program for boys, but it didn't work.

So for her project, she came up with the idea of reading tutors for small, intimate groups of children. She called it LIPS -- Learning Is Personal Success -- and developed an Andy Warhol-esque logo of brightly colored lips. "I wanted something catchy for the kids," she said.

The hardest part of the project was picking up the phone to get started. "It was crazy," she said. "I had no idea what I was getting into." But with the help of a mentor, she began dialing the city's volunteer coordinator, the school's reading specialist and the principal. She put up notices at churches to solicit tutors. Slowly but surely, the program began to take shape.

She found four tutors who were available after school -- two of them fellow students at the institute, one a college student and one a PTA parent. The school provided her with a list of eight students who needed extra help, snacks, a room and a promise that the late-activity bus would wait to take the students home. The reading specialist put on a workshop to train the tutors, and the 10-week program took off.

"It was real fun," said Santiago's son. "I learned a lot. Now I feel ready for ninth grade."

The students met in small groups with tutors. They read aloud, something Raymond Collazo had always hated but found he liked in such an intimate setting. They played reading and vocabulary games. They brought in mystery and action books that captured Collazo's attention. They talked about the stories.

Now, with Raymond at Minnie Howard this fall, Santiago is looking for ways to move the LIPS program there or become involved in expanding existing tutoring programs. And she is determined to reach out to more Hispanic parents. "We need to be part of the bigger group of involved parents," she said. "We need to learn that giving our input is important . . . that telling about our experience is what policymakers need to hear."

A Need for New Perspectives

Bringing the Parent Leadership Training Institute to Alexandria was one of the last things that former City Council member Joyce Woodson did before her term ended. And she is convinced it was exactly what the city needed.