The Hartford Parent Network is a diverse coalition of parent groups and organizations that serves as a forum for citywide dialogue and action in areas related to positive growth and development of Hartford's children. The HPN supports parents and parent groups in gaining information and training to be informed and equal partners in the governance of Hartford schools and in other areas addressing the education, health and well-being of Hartford's children.

The Hartford Parent Network utilized three basic strategies:

	Engage Board of Education policy-makers (school governance team policy and parent liaisons).
	Organize parent leaders from across the city around common issues (education summit).
	Create opportunities for direct communications between the Superintendent and parents (community forums).

HPN leaders were committed to ensuring that opportunities existed at all levels of the education system for parents to be involved in decision-making, from the classroom, school building, central administration, and Board of Education.

Engaging Policy-Makers:
The Hartford Parent Network began its work by focusing on parent involvement and leadership on school governance teams (now called school improvement teams). Parent leaders of HPN immediately began by collecting information from other parents on school governance teams about how many parents were participating and whether or not parent concerns were being addressed in the work of the teams. Due to these efforts, in the spring of 1996 the Board of Education adopted a policy stating that at least 51% of teams must be parents and community members, not employees of the school system. While this policy has not led to a change in the composition of school governance teams, the HPN has published every year how many parents are members of each school's governance team in HPN's the Voice of Hartford Parents to bring this to the attention of the community.

In the fall of 1996, HPN began working on a proposal for each school to have a parent liaison, a staff person who would work with parents to help them become involved in their schools. HPN brought together all the parent groups, asked for representatives from each PTA/PTO and asked community leaders to develop the job description and hiring process in collaboration with school system officials. Board of Education members and the Superintendent supported the proposal, which was funded to allow each school to have a part-time parent liaison. HPN brought together training resources for the liaisons through organizations that were part of the network, Together We Can, Padres Abriendo Padres and Title 1 Parents. This start-up exhibited collaboration among parent groups and between parents and the Hartford Public Schools.

HPN leaders understood there was tremendous resistance at some schools toward increased parent involvement and leadership. During the 1997-98 school year, in collaboration with the newly appointed Board of Trustees and the Superintendent's office, HPN began to develop a Parent and Community Involvement Policy for Hartford Public Schools, as well as Standards for Parent/Family Involvement, for measuring progress toward implementation. The Parent and Community Involvement Policy was developed quickly and adopted by the State-appointed Board of Trustees in January 1998.

Organizing Parent Leaders:
In the spring of 1997, HPN held its first annual Education Summit. This activity was designed to accomplish the goal of creating a citywide parent agenda. Working in collaboration with parent and community groups, HPN asked each group to submit a list of the top three education priorities that they wanted HPN to consider and then to send two or three parent representatives to the summit. Over 40 parent leaders from all over the city attended. New parent leaders were recruited to be HPN Board members. These advocacy efforts led to full-time parent liaisons and an HPS-sponsored Task Force on the authority of school governance teams.

Family Centers:
Over time, additional organizations have joined the Hartford Parent Network coalition. As long as an organization has a majority of Hartford parents on its board or provides a direct process for parents to have input on decisions, it is eligible to join. The four Brighter Futures Initiative neighborhood-based family centers joined the HPN board in 1999. The centers provide an open and family-friendly environment. Parent leaders emerge naturally from these groups and often have very good connections throughout the community.

Community Forums with Superintendent:
In the fall of 1997, HPN decided to sponsor a series of public forums with the Superintendent. These public forums were organized at different schools in collaboration with their PTO/PTAs. The forums were used to address issues identified at the Education Summit and provided an opportunity for parents to ask the Superintendent questions. During the December 1997 forum, the Superintendent committed to allocating resources in the budget for the next school year to make the Parent Liaison position full-time, with comprehensive training and skill development.

The annual Hartford CFI budget for the Hartford Parent Network was $85,000. It covers a full-time coordinator and part-time administrative assistant and provides an operating budget of $25,000.

System change has always been a feature of HPN. The HPN idea can be duplicated elsewhere and every city needs an organization that can work throughout the city to unite parents on a common agenda. Building consensus, especially in education, can be very difficult. An important program guideline is to ensure that the agendas put forward and actions taken truly come from the parent leaders.

As with any community-based organization, funding is a constant concern. HPN is receiving less funding through the Legacy grant of the Graustein Memorial Fund. The funding supports core staff functions while additional funding is sought. A scheduled reduction in funding is appropriate to increase the probability of sustaining the organization long-term.

There are three major challenges: lack of consistent leadership from the school system; lack of experience in organizing parents on educational issues; and lack of skills of HPN Board members on how to manage a nonprofit corporation. Although most of the leaders of HPN are graduates of the Parent Leadership Training Institute, additional skills are needed for this project. The last two challenges need constant attention with the appropriate staff development and volunteer training. HPN encourages new leadership and has learned that building leadership capacity is a never-ending task of the organization. These processes have been incorporated into the organization's work plans.

Many system and policy changes have occurred as a result of the Hartford Parent Network. The most significant result, however, is that there is a recognized, citywide, parent-led, "umbrella" group for all parent organizations in Hartford. HPN is a force for unifying parents throughout the city.



Hartford Parent Network, (860) 560-5320

Sam Saylor, who owns a business in downtown Hartford, got involved in organizing parents because of concern about his own children's education. After trying to organize an African American parents' group, he came across the Children First Initiative. "I realized that the concerns we had as African Americans were the same concerns non-African Americans had for their children."

Mr. Saylor helped organize the Hartford Parents Network and worked with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to develop overall goals for the Children First Initiative. As a former nonprofit administrator, he brought essential skills to the fledgling organization. He has served as HPN's treasurer and continues to serve on the board.

Over the last few years, Hartford CFI has been moving toward becoming a facility that can assist all the different people and cultures in the city. Says Mr. Saylor, "We have shifted from being a full-service organization, where committees worked on projects and presented them, to being a network type of organization where we work with organizations in our network to help facilitate what they are doing. When people who want to participate in certain efforts of parenting call our office, we need to have the ability to facilitate them to the appropriate groups. We are serving their needs by sending them to the appropriate people." By doing this, CFI is hoping that parents will become involved in the entire network and all children advocacy issues.