Every month SWOPs Parent Mentors hold a Parent Mentor Coordinator meeting to brief their coordinators about changes, upcoming initiatives, get feedback, and talk about plans moving forward. They also use this platform as a time to reaffirm bonds and answer any lingering questions that the Parent Mentors in their schools might have. Having just started the new year, this meeting set the tone for the start of the Parent Mentors’ work and even gave one of the Parent Mentors, Theo Montgomery, a chance to highlight the leadership development they have undergone by volunteering to become the Chair of the meeting.

At this meeting, the Parent Mentor Coordinators went over their personal goals for the year, talked a bit about their “Beyond the Classroom” campaign, discussed the flow of weekly trainings that they have coming up, and tackled the importance of relationship building via one-to-one relational meetings. SWOPs Parent Mentor Organizers also spread word of the upcoming opportunities going on at SWOP such as the Health Equity Workshops, WorkKeys Classes with City Colleges of Chicago and volunteer opportunities for the New Americans Initiative.

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