Children's Bureau Express

National Parent Leadership Month Toolkit

Parents Anonymous® Inc. will launch the first ever National Parent Leadership Month in February 2004. This initiative will include a series of National, State, and local activities to recognize, honor, and celebrate parents for their leadership roles in their homes and communities. To help partners organize activities and outreach opportunities, Parents Anonymous® Inc. has developed an extensive online toolkit.

The toolkit, designed for use by both staff and parent leaders, contains resources to assist organizations in educating neighbors, colleagues, the media, and public officials about National Parent Leadership Month. Contents include:

An overview of parent leadership
Key campaign messages for National Parent Leadership Month
Tips for identifying potential partners
Suggestions for community activities
Guidelines for selecting and preparing parent leaders to be spokespersons
Tips and tools for requesting proclamations
Tips and tools for working with the media
Sample newsletter articles and Web copy

The purpose of National Parent Leadership Month is to raise public awareness about the important roles parents play in shaping the lives of children and families; expand opportunities for parent leaders to participate in meaningful parent leadership activities; recognize individual parent leaders whose contributions make a positive difference to their families and communities; build successful partnerships between parent leaders and professionals to strengthen and support families and communities; and highlight how parent leadership is a vital child abuse prevention strategy.

Copies of the toolkit can be accessed on the Parents Anonymous® Inc. website at www.parentsanonymous.org/pahtml/NPLMonth_tk1.html. If you are planning to celebrate National Parent Leadership Month or if you have any questions, please contact Meryl Levine, M.S.S.A., at (909) 621-6184, Ext. 220, or by email at mlevine@parentsanonymous.org.

Related Item

For more about parent leadership, see "Developing a Parent Leadership Team as an Innovative Parent Leadership Strategy" in the August/September 2002 issue of Children's Bureau Express.

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