What We Do
The Problem and the Promise
“I feel very powerful to engage
and encourage my parents.”
Teacher, Detroit
ParentCorps partners with school districts and Head Starts to build a more impactful early education experience – one that centers race and culture, engages parents as partners, and supports children's social-emotional well being – to unlock the full promise of early childhood education.
Our evidence-based program supports educators to reimagine family engagement and social-emotional learning. These are the two ingredients key to high-quality early education, and two areas where educators most struggle and need support.
Our results show powerful improvements on children's reading achievement, mental health and school attendance. Together, we can reduce inequities rooted in poverty and structural racism, and build a future where all children thrive.
Get in touch to find out how ParentCorps can benefit your students.
What We Offer
> ParentCorps is available in English
> ParentCorps disponible en Español
> ParentCorps 提供中文服务
“The first day I observed ParentCorps Fundamentals training, I thought, ‘I have to take this home with me.’ It forces you to look internally and recognize how your own personal experiences impact your interactions with other people. It was exactly what we needed. There has been a fundamental shift in how our staff engages parents.”
Kecia Rorie, Operations Director, Starfish Family Services
Professional Development
for early childhood educators and school staff
Two or four day group-based
experiential training
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Supports school staff to form strong, culturally responsive relationships with families and promote children’s social-emotional well-being – school staff engage in candid dialogue to examine their beliefs, reflect on the challenges families face, and learn the science of early childhood development in order to engage with children and families in new ways.
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Grounded in respect for teachers’ expertise
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Dedicated implementation support to fit into a system’s existing professional development framework
“I found it refreshing that we would actually talk about the role that culture plays in how we raise our children. At our school, we had West Indian families, we had Black American families, we had Latino and Puerto Rican families, we had Muslim families... and you really learned what these interactions between adults and kids looked like through the lens of different cultures. And then you found that the tools you were given on some level transcended that.”
Tom Sheppard, Parent
Parenting Program
for pre-K families
12-session group-based program
for all families as part of the
pre-K experience
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Supports families to promote children’s early learning and development – in warm, predictable space, parents build community and explore evidence-based ways to support children's development.
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Aims to correct the harmful patterns of telling families of color how to parent, and honor families' culture and expertise
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Dedicated implementation support, including high-quality training and coaching for facilitators, materials, and guided approach to family outreach
“As a former teacher, I know what professional development and coaching is “supposed” to be like. When I came here, I was truly confused. I had no idea why we trained the way we did and coached the way we did. We lean into autonomy to support the goals that teachers have themselves rather than coming in and working on a strict list of best practices. While focusing on best practices is important, the approach really does make a difference. It was so foreign to me it literally felt like a different language. But once I started embodying the ParentCorps spirit in a way that felt authentic to me, I noticed the way school staff reacted and embraced it.”
Cindy Gray, ParentCorps Senior Program Coordinator
Friends School
for pre-K children
12-session social-emotional
learning program
for pre-K classrooms
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Supports children to develop foundational social-emotional learning skills – children learn to communicate and process feelings, develop a positive sense of self, and build healthy relationships
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Teachers not only build children’s social-emotional skills, but learn how to model their own social-emotional skills
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Dedicated implementation support, including high-quality training and coaching for teachers, materials, and more
What Sets ParentCorps Apart
Evidence-based
You can read about our proven impact on school attendance, reading and mental health here.
Equity focused
We aim to disrupt harmful patterns of outsiders telling families of color how to parent, and honor families as experts.
Collaborative
Ours is not an out-of-the-box solution, but a capacity-building model that includes meaningful collaboration and high-quality training and coaching.
Early childhood centered
Other family engagement and social-emotional learning programs focused on K-12 miss a critical window in child development. We focus on early childhood education to achieve the greatest impact.
Unique intersection
of family engagement and social emotional learning
Many schools use different programs for their family engagement and SEL needs, but we help educators connect the dots and tackle both of these important areas.