Monroe School and LSNA Receive Dimon Distinguished Community Schools Award

On October 9, the Federation for Community Schools presented James Monroe Elementary School and Logan Square Neighborhood Association with the Dimon Distinguished Community Schools Award. Given to ten recipients at the Federation’s annual forum, the award highlights outstanding Community Schools throughout Illinois, and is accompanied by a $10,000 grant. The Monroe and LSNA team was invited to present their strategies for success to the forum audience, focusing specifically on a decade of meaningful parent involvement and extensive community partnerships. “Presenting with the parents who were involved in founding Monroe as a Community School was the highlight of the day,” said Edwin Rivera, Principal at Monroe.

 “Having core infrastructure for a strong community-school partnership makes it easier to leverage resources for the school and the community,” said Maria Alviso, Community Learning Center Coordinator at Monroe. “With a full-time coordinator, and child care and security provided in the neighborhood school where families already feel comfortable, there’s a more open environment to plug in different community resources to benefit children and their families.”
 Parents are the link to success in these partnerships, added Leticia Barerra, Education Organizer for LSNA, and a parent at Monroe. “LSNA crosses the boundaries to develop and nurture parents as leaders who care about our community. Our parent leaders believe that working together, we can create a better community school.”
 

One of those leaders, Silvia Gonzalez, also spoke at the forum about the role of parent programs in creating community-school partnerships. “Parents become the role models of their own children and also for many other students in the school through the Parent Mentor Program,” she said. “As a past Parent Mentor myself, while working with the students I saw the need for getting more involved in the school and the community. Doing this kind of work with Monroe School lead me to grow in other areas within the organization, and now I work as both the Parent Mentor Coordinator and Resource Coordinator at McAuliffe Community School.”

From left to right: Silvia Gonzalez, Leticia Barrera, Maria Alviso, Edwin Rivera