Georgia Parent Mentors partners:

Babies Can’t Wait

Skilled Credentialed Early Interventionists

Bright from the Start

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning

Center for Leadership in Disabilities at Georgia State University

Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities

Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities

Georgia Department of Education

Division for Special Education Supports and Services

Georgia Family Connection Partnership

Institute on Human Development and Disability

University of Georgia

Parent to Parent of GA

Georgia’s Parent Training Information Center (PTI)

Parent mentors work to build effective family, school, and community partnerships that lead to greater achievement for students, especially those with disabilities.  At the school, district and state levels, these partnerships are essential to the success of parent mentors and ultimately to the enhanced outcomes for students and their families.

Parent mentors partner with parents to support them in becoming more engaged in their children’s educational programs.  They share information, encourage participation in IEP meetings, and help identify needed resources and services.  In schools, parent mentors partner with teachers, administrators, and other school staff to integrate family engagement into school and district activities.  They provide information about the needs of students and their families, they collaborate with teachers to implement reading and math initiatives, and they work with teams focusing on reducing dropout and increasing the graduation rate.  Mentors also partner with over 700 Title I Parent Involvement Coordinators to align their work with district family engagement activities for at-risk students.  Parent mentors also work with community partners to increase vocational training and job opportunities as well as recreational options for students.

Parent mentors also collaborate with personnel from a variety of agencies to support families of students with disabilities.  They work with staff from Parent to Parent (P2P) of Georgia, the state’s Parent Training and Information Center, to make information available on a large number of topics in a variety of formats including the project’s website at http://www.p2pga.org/.  The Georgia Parent Mentor Partnership is a founding member of the Georgia Parent Leadership Coalition (PLC) a collaborative effort between organizations representing families of children and adults with disabilities in Georgia. The Coalition is focused on building, supporting and strengthening parent leaders across the state.

The Southeastern Postsecondary Education Alliance recently hosted a conference in Atlanta. Thanks to the photography of Ryan Johnson and the leadership of Susanna Miller-Raines, from the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University, we can share a peek at the event. Scroll down to the SEPSEA2016 document.