COFI is launching a new Center for Action and Learning that aims to catalyze a national parent-led movement for economic and racial justice and to provide support and capacity building for organizations across the country using The COFI Way. The Center seeks to expand COFI’s current training capacity, enhance its strategies to support effective model implementation, and build a vibrant learning community.

“I look forward to reconnecting with COFI-trained groups nationwide to offer support so that they can have the transformational impact in their communities that we have had in Illinois over the past 25 years! I am so excited to be a part of our new Center which will deepen the impact of parents of color at the table.” -Graciela Suarez, COFI Lead Trainer

Photo by Bartram Nelson

The Center for Action and Learning will work through four interconnected strategies:

• Training partner organizations across the country in The COFI Way through a menu of virtual and in-person (post-COVID) training options;
• Supporting those organizations to implement The COFI Way effectively through coaching, technical assistance, and information sharing;
• Bringing organizations across the country together (virtually and eventually in-person) for shared learning, cross-fertilization, and capacity building; and
• Connecting COFI-trained groups to one another and to other organizations working to bring parents to the forefront of decision-making about the policies and systems that shape their lives.

The Center’s programs are based on The COFI Way – a proven model of parent leadership development, community organizing and policy change work which empowers parents and families from historically marginalized communities. Tested and refined over the past 25 years in diverse Illinois communities, The COFI Way has been shown to be the most effective model for bringing Black and Brown parents to the forefront of decision-making about policies and systems that shape their lives. Parents trained in The COFI Way have gone on to win historic changes at the community, city and state level.

COFI wants YOU to join our collective parent-led movement for change! Let us know what you need and how you would like to participate in the new Center by filling out this form.