“The current moment is proving that parents are never going to back down – despite threats and funding rollbacks from the federal administration. Parents will continue to speak up and advocate in solidarity. Now is the moment to elevate their voices and invest in community organizing.”

Even before Ellen co-founded Community Organizing and Family Issues, she had decades of experience as an organizer, having worked in political campaigns, a labor union, and a community organization.

She knew how charismatic, often self-appointed leaders, typically White males, wield power forcefully and keep others away from the seats at the policymaking table.

“We knew that not everyone in the community believed they could take action and make change,” she said.

After launching a leadership training program for women community activists called the Women Leaders in Action and successfully training 80 women community leaders, Ellen and a group of 18 visionary leaders wanted to take it to the next step and created COFI.

“Thirty years ago, we had a dream of building a powerful parent-led organizing movement of mostly mothers and grandmothers fighting for racial, economic, and educational justice for their families. I could never have imagined how far we’d come,” she said.

Today, COFI is standing true to that dream and mission of building parent power and the voice of parents, especially for mothers and grandmothers from Black and Brown communities. Using The COFI Way, COFI’s innovative parent leadership development and organizing model, more parents are being invited to policymaking tables, here in Illinois and across the nation – or they are pulling up their own chairs to make sure their voice is heard!

“COFI’s model has turned traditional leadership training, especially what was around 30+ years ago, on its head,” she said. “And we’re proud of that. It is not about individual powerful leaders. It is truly a collective movement for collective goals.”

Some of Ellen’s favorite goals and victories that she’s seen COFI and its parent-led membership organization, POWER-PAC IL, lead include restoring recess to elementary schools in Chicago, removing police officers in Chicago Public Schools, and moving toward a holistic approach to safety, reforming Chicago’s fines and fees system, and, most recently, passing an Illinois Child Tax Credit.

“Mothers and grandmothers are the backbone and heart of COFI, and these successes really speak to their resilience and determination to make their voices heard and improve the lives of their children and their communities,” she said.

Now, as she looks ahead to the next chapter of COFI, she shares a dream that many individuals have expressed in the 30 Stories for 30 Years series: training more parents, organizations, and individuals across the country in The COFI Way and ensuring that equity is built into who has their voices heard in policymaking.

With the 30th Anniversary, COFI is thrilled to launch a Wisdom Advisory Council to build upon the successes and lessons learned over the past three decades of parent-led organizing. The Council, which brings together partner organizations, funders, board and parent leaders, is providing strategic guidance to expand COFI’s work nationally, through its COFI Center for Action and Learning.

“The current moment is proving that parents are never going to back down – despite threats and funding rollbacks from the federal administration,” she said. “Parents are continuing to speak up and advocate in solidarity. Now is the moment to elevate their voices and invest in community organizing.”