“Si de verdad quieren hacer este trabajo, escuchen a los padres y respeten lo que les cuesta estar presentes en la clase.”

Meet Camarrah! She is the Program and Network Partner at the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation and has over 20 years of experience in the early childhood system. COFI met Camarrah through her work supporting Detroit’s Hope Starts Here collaboration to develop the leadership and voice of parents and caregivers.

Hope Starts Here was aiming to develop a citywide effort to improve developmental and educational outcomes of young children, and, through an extensive process involving 180 stakeholders – parents, government workers, and community members – a parent-led advocacy network began to take shape. This network, which became Detroit Champions for HOPE, focused on educating parents about early childhood education, its importance, and advocating for relevant programs, policies, and systems.

That’s where the COFI Center for Action and Learning came in, providing training on a proven method for parents to lead and advocate for policy and systems change. Camarrah and her team started taking COFI training before the pandemic and had big plans for parents to do outreach and advocacy, but then COVID sidetracked them.

Real Time Advocacy During the Pandemic Using El modelo de COFI

“Detroit Champions for HOPE were fired up to do outreach and advocacy,” Camarrah said. They were eager and excited to activate their training by conducting in person one-on-ones, but suddenly they had to adapt their approach to make individual phone calls to families in their neighborhoods.

Fortunately, they were prepared. Camarrah notes that one of the strengths of the COFI model is listening to the community and moving on the advocacy priorities that parents develop.

“The COFI training helped us realize we need to meet people where they are,” she said.

By doing outreach over the phone, parents immediately asked the community’s needs around food, housing, diapers, a laptop for their child’s e-learning, and more. They even made 180 calls to organizations to figure out applications and verification processes for resources before they made referrals over the phone to other parents.

One of the biggest wins was working with the police department after parents heard people were being fined $500 for not wearing masks. The parent leaders recognized that community members still needed to go out for food and groceries, and their team took action.

“Our (parent) team immediately started working with the police to talk about giving out masks instead of tickets. COVID changes were happening so fast, it was important that we were having one-on-one conversations with our neighbors based on what we learned in our COFI Training,” she said.

Even though COVID disrupted their plans, Detroit Champions for Hope has thousands of new parents who learn about early childcare and childhood development every year. They’re working on training more parents in advocacy and systems change using El modelo de COFI.

The Dream: More Funders and Organizations Honoring What It Takes for Parents To Show Up

“When parents and community members are in the room where policy decisions are being made, I believe the best ideas and strategies are in the room,” she said. “We’ve had the best suggested improvements come from people who are closest to the issues.”

Thirty years ago, COFI started with this very belief that people closest to the issues hold the solutions, and Detroit is proof of COFI’s mission in action. Their ability to adapt during COVID is also proof that investing in parent power creates infrastructure that doesn’t fold under pressure.

“Put COFI training in your budget, think through the person who will attend and create an infrastructure to ensure the rest of the team is trained. Also, commit to compensating parents as the experts they are,” Camarrah says. “If you really want to do this work, listen to parents and honor what it takes for them to show up in the room.”

Are you interested in building parent power and incorporating The COFI Way into your mission? Learn more about the COFI Center for Action and Learning y próximos entrenamientos.