“Sharing our story is empowering for our families to see that we’re capable, despite the education we might have had or how much reading we might have learned,” Emely said, “we have enough power within ourselves to learn now. And as we’re learning, we can also help our children. We are capable of reading with our children despite our educational background.”
For the institute to be successful, each organization has a role to play. “Education for Change’s focus is on the science of reading,” Erica said. “And we are focused on developing that leadership and empowering parents.”
Heather McLaughlin, a parent of an Achieve Academy student, said she wished the institute had been around before after participating in the first session. She’s looking forward to learning more to support her young student.
“I really like that [EFC] parents are being taught there’s a science behind the way reading is being taught now,” Heather said.
Emely said she hopes parents like Heather leave the institute with some important knowledge on how to support their child’s literacy, and also not be satisfied with what they learned.
“I hope families are intrigued and they’re learning a lot,” Emely said. “But I want them to want to keep learning and feel like they’re capable of learning more. That’s empowering.”
You can learn more about how FIA and EFC are working together to build parent literacy champions at fiaoakland.org.

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