Parent Education – Tutoring – Parent/Family Center - Parent Organizing
Parent Education – OPT has developed a dynamic 10 week workshop series entitled “Listening to Children — and to Each Other.” Based on a peer counseling model, the goal of this workshop series is for each participating parent to develop an ongoing, permanent listening partnership with another parent/participant. The workshops cover such topics as Crying, Setting Limits, Special Time, and Early Literacy. We are currently implementing this program in the Oakland Unified School District Child Development Program, as well as at various public housing facilities in Oakland.
Tutoring – Our flagship program is the 3rd Grade Intensive Support Tutoring (3GIST) Program that we are currently implementing at Santa Fe and Brookfield Elementary Schools. This program is designed to augment other tutoring programs (such as Supplemental Educational Services or SES) to ensure that our students are reading proficiently at the end of 3rd grade.
Oakland Parent Family Center – In the summer of 2009, OPT opened the Oakland Parent Family Center at 440 Santa Clara Avenue, in the large building directly across Grand Avenue from the Grand Lake Theater. We are toward the rear, under the sign of the (now defunct) Academy of Classical Ballet. The center is a place for parents to gather, to hold workshops and support groups, to use computers, copiers, fax, to look for work, or just hang out with other parents. The center has a sizeable play area for children.
Parent Organizing - When the OUSD said it needed to close 7 Child Development Centers (CDC) in the summer of 2010, OPT said no, and organized hundreds of parents to propose a “people’s takeover” of the centers until the state came up with the money. The district was able to locate more than $4 million dollars to keep the CDCs open, making the “people’s takeover” unnecessary.
