Parent Leadership Database


	In 1997, a small group of parents from the Council for Parent Leadership, a project of the Minnesota Parenting Association, brainstormed criteria that would allow them to organize and evaluate parent leadership training models available nationally. The result was a matrix developed by the Council for Parent Leadership with program research conducted in partnership with the U of MN: including U of M Extension Service, the College of Human Ecology, and the Children, Youth and Family Consortium.

Concurrently, the Family Resource Coalition of America (FRCA) began a project to inventory parent leadership models. This project was part of a larger body of work around parent leadership that has been evolving since 1997.

Through the Family Support America Initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we have been provided a unique opportunity to join these two efforts. The work presented here represents combined knowledge and thinking from both CPL and FRCA. Moreover, it reflects what we have learned in the process of crafting this partnership and working together.

In 1999, Minnesota Parenting Association and the Council for Parent Leadership joined forces. To reflect this change at the corporate level, Minnesota Parenting Association began doing business as the Council for Civic Parent Leadership, with a combined vision that all parents are civic leaders within and beyond their families to improve the quality of life for all.

We acknowledge the initiative, creativity, and maintenance work of the parent volunteers for the CPL including: Kathy Dewey, Tracy Hamilton, Fran Hesch, Carolyn Paul, Isabel Chanslor, Roxy Foster, and Sandra M. Roberts, and the commitment and hard work of the FRCA staff and consultants who worked on this project including: Nilofer Ahsan, Gail Koser, and Miriam Westheimer. We also would like to acknowledge the extra effort of the U of M Extension Service staff, Mary Ann Gwost Hennen and Linda Cronk.