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• "Telling Stories"

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(Note: This website is currently under construction.)

Parents as Essential Partners (PEP), the Maryland State Parental Information Resource Center (PIRC), assists Maryland parents and educators to address issues related to family involvement and closing achievement gaps.

PEP operates under the umbrella of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC). It builds on MAEC's more than 25 years of experience working with Maryland parents and schools to improve student achievement.

PEP's special projects include:

Statewide Component

• - Sponsors four regional conferences
• - Provides and develops information for parents, parent advocates, community members and educators on issues related to parenting, learning at home, communicating with schools, and identifying community resources
• - Builds networks between parents, parent advocates, community members and educators
• - Facilitates training and technical assistance on parenting and achievement related issues for students, and
• - Offers a bilingual (Spanish) website.

Parent-Focused Component

Tellin' Stories, a program of Teaching for Change, works directly with parents to:
• - Create opportunities for families to connect to each other and to their school
• - Develop leadership skills
• - Identify and prioritize concerns
• - Take action, evaluate and sustain family engagement, and
• - Collaborate with all members of the school to ensure a safe, healthy learning environment for children.

School-Focused Component

The National Network of Partnership Schools, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, works directly with educators to:
• - Develop and sustain excellent programs of partnerships that fulfill NCLB requirements for parental involvement
• - Assist schools using an action team approach, writing goal-oriented plans and selecting practices to involve families and communities to increase student success in school, and
• - Offer direct, on-going, and on-call assistance from Brenda G. Thomas, Director of Maryland Partnership Program Development.

Early-Childhood Component

In partnership with Friends of the Family and the Judy Centers, we work directly with parents of pre-school age children to:
• - Increase use of effective parenting at home, and
• - Build parent's leadership skills to work more effectively as their child's advocate at home, in pre-school, and with school and community organizations.

Staff Information:

Susan Shaffer
Project Director
301-657-7742 x118
sshaffer@parentpep.org

Charo Basterra
Early Childhood Coordinator
301-657-7742 x124
basterra@parentpep.org

Brenda G. Thomas
Maryland Director of Partnership Program Development
National Network of Partnership Schools
410-516-8819
bthomas@csos.jhu.edu

Megan Guidrey
Office Manager/Conference Coordinator
301-657-7742 x111
megan@parentpep.org

Isela Khouri
Research Associate/Hotline Coordinator
301-657-7742 x125
isela@parentpep.org

Ray Yau
Technology Coordinator
301-657-7742 x117
ray@parentpep.org