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Other Issues and Action

When POWER-PAC was founded in 2003, parent leaders identified three interconnected long-range goals that they want to impact affecting children and families. These are:

  • Families must be provided with supports to be healthy, secure and stable.
  • Communities need to be safe places for children and families to get to and from school and other activities.
  • Schools should be children and family friendly places where “kids can be kids” and where schools are the center of communities.

These goals guided the POWER-PAC leaders to ten family issue areas within which the organization would work (listed alphabetically):

  1. affordable housing
  2. banking and finances
  3. criminal justice
  4. family supports
  5. health care for children and families
  6. immigration
  7. jobs, job training and child care for working families
  8. safety and violence prevention
  9. schools, early childhood education and community schools
  10. youth - teens, preteens and young adults

COFI  POWER-PAC Receives Wellness Advocate Award from the Healthy Schools Campaign - 2008

Currently, POWER-PAC leaders are working on school discipline, recess for elementary students, access to early learning, and two other areas:

Children and Family Health:

  • In 2008, POWER-PAC and COFI were awarded the Wellness Advocate Award by Parents United for Healthier Schools, for their work on school and community health issues, including the Recess for All! Campaign and the parents work on healthy school environments. (See Photo Above).
  • POWER-PAC leaders serve as the parent advisory council to the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) and in that role meet regularly with the staff and leaders of the organization to advise them on the development of policies and an advocacy agenda around children’s health and obesity issues.

Community Schools:

  • POWER-PAC leaders helped to create the Chicago Federation for Community Schools where POWER-PAC leaders, Alicia Gregorio, serves on the Advisory Council. 
  • POWER-PAC leaders were instrumental in winning the creation of 150 community schools in Chicago.
  • POWER-PAC parent leaders and COFI staff continue to support the community schools movement in Chicago by providing training and technical support to community schools across the city.