20/20 Vision for Schools » parents

Even “the 20/20 Vision Guy” has to Practice what he Preaches

Jeremy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:27:03 +0000

20/20 Vision executive director Jeremy Del Rio confesses on his personal blog how he wasn’t practicing what he preached until this fall, when his son enrolled in PS 102.

It’s time for a confession. Even before launching 20/20 in 2008, despite being known is some circles as the 20/20 Vision guy, my work on education reform was mostly theoretical. My passion was real, but day to day, aside from designing and architecting 20/20, my personal involvement actually living 20/20’s engagement paradigm was non-existent.

Why? I haven’t run a community group or helped lead a congregation in almost four years, which means I couldn’t commit an organization to adopt a school for service and advocacy. Nor have I been involved in direct youth work since 2005, so I couldn’t directly empower student leaders to become change agents within their schools. Finally, until this year, my son attended private schools, so engaging a school as a volunteer was difficult.

Then this fall everything changed.

Within weeks, he was tutoring ESL students in his son’s classroom, and before the Christmas break he helped start a journalism club with the parent coordinator and another volunteer parent. They launched a student blog last week, and fourth graders are discovering their voice as they learn to live life out loud.

Jeremy is just one parent (of potentially 2 million) who was activated by 20/20’s Vocational Calling to use his talents and access as a parent to add value to a local public school. What’s your story?

Mayor announces new resources for parents

Jeremy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:37:11 +0000

From a Department of Education email announcement received today:

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg delivered the 2009 State of the City and I’ve attached a copy of the speech to this e-mail (which can also be viewed here). I thought you would be especially interested in two education initiatives:

The Mayor announced the creation of a new helpline to better serve families called Parent 311 or P311. Starting later this year, parents will be able to call 311, identify themselves as a parent or guardian, and will be forwarded on to DOE trained specialists in order to get more specific answers to their questions. It will make communication between schools and parents clearer and more consistent and it will help parents more easily find information about New York City schools and education policies.

The Mayor also announced that the ARIS Family Portal will be available to parents this year. The portal is an online tool that helps families track their children’s academic progress and collaborate with teachers to address children’s academic strengths and weaknesses. Families will be able to use it at home and in conferences with educators to view detailed information about their children in nine languages – including information about attendance, course grades, and scores on State tests and periodic in-class assessments.

Why adopt schools? A parent reports.

Jeremy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:37:40 +0000

Christ Tabernacle, a 20/20 Vision partnering church, shared the following email from a parent at the Tony Evans event last week. For context, the parent coordinator of a local public elementary school asked the church for help acquiring school supplies for its students last summer. In response, the congregation launched “Operation Backup” and acquired new backups and supplies for every student at the school — almost 900 total — and presented them to the students the first day of classes. Nearly a full academic year later, on May 28 of last week, the mother sent them this note:

My children were so excited to see their brand new backpacks filled with school supplies. I was so touched and overwhelmed with emotion to see my children’s joy. My son, who was 6 at the time, asked me, “Mommy, who gave these to us?” and I responded, the people from a church” And my daughter, who was only 4 at the time, said, “But why? They don’t even know us.”As I searched for the words to explain to my children the kindness and generosity of total strangers, my son put it best as he said, “Those are some really good people.”

My daughter then asked, “Mommy, can you take us to see the good people?” My son chimed in, “Yes, Mommy! Please, I want to see the good people.” So I promised them that I would take them and I did.

From the moment I stepped into Christ Tabernacle, I felt something great. It was an indescribable feeling. I knew that the Lord was in this place. I’ve never felt his presence so strong in my life. And it just drew me and my kids in and we started attending services regularly. Christ Tabernacle has become such a big part of our new lives in Christ. My kids absolutely love the Just Kidz Ministry. They were in last year’s Christmas production. In January of this year, I took the CL-101 class for 6 weeks and became a proud member of Christ Tabernacle myself. In April, I was baptized.

I’ve found love, peace, strength and happiness that I never knew I was missing in my life until I found it at Christ Tabernacle. Yes, my children and I found the “good people” at Christ Tabernacle and more importantly, we found our Lord and Savior. So from the bottom of our hearts, Thank You and God Bless You.