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nfield’ s newest volunteers: an Enfield Food Shelf board of director, a creator of the Enfield Community
Garden, EPS library aides, Stowe’ s Early Learning Center assistants, EPS mentoring coordinators, PTO
board members, children’ s book authors, creators of the Enfield Foundation for Excellence in Education,
and a candidate for public office … what do they all have in common? Graduating from the Parent Leadership Academy! Ten years of instructional workshops, led by local experts in areas of personal and civic
leadership, have equipped the Enfield community with educated
parents who want to make a difference for the children and families in Enfield. With over 120 graduates, you’ ll find PLA parents
volunteering their leadership skills in most every aspect of life in
Enfield.
This free program is for Enfield parents, grandparents, and guardians. It begins in February with a fun-filled Saturday, involving a
half-day team building retreat, and then continues on Thursday
evenings for 12 weeks. Meals and child care are provided. Leadership experts explore topical issues including leadership styles, modeling the way, public speaking, running effective meetings, impactful listening,
mediating conflict, event planning, understanding local government, and networking. Newly-learned skills
are then put into action by completing a community service project that reflects the group’ s interests and
passion. A formal graduation ceremony rewards our leadership parents with acceptance into the active
alumni group.
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he Enfield, CT People Empowering People (PEP) Program in
Spanish is a personal and family development program with a
strong community focus. The program builds upon individual life
experiences and strengths to encourage growth in communication
and problem solving skills, parent/family relationships, and community involvement.
How does PEP work? The program is conducted by a UCONN Extension, trained facilitator from a family
resource center, community agency, or faith community. The facilitator provides ten, two-hour training sessions on the following topics: values, verbal and non-verbal communication skills, active listening, problem
solving, understanding the helping role, understanding ourselves and others as parents, understanding our
children, our community and its leaders, action planning, and community opportunity. Following the formal
training sessions, participants attend weekly educational/support sessions and work on two or more individual or group projects that benefit the community. In the past, PEP participants have conducted a variety of
community projects, including a series of math and literacy workshops to teach parents how to help their
children at home with what they are learning in school, collaboration with the Superintendent of Schools to
identify ways Spanish-speaking parents can be of service to the school, Spanish-language story time at the
library, Summer Lunch Bunch program, sponsorship of Healthy Day- Latin Family dance, and a presenta3