The Parent Ambassador Program is a year-long leadership and advocacy program for parents, caregivers, and child care providers with children 8 years or younger in Nebraska. The goal of this program is to develop parent leaders and support them in advocating for their children, themselves, and their communities.
When it comes to creating impactful change for Nebraska’s youngest children, parents and early childhood educators are the most authentic and most affected groups needed at the table. The Parent Ambassador program was created to support these essential voices in advocating for their children, themselves, and their communities.
Each year, a cohort of up to 20 parents of young children and child care providers are selected to participate in this year-long leadership and advocacy program.
Parent Ambassadors acquire knowledge about civic and community engagement and develop leadership skills to advocate for themselves, their families, and others to create positive change in early learning programs, schools, and communities.
All families feel empowered regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status to engage in the process of policy & decision-making at local, state, and federal levels that affect their children’s outcomes and family well-being.
As part of evaluating program impact, the inaugural class of Parent Ambassadors were surveyed at the beginning and end of their program year. In addition to changes in civic attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors, the majority of parents reported that, as a direct result of Parent Ambassadors, they had thought about or taken steps to make changes in their personal lives.
Zoom calls fall on the second and fourth Monday of each month (if that Monday is a holiday, we will reschedule to another Monday in the month). Three of the four conferences fall on a Saturday and locations vary. Our February conference always occurs on a weekday as it will be our Day at the Capitol.
No! This is an advocacy 101 and leadership development program so if you have no prior advocacy experience or knowledge that is OK!
Nothing! We hope to cover any costs that might be a barrier for participation so in addition to a $500 participation stipend we also provide a childcare stipend for all conferences, a missed work day stipend if you miss a day of work in order to participate in a PA conference, mileage for any in person events that you travel to, we also provide meals during events and/or provide a meal per diem.
Participation stipend is based on attendance.
