Kaylena Gonzalez

10/16/14

Community Organizing

Chafe Meeting

Chafe is a group of parents that meet on a monthly bases to talk about problems that are facing in cypress hills community public schools. The meeting started with them discussing agendas for school. CHAFE member leaders and members discussed how to apply the program in schools. They realized to get the program going they needed to capture the attention of parents to educate them about the CHAFE platform and then engage them in their fight for better public schools. Some of the issues the members had were: special education (specifically autism), how to have good afterschool programs, and a better sense of community. Is P.S. 89 ready for special needs students? P.S. 7 has no water in the school. These was some of their concerns with the fight for better public schools. They brainstormed idea of for outreaching to parents. Some of the things they came up with is having general meetings in schools, talking to parents about the platform before talking to principals, and engaging with churches.

To solve the concerns they had earlier in the meeting they decided to have a meeting for special education parents. So that they will feel welcomed and comfortable with the schools. Join PTA Meetings to engage the parents. Have a meeting with the superintendent about the lack of water in P.S 7. They wanted to take a tour of P.S. 89 and PS.7. So they can address anymore concerns they couldn’t see earlier. These were the outreach plans that CHAFE came up with so that they can not only educate parents about CHAFE but make sure that the schools of the community become safer.