Parent Leadership Classes
Research demonstrates that parent and family buy-in is key to reducing youth recidivism. Ubuntu holds regular parent leadership classes that help parents better understand the system, advocate for their child, prioritize their family’s social and economic well-being, and gain job skills to combat persistent unemployment and underemployment.
Participatory Action Research Projects
In this program, parents learn basic research skills, identify a problem, explore various methodologies, and participate in research, analysis, and drawing conclusions. Our first project, Parents Fighting for Youth Justice, details ongoing hurdles that families face in juvenile court and offers solutions to improve the process for all.
Our second participatory research project, focusing on language barriers in the courthouse, was completed in collaboration with Tulane University’s Mellon Program. In this project, parents worked together with court stakeholders to identify key terms in the legal process and develop a map of the juvenile court process. From this cohort, one of our first Parent Navigators, Tiffany Hicks, joined our team.