Brenda McGowan was a natural fit for parent liaison work long before she ever took on that role.

Prior to signing on as the parent liaison for St. Joseph County in the southwest corner of the state, McGowan served as the president of the local NAACP chapter and was chairwoman of the Educational Support Agency, whose aim was eliminating racial disparity in education.

“So I guess I have a long history of advocacy,” she chuckled last week as she attended day one of the Parent Leadership Institute in East Lansing.

Initially, she saw her role as one of “parent empowerment” – in other words helping local parents develop the skills they needed to work within the Great Start Collaborative system.

Her main task: Preparing parents for what she calls “the cultural norms” of the collaborative and its various committees.

“It took two years to get some people to understand that,” she said. “You don’t, for instance, walk up to professionals and assume they don’t have anything else to do. You work on the process. You understand that time is precious and that they don’t often want to hear all of the details of your problem. They want an overview so they can help you. And whatever you do, don’t put decision-makers on the hot-seat in front of their peers. They’ll shut down.”

Her core group of active parents has improved dramatically, she says, and now McGowan is ready to switch the coalition’s focus to recruitment and what she calls “voice.”

“We have to get more people involved to amplify our voice,” she says.  

That will mean attracting others to the cause by convincing them that “we’re not islands,” she says. The child who isn’t having trouble in school is still affected by classmates who are. Likewise, the health and vibrancy of everyone in the community is affected by children who don’t succeed in school.

“So it behooves us all to make every aspect of the community better because sooner or later it’s going to impact your family directly.”

In this most difficult of budget years, the group’s voice, she says, will be aimed frequently at state legislators and candidates for state office. To that end, McGowan encourages parents to overcome their natural reluctance to speak up and demand attention.

“You want to reach out to your legislators and not be afraid to do so. They’re your employees, in a sense, and like any good employer you need to know how to work with them. You have to understand that you’re on a team with your legislator. You figure out the play and then he goes onto the field and runs that play.”

Her legislators, for instance, receive copies of the group’s work plan, including dates and times of events McGowan expects them to show up for.

“It’s a win-win,” she says. “They get access to parents and the parents get access to them.”

Consistent contact with lawmakers, McGowan says, pays off in the end.

“When our legislators hear any one of our names they immediately get a visual of early childhood and what that means in St. Joseph.”

-- Andy Heller