At Family Leadership, we believe every student deserves success both inside and outside the classroom. That’s why we empower families with transformational parenting and leadership skills that help them become vital contributors to their children’s academic success. Parents grow into effective leaders in their homes, schools, and communities.
Family Leadership Inc. is the nonprofit organization behind Parenting Partners, Family Meals Challenge, Calm & Kind Family, and Pro Series Workshops. As a nonprofit, we are dedicated to continually expanding our programs to serve our school partners as the most effective professional learning resource for families and school staff.
Our Mission
Empowering Families for Academic Success
We are dedicated to helping your district reliably achieve three essential outcomes:
- Positive family engagement with schools.
- Strong home learning environments.
- Improved academics: students exceed reading levels, grades go up, and they reach their college and career goals.
Our Story
Our Ongoing Journey in Driving Family Success
David and Patty Bunker developed a school-based family leadership initiative in 1996 and created the Parenting Partners curriculum. Since we started Parenting Partners in schools in 1996 we have a history of continually learning best practices from our peer network of school district Family Engagement leaders and researchers, and then bringing that innovation into our network through expanded curriculum with training and certification.
Launching the Capacity Building Model
Patty Bunker, our National Director of Parent Engagement, gained the experience to start Parenting Partners during her practice as a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor. She developed the first Parenting Partners curriculum in 1996 for a school which had more than 400 homeless students and immigrant parents from more than 20 countries.
She tried using existing programs, but none built on the strengths of our parents. With Parenting Partners she combined adult learning principles, family strengths, and leadership principles to build a network of parents who improve school success results.
We conducted five years of field-testing with parents in fifty schools with high homeless and immigrant populations. The Search Institute, the influential youth research organization, contributed editorial staffing to help develop our Manuals and research. We quickly discovered that despite dramatic poverty statistics, parents became energized by our positive approach. They rapidly became skilled leaders in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods.
Adoption in School Districts Nationally
Parenting Partners expanded in 2001 as a resource for school districts nationally.
With an emphasis on building practical skills, parents reported improvement in their relationship to their children. They increased their ability to contribute to their children’s school success, to give their children clear instructions, to provide positive discipline and to reduce arguments in the home.
Graduating parents volunteered in classrooms, became school site leaders, and became effective Parenting Partners Facilitators.
Leadership as the “Secret Sauce” of Capacity Building
The Gallup Strengths page is available anytime as a resource for people to learn more about their top five strengths. Click on the box for each of your Strengths to see a testimony video from Gallup experts, a detailed description of that Strength, words to describe you and examples of your strengths in action.
Our Methods
Sustainable and Engaging Workshops
We go beyond one-time presentations by equipping parents with leadership skills through interactive and engaging workshops. Empowered parents become active partners in their children’s education, leading to lasting district-wide success.
Our parent and professional learning workshops include:
Parenting Partners – Empowers parents with practical tools to support their children academically, emotionally, and socially while promoting engaged advocacy and leadership.
Calm & Kind Family – Equips families with essential tools for navigating the complexities of emotional regulation and social-emotional learning.
Family Meals Challenge – Enhances family wellness and student success through increased shared meals, providing tools for family talk time, screen management, literacy, and nutrition.
How to Run Successful Family Leadership Workshops – Boosts skills in facilitating workshops, presenting, and team building, building parents’ capacity to lead workshops and create sustainability for family engagement.
Pro Strengths – This professional learning experience utilizes Gallup’s Strengths Finder™ to bring teams together around their strengths. Cohorts experience the training online, interacting through message boards and participating in an in-person session.
Top Study Skills – This self-directed resource provides parents with skills to support their children’s study, reading, and learning.