Our PROGRAMS
Why PARNTERS IN OPPORTUNITY?
“At PIO, we truly love and care for the families we work with! Our number one priority is to support you and your children on your journey to success. It is our greatest joy to walk alongside you as you transition to a new neighborhood, ensuring that you feel supported every step of the way.”
Your Experience
Through our four programs, we provide you with two years of support. Afterwards, we encourage you to stay for the long-term.
What You’ll Gain
Benefits For Your Kids
Our Programs
One-on-One Coaching
Equipping parents to meet their goals and achieve lasting stability through individualized coaching.
Why Opportunity Coaching?
At Partners in Opportunity, we recognize that parental stability plays a critical role in breaking the cycle of poverty for children. We also know that parents have goals and dreams for themselves that too often go unrealized due to the many challenges they may face: lack of access to reliable childcare, lack of dependable transportation, and the time constraints that go with being a single parent. Our coaching program is specifically designed to help parents meet their goals and achieve long-term stability, which in turn sets their children up for success.
How it Works
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Parents meet for monthly coaching sessions with our Family Support Director. Together, they discuss where the parent is now relative to where they want to be, and set goals accordingly.
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Our coaching model revolves around a tool called the “Bridge to Opportunity,” which helps parents to set goals and track their progress in various areas of their life: childcare, transportation, job satisfaction (compensation, benefits, and growth opportunities), credit repair, money management, network building, and physical and mental health.
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Once a parent sets a goal, the Family Support Director provides support and resources to set them up for success—be it individualized coaching or referrals to community resources and partners.
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Our coaching program is informed by “The Path to Opportunity,” which is a framework that outlines the sequential stages through which families progress to rise out of poverty and achieve financial freedom and lasting stability. Coaching sessions are individualized, but generally begin by ensuring that parents have reliable childcare and transportation so that they can find consistent employment. Once these building blocks are in place, the focus shifts to more ambitious goals: securing a career track job with benefits and opportunities for growth, developing expertise in money management, building a strong support system, and taking steps to promote improved physical and mental health.
College Readiness
Partnering with parents of young children to ensure they are on the path to college.
Why College Readiness?
Earning a college degree is the most surefire way for a low-income child to break the cycle of poverty. College graduates earn twice as much as those with just a high school degree, and nearly $1 million more over the course of their lifetime. Unfortunately, most children enter our program below grade level, having previously attended underperforming schools. That’s why, in addition to providing access to neighborhoods with top-ranked schools, we offer parents extensive coaching on how they can accelerate their children’s academic progress and put them on the path to college.
How it Works
All Partners in Opportunity families participate in our College Readiness Program, which runs for two years, and is designed to help parents put their children on the path to college. The program has three key components: progress monitoring, advocacy, and coaching.
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Progress Monitoring
We closely monitor the academic progress of the students in our program by analyzing standardized test scores, reading levels, and teacher feedback. Since our students are typically transferring from under-resourced schools, most come in below grade level, and our goal is to help parents get them caught up.
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Advocacy
We help parents advocate for students with teachers, administrators, and school staff. We attend conferences, we collaborate with school staff, and we ensure that students receive all necessary supports.
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Coaching
While we monitor students’ academic progress and advocate on their behalf, our primary focus is on equipping parents with the knowledge and skills required to put their children on the path to college. Our team meets monthly with parents, coaching them on how to interpret their child’s test scores and other academic progress data, on how to prep for conferences and engage with teachers, and on how to support their child’s academic progress at home by implementing evidence-based best practices such as healthy learning habits and routines.
Community Building
Orienting families to their new community and helping them build social connections through children’s extracurriculars and parent get-togethers.
Why Community Building?
Strong social networks and a sense of connectedness to one’s community are tied to positive outcomes for children and their parents. Given that, and because every family that enters our program is moving to a new neighborhood, we have a program specifically dedicated to helping families get plugged into their new community.
How it Works
Our Community Program has three main components: (1) helping families to get oriented to their new community, (2) providing assistance with extracurricular and summer program enrollment and scholarships, and (3) offering parents the opportunity to participate in periodic gatherings with other Partners in Opportunity parents in a small group setting.
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Orientation to the Community
One of the main goals of our Community Program is to help incoming families to get oriented to their new community. Our staff provides incoming families with a neighborhood guide, conducts neighborhood tours, and ensures that parents are aware of community and school events.
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Extracurricular and Summer Programs
Extracurricular activities and summer programs are an important way to get to know other families in the community, and all school-age children in our program participate in these types of enrichment activities. Our staff plays a hands-on role in helping families to identify high quality programs that align with their interests and in securing scholarships for those programs. Partners in Opportunity students have participated in a wide range of extracurricular activities and summer programs, including art, theater, football, volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, STEM-themed camps, tutoring, faith-based programs, and even fly fishing.
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Parent Gatherings
Finally, we offer parents the opportunity to participate in periodic gatherings with other Partners in Opportunity parents. These gatherings, which range from small group dinners to college tours to get-togethers with outside speakers, provide parents with opportunities to gain inspiration from, and build relationships with, other parents who are on a similar journey.
Mentorship
Connecting parents with a trusted mentor who provides guidance, accountability, and support.
Why Mentorship?
Parents in our program are navigating a series of challenging transitions and life events simultaneously. All have recently moved to a new community, all have children attending new schools, and most have recently changed jobs or are planning to do so. Connecting parents with a mentor provides them with an outlet to casually, yet intentionally, process all of this change as they steer their family on a course toward stability and opportunity.
How it Works
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Every Partners in Opportunity parent is matched with a mentor who has some shared interest or experience, or some relevant area of expertise. Mentors are generally 10-20 years older than the parent.
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Parents and mentors meet monthly to talk about goals, relationships, parenting, challenges, and dreams, all while forming a lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.