Dear Friends & Supporters of CADRE:

It is hard to believe, but this coming August CADRE will be celebrating our tenth anniversary.  We have spoken with nearly 5,000 South LA parents, built a grassroots base of 250 parents, developed an organization driven by parents, trained 750 parents, fundamentally altered school discipline policy, and demonstrated that parents can monitor and hold schools accountable.  We are now on our way to dramatically reducing suspensions in South LA and increasing the graduation rate by 2015.  As we aim for our next level of impact, we invite you to continue your support and partnership at the next level – by attending and/or sponsoring our 2011 Annual Fundraiser.

We can definitely count many blessings that have given CADRE boldness and staying power – this past decade would not have been possible without the unwavering commitment of some amazing parents, such as Roslyn Broadnax, a life-long resident of South Los Angeles.  She attended Bethune Middle School and graduated from Fremont High School.  As a child she lived in public housing at Imperial Courts along with 10 brothers and sisters and her parents.  Roslyn is a product of “pushout” during the 1970s.  Although she received her high school diploma, she attained only a 6^th grade level of academic achievement, and feels the school teachers simply pushed her through.  She now knows and recognizes she is dyslexic, the real reason she had so much difficulty spelling, reading, and understanding academics during her school years.  Unfortunately she was never tested or diagnosed but rather was made to feel “stupid’” while in elementary school by her former teachers.

An experience such as this usually makes it less likely for a parent like Roslyn and so many other South LA parents to become confident advocates with the tools to question and challenge the education their children receive.  But like the parents with whom I started CADRE, over nine years ago Roslyn accepted an invitation to a CADRE event and began attending regular meetings ever since.  She became a core leader on our Dignity and Respect for Parents Taskforce, alongside four other parents.  For the first time, Roslyn had found a home to use her mind, heart, and spirit to build a new legacy of parent power in our public schools.

Over the next four years, this core group of South LA parents provided the backbone and foundation for our emerging organization.  Because of their decisions, CADRE has been about changing public education and schools as a whole, which has meant parents learning to change policies and practices, using their stories, data, the media, their power in numbers, and leadership.  Because of their wisdom, CADRE is focused on ending the school-to-prison-pipeline and the pushout of the children most in need of support.  Because of their vision, CADRE defines our success as the fulfillment of the human rights to dignity, a quality education, and participation – right here in South Los Angeles.

CADRE being here for nearly ten years is merely a reflection of what is possible when we not only believe in parents as the solution to our educational crisis – but when we invest, without limits, in parents’ leadership and ability to transform their families and communities, despite their life experiences, race, language, income, and where they live.  At 9 ½ years old, we are getting ready to celebrate turning 10 and bringing on the next 5 years by honoring parents like Roslyn and building a bold, steady, and active organization for the future.  Picture one day there being constant word-of-mouth, parent-to-parent knowledge of CADRE as the place where South LA parents need to be to secure a quality education for their children.

Join us in painting and making that picture a reality.

Always in spirit,

Maisie Chin
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE)