OUR STORY...

We want to give parents the power to change the course of their family’s history. We help break the cycle of poverty by giving students the extra help they need for success while training parents to engage as change agents for their children. We believe through structured mentoring of parents and students, and the help of resources directed at the problem, the poorest of the poor can reach new levels of success through education.

Parents Challenge accomplishes this mission through providing scholarships to families who qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program. The scholarships help these low-income families in the areas of home school curricula and materials, public school tutoring and transportation or private school tuition.  In every case, the parents choose which option is best for their child.

Our goal is to help every student along the Front Range, from Pueblo to Palmer Lake, who is falling behind and needs a boost. We understand that behind a successful student lies an empowered parent. This is perhaps more important than providing scholarships to children. Parents perpetuate the program, pass on the word, become advocates for better education, and build a community of passionate educational consumers. This force of community participants can reform failing districts and prop up schools, teachers, and administrators that need all the help they can get.

Parents Challenge began in 2000 when founders Steve Schuck and his wife, Joyce, saw the need in the most ailing school districts in Colorado Springs. Harrison School District and School District 11 were failing. In pockets of the city, entire schools were falling behind; whole populations of students were testing below grade level. The Schuck family offered tutoring and scholarships to just one school. The waiting list has grown every year. The need has been too great to fund every family seeking to better their children’s education.

Today, we have a core of 130 students enrolled in the program with each of their parents, grandparents, or guardians enrolled in our Empowerment Program. Each of these adults are required to attend monthly “Empowerment” meetings which gives them tools and skills to act in a responsible way as a self sufficient advocate for their student.  In addition, these adults volunteer at their students’ schools as well as other school related activities. We’ve built a community of like-minded advocates for our organization. In fact, the parents in our program do more marketing through word of mouth than we can really keep up with.

• “Parents Challenge kept my daughter from slipping through the cracks,” one mom says.
  
• “I got a Parents Challenge brochure from my dental hygienist. She had it in the trunk of her car,” another single mom told us.

Our parents are active, interested in education, and becoming more informed every time they attend the monthly empowerment programming. We train parents to understand their child’s learning styles. We help mentor parents through the intricate process of assessing their child’s individual performance. We also take a personal one-on-one approach with every family in order to effectively address concerns, potential roadblocks to success, and any special circumstances that may need attention.  We give them practical solutions so they can have dignity and confidence as they approach the task of engaging in their child’s education.

For more information about how we can help you click here or call Phone: 719.473.5430