Our Parent Mentors help in the classrooms 2 hours a day 4 days a week. Twice a week they have workshops for 1.5 hours for community building. We learn how we can be active community members and how we can help our district!

A Safe Place met with our Parent Mentor Program during our Friday Workshop AKA Beyond the Classroom. A Safe Place is the sole provider of services exclusively addressing domestic violence and human trafficking in Lake County, Illinois. Through multi-faceted programs we assist victims in transforming their lives after violence, prevent future abuse by addressing its root cause through abuser intervention programs, and educate the community about domestic violence and human trafficking and how we can all be involved in ending them. A Safe Place is a recognized 501(c)3 listed under Lake County Crisis Center for the Prevention & Treatment of Domestic Violence Inc.

It is our goal that by learning more about domestic violence and human trafficking, their causes, and appropriate responses to them, we can encourage a whole-community response to the abuse in our midst, breaking the cycle of violence, thus creating safe and healthy communities. Services are free of charge to survivors.

You can find additional information about A Safe Place by clicking here or by clicking one of the pictures.

During our Beyond The Classroom Workshop our Parent Mentors learned about Denim Day. If you would like to join us please wear Denim on 4/24/24.

Here is the background about this day:

The Denim Day story begins in Italy in 1992, when an 18-year old girl was raped by the 45-year old driving instructor who was taking her to her very first driving lesson. He took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, removed her jeans and forcefully raped her.

She reports the rape and the perpetrator is arrested and prosecuted. He is then convicted of rape and sentenced to jail. Years later, he appealed the conviction claiming that they had consensual sex. The Italian Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the perpetrator was released. A statement from the Court argued that because the victim was wearing very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was not rape but consensual sex. This became known throughout Italy as the “jeans alibi.”

Enraged by the verdict, the women in the Italian Parliament launched a protest wearing jeans on the steps of the Supreme Court. This protest was picked up by international media which inspired the California Senate and Assembly to do the same on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento. Patti Occhiuzzo Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, saw this in the media and thought everyone should be wearing jeans to protest all of the myths about why women and girls are raped. Denim Day in LA was born. The first Denim Day in LA event was held in April of 1999, and has continued annually since.

For more information on the case, visit The New York Times’ coverage.

To learn more about Denim Day please click the link below:

https://denimday.org/

We are looking for Parent Mentors to join us for the next school year. Fill out the form below.

Or contact Tanya Abbey at tabbey@dist50.net

Parent Mentors, help fill persistent equity gaps by volunteering in classrooms for 2 hours/day for at least 100 hours. The Parent Mentors are supported by weekly training on classroom instructional practices and leadership training. As a result, they support each other to pursue their goals and unite the school community for long term change.

Email: tabbey@dist50.net
Location: Woodland Elementary School, West Gages Lake Road, Gages Lake, IL, USA