Parent Mentorship Program Receives 2025 Excellence in Collaboration Award

The Lake County Workforce Development Board (LCWDB) was recognized with the Excellence in Collaboration Award at the 2025 Illinois Workforce Summit, held May 8-9 in Peoria.

This award recognizes an initiative or project demonstrating how collaboration across partners in the workforce ecosystem produces high-quality results for job seekers and/or employers.

The award-winning project is a parent mentorship program, launched in 2021 by HACES (Hispanic American Community Education and Services) and United Way of Lake County, in partnership with the Waukegan Elementary School District, and expanded by LCWDB in 2024.

Parents are trained as mentors, volunteer in a classroom several times a week, and receive training on literacy, computer skills, etc. Parent Mentors who complete sufficient hours may receive a modest stipend. In 2024, the program included one Manager, six Coordinators, and 53 Parent Mentors.

In the 2024 expansion efforts by LCWDB, Parent Mentors were offered the opportunity to return to the workforce and to be paid as an intern within the school district. Through an ARPA grant, Lake County Workforce Development paid the wages of nine parents who participated in internships. Following the internship, two were hired as Paraprofessionals in April 2024, working directly for the Waukegan Elementary School District.

Two of the goals of the program are to address the professional educator shortage and the increasing need for bilingual support within the district. The internships provided a direct pipeline for parents to test out being fully dedicated to a school on a full-time basis. Ivette Martinez who manages the Parent Mentor program, explains, “Without the internship, parents might not feel qualified or know where to start.”