It all started when…

Excerpts from "Parent to Parent: a Brief History."

"In the spring of 1991, the Administration of the Andover Public Schools, in collaboration with the Health Education Department, targeted strengthening families as one method to provide additional support to the students of Andover. They initiated and paid for a series of parenting seminars titled Parent Power, Peer Pressure and Parent Networking. In the last session a challenge was issued to parents to establish a parent network for support, education and communication between parents and between parent and child. From its inception Parent to Parent sponsored speakers, newsletters, parent workshops, and discussion groups. Parents of children grades 4-8 were the original focus of the group.

Initially the speakers were presented at individual schools and funding was a combination of grant money from the health education’s dept and the particular local school. In 1992, the Pike school joined this fledging organization and began financial support in 1993.

In 1996 Andover Montessori sent a representative to Parent to Parent and in the fall of 1997 contributed financial support, joining the Andover PTOs and the Pike School. Each individual school continues to fund the speaker series. The workshops remain self-funding.

The growth of Parent to Parent led to the development of an organization structure and the election of officers. We moved from a grassroots organization, a few people with a big vision, two co-presidents and a committee structure: marketing, school liaisons, education and speaker.

In the spring of 1996 Parent to parent was honored to receive statewide recognition and an outstanding example of programming the state desired towns to develop. Our community recognition has become widespread and the quality of our program respected."

–Submitted by founding members Susan Joyner, Fran Booth and Paula Sinozich