Parents Read Beyond The Headlines

Raquel Sanchez paged through recent issues of the New Haven Register and La Voz Hispana, on the lookout for opinion essays and articles about families — as part of a class teaching parents about the importance of media literacy for themselves, their kids, and others.

Sanchez and her classmates of fellow parents met last Wednesday afternoon and evening during the latest session of the Parent Leadership Training Institute (PLTI), run by United Way of Greater New Haven. 

PLTI is a 20-week training program designed for parents, older siblings, and caregivers to gain leadership skills, develop a community of fellow caregivers, and become change agents invested in improving systems for children.

The international program has returned to New Haven this year after a seven-year hiatus. This cohort of seven members meets weekly for about three hours at a time at the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) at 4 Science Park.

This past Wednesday, the group’s students focused on the power of media literacy and how parents can access media and use it as a resource to advocate for their loved ones and young people. Other classes in this program so far have taught students about building networks and coalitions, how local systems work, how to investigate problems and work toward solutions, and how to use language intentionally.

The session was facilitated by PLTI grads Jacquese Patterson, Retreat Behavioral Health Therapist, and Atneciv ​“Nessy” Rodriguez, CEO of Executive Leadership LLC. 

One of the students, 24-year-old mom Jacqueline Torres, read aloud a letter to the editor written by Jim Turecek of Ansonia in the New Haven Register that was published on March 19.

The opinion was titled ​“Demanding law and order” and discussed the author’s agreement with a jury’s recent acquittal of State Trooper Brian North in a manslaughter trial stemming from the death of New Haven teen Mubarak Soulemane. 

“It’s time we start holding criminals responsible for their actions and stop blaming society and the police for their criminal behavior,” Torres read aloud from the published opinion piece. 

Torres also noted another letter to the editor published below the first, written by Nick Ecker of Shelton and entitled ​“Cooperate with police.” 

The piece also agreed with the not guilty verdict exonerating North on March 15. It went on to point the blame on parents saying if they ​“would teach their children when approach[ed] by a police officer [to] do as they say: Pull the vehicle over, put your hands on the wheel in plain sight, and listen for further instructions,” then there would be no such problems. 

Torres said the two pieces particularly Ecker’s was interesting because of its shaming of parents without much context of parenting. 

She questioned why such an opinion piece would be published.

This led to a discussion about bias in media and how news articles differ from opinion pieces. The group agreed a news article should have credible sources and be unbiased by presenting more than one perspective on a topic.

“You can believe something but you need to always have space for doubt,” Torres said during the class discussion. 

Torres noted that she trusts live news videos on platforms like TikTok because they present the ​“raw footage.” She said during the 2023 Hawaii wildfires she saw news outlets saying the fires were not as severe while people experiencing the fires showed live footage on TikTok showing the actual widespread damage caused by the fires. 

Mother Kelsey Snedeker, 24, and caregiver for her siblings Valeira Garcia, 26, disagreed, saying videos can be edited and shot at certain angles making them lack necessary context at times.

Wednesday’s session was followed by a three person panel on the topic of ​“How Parents Can Access New and Traditional Media, Utilize the Media to Advocate for Children.”

The panel included reporter and Youth Arts Journalism Initiative Program Director Markeshia Ricks, radio host and Editor of the Inner-City News Babz Rawls Ivy, and reporter and Editor of the Arts Paper and co-founder of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative Lucy Gellman. 

The panelists offered the students advice about their work on creating a community project as a part of the program’s final, how to discern bias in media, and what the role of a journalist is and its impacts. 

After the panel Garcia said the conversation was beneficial because ​“if we’re literate in the media field, we’re able to find the right information or the things that we need for ourselves and the people around us.” 

Garcia has two younger sisters she cares for with help from her mother and foster family. She said PLTI has been helping her to find a community, ask for help, and network. ​“PLTI can be life changing,” she said. ​“It’s empowering to be surrounded by people who want to see you succeed and are building you up.

Torres added that ​“if we want to advocate for our children, we need to know who to go to.”

At the end of the Wednesday session the group circled up and described leaving the day’s work informed and proud.

Before becoming a single mother, Torres experienced an abusive upbringing in the foster care system. PLTI inspired her to return to school this coming fall and chase her dream of advocating for her community, especially youth that are in the foster care system.

“I came in here not knowing where to go,” she said. ​“Now it’s only been week 9 and I already know and have gained a sense of what I want to do.” 

Snedeker agreed that as a mother who has experienced domestic violence which caused her five-year-old daughter to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), PLTI has helped her to gain resources and skills to continue being a voice for her child. 

“Our young ones don’t have a voice. We are their voice,” Snedeker said. ​“We have to make sure we say what they need.”