Bibb County parents will soon have an opportunity to tell the school district what their needs are at a catered event featuring a motivational speaker from out of state.

The Mentor’s Project, a program that aims to connect at-risk students with working professionals and college students, is trying to get parents signed up for a “Parent Academy” event set for Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in Central High School’s auditorium.

The Parent Academy stems from discussions earlier this year during the Community Foundation of Central Georgia’s “On The Table” program, an annual event that aims to bring diverse groups of people together to have meaningful conversations about the most important topics and issues facing Bibb County.

“We talked about how so many parents just hadn’t had good childhoods and didn’t know about parenting,” said June O’Neal, executive director of the Mentor’s Project.

The Community Foundation granted the Mentor’s Project $1,000 for the event, which will feature a boxed dinner catered by Grow as well as “fabulous door prizes like a new microwave,” O’Neal said.

Instead of picking a series of workshops to offer in the future, O’Neal said she plans to survey parents to learn which ones they would most benefit from and how the district can better meet their needs. Topics for potential workshops include discipline, budgeting or interfacing with the school district.

“We’re trying to approach it differently,” O’Neal said. “We want the parents to tell us what they need, what would be most helpful for them.”

The Parents Academy event also will feature a motivational speech by Mansfield Key III, also known as “Ole Pete Key,” a motivational speaker the Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council Inc. is paying to speak at the event.

Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council is a federally-funded nonprofit that operates the county’s Head Start program and administers other assistance to low income families.

Despite passing out hundreds of flyers to parents at the school district’s recent student expo events over the past month, O’Neal said not a single parent had signed up as of Oct. 31.

To register for the event, call The Mentor’s Project at 478-765-8624 or reserve a spot online.

To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].