Disclosures
This community narrative was written by Siani Bolling, a parent organizer with Lift Every Voice Philly.

In 2021, on the first day of school for my kindergartner, I entered the schoolyard excited to meet his teachers and introduce myself and my son. Instead, I found myself waiting with other anxious parents and their children. Not a single adult was in the schoolyard to welcome us into our new school community.

Eventually, an administrator opened a side door and told us to send the children in, and that staff would direct them to their classes.
It was chaotic. Parents were crying and disoriented. I watched older children help younger children into the building. I did what we were told, but I will never forget how my son looked back at me, confused about why I was sending him off alone into a building with strangers. I cried as soon as he walked through the door.

I felt defeated. I wanted so much more for him.

My first day as a Philly school parent taught me an important lesson about how too many of our schools treat Black families. So often, we are treated like outsiders and threats while our children are treated without basic dignity.

Soon after, I became a founding member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black-led parent organizing group working to transform Philly public schools. I attended my first meeting. I found a community of parents who had the same concerns and were ready to act together. That’s where everything shifted.

At my son’s school, we organized and won changes: meetings with the principal, consistent communication with families on academics, and safer, more structured drop-off practices. We quickly expanded to five other neighborhood schools to fight for and win full-time nurses in 98% of Philadelphia schools, a crisis that the District had failed to address with urgency.

I learned my child was not alone. As we grew in relationships and numbers, we began to see clear patterns, and we launched our first citywide campaign.

My son would ask to stay home because he didn’t like going to school. When I asked why, he would say that he didn’t have fun, he was anxious. I knew that no amount of parent encouragement can make a child want to be in a place that does not support their most basic needs.
Through our Joy in Schools campaign, we surveyed 600 parents across Philadelphia. Across our schools, children faced joyless, anti-Black, dehumanizing practices — no recess, silent lunches, collective punishment, and limits on water and bathroom breaks. As members, we were uniting across schools and neighborhoods. By sharing our stories with each other, and demanding action from our leaders, we were building power that turned isolated pain into collective action. We spoke at School Board and City Council hearings. We canvassed outside of schools, brought in more families, and took our stories to the press. We went from waiting months for a meeting with district leadership to holding regular meetings to develop the district’s first-ever wellness policy.

After nearly two years of organizing, we won.

Last month, the School District adopted its first-ever student Wellness Policy, establishing clear protections for students’ basic needs and well-being. We transformed a limited nutrition and physical education policy into something much stronger. We ended collective punishment and silent lunches. We won Philadelphia’s first-ever daily recess guarantee. And when the District fell short on bathroom and water breaks, we kept pushing until those rights were guaranteed too, because we refused to settle for partial victories.


This win didn’t come from the top down. The Joy Campaign is bigger than any single policy. The challenges our children face in school are not inevitable. They are the result of decisions, and they can be changed.

Even as we celebrate, we know our work is not done. Right now, we are working with the District on implementation and enforcement of the new wellness policy, and sharing the new rights directly with parents at school pick-up and drop-off.

Recently, I had my second child, and my life looks different now than it did on the first day of school with my oldest. I no longer feel powerless. I’ve learned that when we are on our own, we can be silenced, blamed and ignored. But I’ve also learned that there is power in numbers. I am proud to be a member of Lift Every Voice Philly. And we will keep organizing, building power, and fighting until we have flourishing schools that honor our children.

 

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This story is part of Generocity’s 2026 Flourishing Series, supported by People’s Media Fund

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