Part 4: Grant Park Parents Network
By Ashley Zhu
This article is part four of six detailing the major nonprofits operating in Grant Park. Ashley Zhu is a current student at Emory University.
The Grant Park Parents Network (GPPN) started 26 years ago, when a group of parents came together with the aim to foster better relationships among the families in the Grant Park area. At the time, they noted that there wasn’t a sense of community among the families, and they sought to create an organization that would address that need.
“It was an incredible group of women, from what I understand, who later went on to form the charter school in the neighborhood, and have done a lot of amazing things in our neighborhood, and continue to be active for those who stayed,” GPPN president Monisa Chakraborty said.
According to Chakraborty, their main initiative is play groups, which classify children based on age, starting from while their mothers are pregnant and up through their schooling years. This allows young families, especially new parents, to meet each other. It also allows their children to develop relationships early on.
Chakraborty noted that in addition to providing a great outlet for kids and parents to get to know each other, the playgroups also allow people going through the same life experiences to share resources, especially regarding waitlists to get into daycares or to find a pediatrician.
“It really requires the village to help you, which is ridiculous, but unfortunately, it’s just that our area doesn’t have enough resources for as many kids that currently live [here],” Chakraborty said.
The Grant Park Parents Network also puts on a variety of community events open to the broader public. They hosted a kids’ Halloween parade that also featured the Maynard Jackson High School marching band. The most recent parade’s route snaked through Grant Park this past October 29.
Much like many of the other local nonprofits, the Grant Park Parents Network is completely volunteer run, with a board of volunteers consisting of 10 people. They handle everything, relating to finance, fundraising, communications and publicity.
“We’ve really been able to foster a sense of neighborhood and community through our organization,” Chakraborty said. “We bring together a lot of different people who wouldn’t have necessarily met.”
Chakraborty noted that the number of young families in Grant Park has increased in the past decade, and that the Grant Park Parents Network has had a great impact in bringing people together and taking care of each other.
“We call it a safe space for families and for neighbors to meet each other and to really develop these relationships so that they have a stake in the community,” Chakraborty added.
For more information, visit www.grantparkparents.org or @gpparents (Instagram).
