Finding My Voice Through Parenthood, Advocacy, and Leadership
By Raven Lewis
Before being introduced to the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative’s Tribal Early Learning Initiative (TELI), I didn’t see myself as a leader or an advocate. I had recently earned my GED and was starting a journalism degree, a first-time parent trying to build stability for my daughter while wondering if I was doing enough. I was still learning how to believe in myself.
The Bureau of Indian Education’s Family and Child Education (FACE) Program opened that door. Growing up on the reservation, I knew what I knew. FACE gave me resources and confidence I hadn’t had access to before. While I was in FACE, I was introduced to TELI. I didn’t know what it would lead to, but I knew I had to say yes.
Seeing a Bigger World
At my first TELI convening, in Albuquerque, I sat with another parent, Tamara Guerra, and educators from other Tribal communities and realized the barriers I was facing weren’t mine alone. One message stuck with me:
It takes one person to make a difference.
I came home thinking, “We need some parent voices in here.” Instead of waiting for someone else to take the first step, I decided I could take it myself, and I ended up helping start a parent-teacher organization at my daughter’s school. The principal already had the paperwork ready. I told him we needed to push it forward. I set up a table at our fall festival, recruited families, and became an active PTO participant. I stepped back for a while due to school and personal circumstances, but the PTO is still going today, with sponsors, fundraisers, and families who show up.
I still ask myself, If I hadn’t used my voice, where would we be?
Learning to Lead
At a second TELI convening in Washington, D.C., I presented and I left empowered, surrounded by parents doing advocacy work in their own communities. One mentor from that trip, Elaine Zimmerman, told a story about girls in her community who needed help. She didn’t just talk about the problem. She went to the mayor and turned her concern into real support. That’s the model I’ve carried since: don’t just be vocal, advocate the way a leader would.
When Parents Use Their Voices, Things Change
TELI taught me the difference between being consulted and being supported. When parents are only consulted, they’re asked for their opinion, but they aren’t always part of shaping what happens next. When parents are supported, everything shifts. They’re given tools, knowledge, and space to lead, and their voices are trusted, valued, and acted on.
I’ve seen it firsthand. A parent I worked with suspected her child needed an Individualized Education Program (IEP) but didn’t know how to bring it up. I told her to speak from the heart, respectfully but without backing down. She did, and her child was evaluated and got the services they needed.
“See?” I told her. “You just have to learn to speak up.”
Bringing Leadership Back Home
Today I’m a parent educator with FACE myself, supporting families from infancy through age five, not just academically, but with transportation, resources, and whatever else a family needs to get through a hard stretch. Right now I’m working with a mother of a six-month-old who is also ten weeks pregnant, trying to figure out her next step in school while carrying real losses in her life. That is what supporting the whole family looks like, day to day.
I’m also pushing for a children’s resource fair to bring health screenings and community resources to families who face real transportation barriers. I raised it with our council before a TELI coordinator was even in place, offered to fundraise it myself if I had to, and kept following up for months until I finally heard it was moving forward. I don’t know exactly what it will look like yet, but I’m willing to start.
TELI also taught me that culture, language, and belonging aren’t separate from education. They’re part of it. My job isn’t to walk into someone’s home and tell them my way. It’s to meet them where they are.
That’s why I believe funders should invest in parents, not just programs. Programs create opportunities, but people carry them forward. FACE invested in me. TELI built my leadership skills. Now I’m passing that forward to the next family walking through the door.
Finding My Purpose
I started my journalism degree wanting to be a sports reporter. TELI showed me another use for that same skill: journalism as advocacy.
That became real for me during a news writing assignment. I had two days to find a local business to profile, and since my program isn’t based on the reservation, I wanted to bring recognition to a business in my own community that doesn’t usually get it. I reached out to a Native American advisor, who connected me to a family-owned Navajo food truck that caters at school events. I wrote the article, and seeing how proud and happy that family was to be recognized showed me exactly what I mean when I say I use my voice to advocate for people who don’t always get the platform to advocate for themselves.
Whether I’m writing, working with families, or speaking up in my community, it’s the same thing, using my voice for people who haven’t yet learned to use theirs.
A Call Forward
I think a lot about what makes something worth telling. My uncle worked in Tribal Social Services for years, and I barely knew him. At his funeral, worker after worker stood up to talk about what he’d built. It was the first funeral I’d ever been to that felt inspiring, and it struck me that here was someone doing so much good that I never got the chance to learn from while he was here.
That’s what I want to leave people with: something that inspires them, even a small shift.
To any parent who feels unsure or hesitant to speak up: your voice matters. You don’t have to be perfect or have all the answers. Start where you are. Baby steps matter. When you finally reach what you were working toward, you’ll look back and know it was worth it.
That’s what TELI gave me: the confidence to take that step. I’m still learning and still growing, but I’ve found my voice, and I’m using it.