Meet Marissa Benson | Creative marketer & parent of 3

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marissa Benson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marissa, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Our nonprofit, Parent Engagement Network, offers parenting education for the entire journey. We offer classes with a strength-based approach; it is crucial for us to take the fear and shame out of parenting, to talk about hard and complicated topics, and give evidence-based information to empower parents today. We focus on what’s important to parents *today*, always evolving what we offer based on changing needs.

What should our readers know about your business?
Parent Engagement Network is a nonprofit with a limited budget and no consistent funding. I love the creative part of my job but I enjoy the variety of what I get to take on: representing PEN at community events, seeking out new presenters, overseeing grant implementation. At the beginning of Covid-19, the small group of us at PEN had a meeting with a nonprofit consultant to decide if we could or should go on. I’m a fan of PEN because it has helped me to reparent myself and build a toolbox of parenting skills that were not modeled for me. I am driven by the work of breaking generational trauma and pain, so our parenting education (focused on empowerment instead of fear, connection instead of punishment) helps everyone like me who wants to do better by our kids. It’s evidence-based information that gives us practical skills to use today, and throughout parenting. Having a passion for what PEN offers, I made a strong plea that we give ourselves 6 months to rebuild and then reassess. The team agreed and dug in to the work and in that time, we raised enough money to hire a part-time Executive Director, recruited several new board members, rebranded, and reinitiated our programming for parents. We served over 300 parents this year–we’re going strong!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to give the shoutout to PEN’s Board Chair Kathy Valentine and Program Director Paula Nelson. They have been doing this work for over 20 years and kept it going despite a multitude of challenges over the years. I found PEN as a parent myself, and the education I’ve received has changed my life as a parent and inspired me to join them in keeping it going.

Website: parentengagementnetwork.org

Instagram: www.instagram.com/parentengagementnetwork/