"The potential benefit of collaboration among culturally diverse communities and schools has not yet been fully realized. Social service organizations can be useful to both families and schools, offering health services to families of language-minority students, for example, and organizing meetings where parents and educators exchange information. In Houston, where the Intercultural Development Research Association has a partnership with a middle school, a dinner event strengthened relationships among families, school staff, and a coalition of local businesses. In Prince George's County, Maryland, a number of community organizations, many affiliated with the Coalition for the Foreign Born, have sponsored forums for immigrant students and their parents on immigrants' legal rights concerning education and employment. At California State University, Long Beach, the Center for Language Minority Education and Research has set up a Parent Leadership Institute that trains immigrant parents to take a leadership role in their children's schools and work collaboratively with school personnel to enhance school services for their children (Ramirez & Douglas, 1988)."