Invite Discussion of a Family Center                                        Tool 9

 
 
Program Action: Invite Discussion of a Family Center

Purpose
Families gain ideas for developing a Family Center in the community.

Staff from your program and others can learn about the needs and interests of families in your community and how staff can support families' continued involvement in their child's education.

Suggested Materials
Tool 9-Parent Action: Stay Involved
Optional:

    Videotape-Building Community: How To Start a Family Center in Your School 
    Book-Family Center Guidebook by Vivian R. Johnson.
    [Both items are part of the Family Center Starter Kit from the Center on Families, Communities, Schools and Children's Learning. To order, call 1-410-516-8808.]


Tips for Leaders

    · Review the Parent Action pages of this tool with emphasis on side 4.
    · Prepare open-ended questions that encourage participation.
    · Find local schools that have Family Centers and invite representatives to come to the meeting. Ask them to tell the group briefly about their center and the way it began.
Leading a Discussion
    · Start the discussion by pointing out that parents' involvement in the Head Start program can prepare them for continuing to play an active role in their child's education. One way they might contribute is working with others to create a Family Center at their child's school.
    · Ask participants to share some of their family's goals and interests. Then ask them to think about how a Family Center might respond to their needs and interests.
    · Invite participants to identify community partners who might contribute to a Family Center. Suggest that they be included in any future meetings. Brainstorm about what partners could contribute-from food and clothing to tutoring and training, time and money, and more. Think creatively about space. If no room is available, what about shared space? Or a corner of the lobby?
    · Ask invited guests to describe their Family Center and how it got started.
    · Hand out the Parent Action pages and review side 4. If parents are interested in developing a Family Center, talk about next steps. Those interested in leading the effort should be encouraged to review side 3. Suggest that all parents read sides 1 and 2 and complete the Action Steps there.

Stay Involved                                                                            Tool 9

Parent Action: Stay Involved

Outcome: You want to be involved in your child's new program.  Join with other parents to overcome challenges to getting and staying involved in a new program.
 

Leading the Way

Head Start programs make a big effort to involve parents in the program. This means that Head Start parents often develop leadership skills. They also learn how much difference their involvement can make for their child. Being involved in the public school is sometimes hard, but Head Start parents can use their leadership skills to help others get and stay involved.
Parents want to contribute

Getting involved in a new setting can be challenging for many reasons. One of the most common reasons is that parents do not know how they can get involved. This happens because parents and school staff do not communicate as much as they need to. The fact is that parents want to be involved and have much to contribute.

Parents contribute the most when they share their skills, personal interests, and cultural knowledge.

Parent Story -
One parent's success

At the beginning of the school year, I told my son's third-grade teacher that I would like to do something to get parents in the classroom.  she gave me the class list and I called every parent.  I asked them to give one hour to the class in any way they could.  We had parents bringing in native dishes, talking about their careers, copying for the teacher, and a thousand other things.  The bottom line is every parent shad something to contribute and everyone participated!

Idaho Transition Demonstration Project Parent
Action Step: Review your parent involvement experiences and skills, your personal interests, and your cultural knowledge to see what you can contribute to the program


Ways I was involved in Head Start
  • Helping the teacher in the classroom
  • Working in the Head Start office
  • Organizing parent meetings
  • Representing parents on Policy Council
  • Participating in parent-teacher meetings
  • Working with my child at home
 Skills I used (e.g. organized, good with kids)


 
Ways I can use my skills, interests, and cultural background to help the new program:


 
Parent Involvement in Schools

Parent involvement is changing in many schools. The U.S. Department of Education has many resources to help schools and parents work as partners. You can call the department for more information at 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit its web site at www.ed.gov

 
Some parent involvement challenges
 
  • School is unwelcoming.
  • Materials are not translated.
  • Child care is not available.
  • School activities are planned without parent input.
  • School doesn't have parent involvement policies.
  • Parents don't have the time to be involved.

 
Parents helping other parents

Action Step: You can find many solutions to your own challenges by expanding your personal support network to include other parents.  Create your own solutions or use these:
 

Challenge: Child care is not available at the school and you can't bring your other children to meetings.
Solution: Swap baby-sitting.
Challenge: No transportation is provided for meetings at school.
Solution: Catch a ride or share a cab with another parent.
Challenge: Materials are not translated and you do not speak English
Solution Ask a parent to translate.
Parent Story -

Parent Network Project:
Information Network 

In our school, RAIN stands for Referral And Information Network. RAINMAKERS are parents who help parents new to the country. I am a rainmaker. So far, we have helped 400 families with referrals.

We also advocated for creative ways to solve problems in school. We organized a lice-buster group, a homework club, an absenteeism outreach strategy, and a job club.

Now we have a bill of rights and mission statements to support parent involvement in schools and community agencies.

In addition, parents are always in school, test scores have doubled, and police sweeps of children absent from school have ended.

Adapted with permission from
Katharine Briar-Lawson and Education Week,
Vol. 14, No. 5, October 5, 1994.

 
Action Step: Organize a Parent Network

Parents are forming Parent Networks to find new ways to become involved. These groups organize activities and offer parents support. Review the steps below to see how you can form a parent network in your community.
 

1. Recruit parents: Remember that everyone has an interest in helping. Let them know you want to find new ways to help parents be involved at school and at home.
  • Contact former Head Start parents
  • Make an announcement at a school event
  • Talk with individuals at school events
  • Post a sign-up sheet
  • Advertise in the school newsletter
  • Ask school staff which parents have ex pressed an interest in getting involved


2. Choose a comfortable space to meet: You
can offer your home, arrange for a community center room, or use places parents go often like the laundromat or park.

3. Take time to meet each other: Parents enjoy getting to know other parents. Remember to
make new people feel welcome.

  • Have a casual get-together
  • Give everyone name tags
  • Have several people bring food
 4. Decide on your mission: Each group of
parents will have their own challenges and solutions. You might decide your mission is to:
Meet as a support group.
  • Organize parent-child activities
  • Propose new policies
  • Create an action project


5. Share the group's ideas: Whatever you find out about the challenges parents are facing, schools need to know. Be sure to coordinate any action you plan to take with staff and other parents. Use these suggestions to communicate.
 

  • Have one parent meet with the principal or attend a staff meeting.
  • Write a brief article in the school newsletter
  • Tell about the network during other parent meetings or school events
  • Invite parents and staff to meetings 
  • Go door-to-door
 

 
Parent Story ~
Parent Network Action Project: Bilingual Reading Groups

One parent who spoke Spanish told her family service specialist that she needed help to help her children.  The program decided to invite other parents and their children to a bilingual reading group in the Family Resource Center.  Sometimes parents read children stories in their own languages and other times they held up pictures and the group made up a story to go with the pictures.  Activities were done in one language and then translated into the other.  The group usually had ten to twelve children and three to six parents.

Adapted from Fairfax County Early Childhood Transition Project report

 
Making Schools Welcoming
Many Parent Networks discover that parents do not feel welcome in the school. Some things your network can do are:
    • Volunteer to contact new families
    • Post community notices in the school
    • Use a phone tree to keep parents informed
A Family Center can also make parents feel welcome by giving them information and support. These centers offer parents a variety of resources, activities, and opportunities to become a part of the school community.

Action Project: Develop a Family Center

Getting started
This long-term project will be successful if you work in partnership with other parent groups, school staff, business leaders, and community service providers. You can begin planning by asking questions.
What are the interests and needs of those in the school community?
  • Survey parents, teachers, service workers, representatives from religious groups and community organizations
  • Meet with the principal, parent involvement coordinator, school improvement planning committee
  • Review Title I Needs Assessment that tells about the school's needs and resources
What are your resources?
  • Separate room or shared space in the school or other community building
  • Free furniture, toys, books, computers, or coffeepot from people and businesses
  • Federal, state, and local government funds
  • Foundation grants
  • Staff and volunteers to run the center
 Creating centers that work
Successful Family Centers offer lots of different activities. You can get many ideas by visiting other schools with centers in your community.

Family center activities that work:

  • A drop-in coffee hour or breakfast club gives parents the chance to meet informally.
  • Family nights attract parents with a potluck dinner followed by workshops and child activities that encourage home learning.
  • Clothes closet and community job board bring support services into the schools.
  • Referrals by teachers encourage parents to use resources.
  • Media and business leaders are invited to center events in order to build support.
  • A listening center helps parents work with their children even when parents have trouble reading.



Head Start National Library Collection | BMCC Home