Effective Parent Outreach Strategies Used By

Effective Parent Outreach Strategies Used By

Children’s Aid Society Parent Coordinators

• Capitalize on registration for classes and workshops. Parent coordinators implement a registration process for classes, allowing them to obtain contact information that can be used for follow-up reminders and information about other upcoming classes.

• Conduct parent outreach during after-school registration. Parentcoordinators “catch” parents when they come to register their children for after-school programs and use this time to let them know about programs especially for parents.

• Attend school PTA meetings. At these meetings, parent coordinators survey parents on workshop topics they would be interested in, learn about upcoming PTA events which CAS can support and make announcements about upcoming CAS parent events.

• Utilize photographs and video to record parent participation in various classes and workshops. These are then displayed in the parent room to “advertise” activities to other parents who may not have attended. This strategy is particularly effective when parents recognize their friends in the pictures and encourages a sense of community among parents who did attend.

• Serve as a translator/communicator between parents and classroom teachers. Parent coordinators have provided translation for Spanish-speaking parents during parent/teacher conferences and, in some cases, have met with the classroom teacher to relay or receive a message about a child when the parent herself is unable to attend (such as working parent who cannot attend a day-time meeting with a teacher). In this way, the parent coordinators are directly building bridges between home and school.

• Use popular classes and workshops to advertise new offerings for parents. Parent coordinators make announcements at classes, such as aerobics or arts and crafts, to inform parents of other classes, such as GED or adult literacy.

• Function, as needed, as a family worker. Parent coordinators have helped parents with problems such as landlord/tenant disputes and trouble with benefits.

• Conduct parent outreach during family conference days. Family conference days are an optimal time to reach parents. Parent coordinators take this opportunity to let parents know about upcoming classes and activities and may also assist parents with the conferences.

• Offer incentives for attending parent activities. Parent coordinators have conducted raffles at parent events and have rewarded parents with perfect attendance with prizes such as special certificates of recognition. Graduation ceremonies may be held for parents who complete a series of workshops or classes.

• Engage in informal conversation with parents when they are dropping off or picking up their children from school. Parent coordinators use these casual chats to ask after the parent and their child and to let parents know about upcoming parent events at the school. This contact needs to be friendly and personal.

• Consistently follow-up with parents to remind them of activities at the school, even ones for which they have already signed up. Parent coordinators call parents at home or use casual conversation opportunities to remind parents of upcoming events and to remind them to attend workshops they previously signed up for.

• Extend social invitations to join the parent coordinator for a cup of coffee and an informal chat in the family room. Parent coordinators use this strategy even to reach out to parents who have said they are not interested in classes and activities because it serves to break the ice for the parent and to bring him/her into the school in a relaxed setting. This often results in the parent being more open to hearing about classes and other involvement activities in the school.

• Offer recreational classes that are either not widely available in the surrounding community or are available only at a high cost, such as dance, aerobics, baking and sewing.

• Serve food at any and all parent events (and advertise that food will be served).

• Design open houses (with food) to orient parents to the various activities and classes available to them at the school. These should be done at the beginning of the school year but can also be repeated several times throughout the year to catch families new to the school or those who may not have attended the earlier session.

• Create special holiday events (with food). Parent coordinators have arranged events with food and created special handmade gifts for parents (often made by their children in the after-school program) for Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Summer Vacation. These events draw parents to the school and are used to inform parents about classes and workshops.

Permission to Reproduce with Appropriate Credit to The Children's Aid Society

(September 2003)