1. WE ARE FAMILY: PARENT
ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES
FOR
MENTORING/AFTERSCHOOL
PROGRAMS
United Way of Palm Beach County
West Palm Beach, Florida
August 28th

2. Thank
 Gary Graham Mentoring Initiative
Director United Way of Palm Beach
County Countess de Hoernle Community
Campus 2600 Quantum Blvd. | Boynton
Beach, FL 33426 O: 561.375.6638 | M:
561.715.5514 | F: 561.375.6666

3. Learning Objectives
 Objective 1: to identify organizational
challenges with engaging parents of
clients/customers
 Objective 2: to learn theories about parental
engagement
 Objective 3:to learn and share cross-sector
promising practices
 Objective 4: to demonstrate practices that
improve parent engagement at their respective
programs

4. Introductions
 Welcome
 Introductions
 who you are
 what organization
 job title
 what is the one thing you would like to learn

5. What do you want to learn?
 Parking Lot
Questions
 Finish the sentence
 -Go around the room and complete
one of these sentences (or
something similar): The best job I
ever had was..
The worst project I ever worked on
was.
The riskiest thing I have ever done
was.
 This is a good technique for moving
on to a new topic or subject. For
example, when starting a class and
you want everyone to introduce
themselves, you can have them
complete "I am in this class
because..." You can also move on to
a new subject by asking a leading
question. For example if you are
instructing time management, "The
one time I

6. Challenges
 List the challenges that your organization has
with engaging families?
 Take 10-15 minutes with group?

7. What is Parent Engagement?
 How does your
organization define
parent
engagement?
 What does it look
like?
 How does your
organization define
engagement?
 What does it look
like?
Mentoring After-school

8. Definition
 Parent engagement is ____________?
 Each organization must define this for itself
and ensure that all staff internalize these core
values

9. PARENT ENGAGEMENT
 Parent engagement is not a single event but a
process that evolves over time. Kathleen
Hoover-Dempsey and her colleagues have
identified three factors in determining parent
involvement:
 Whether parents believe they should play an
active role in their children’s education and have a
positive sense of self-efficacy for helping their
children learn
 Whether the school welcomes and invites their
involvement
 Whether parents’ life context (socioeconomic
situation, knowledge, skills, time) supports

10. Parent Engagement Challenges
 Staff perceptions of parent disinterest
 Parent schedules—work hours, 2-3 jobs
 Parentification of older youth
 Meeting fatigue
 Poor alignment of parent-staff of
program/school event times

11. Parent Blaming-Disconnect
 http://www.washingt
onpost.com/posteve
rything/wp/2014/07/
30/stop-blaming-
black-parents-for-
underachieving-kids/
 Are Parents
Disengaged?
 Are
Programs/Schools
Disengaged?
 DISCONNECT???

12. What is Parent Engagement?
 Define for each program
 Sign contract to attend several events
 Availability
 Phone, lunch break, home visit on weekend, weekend activities, (parenting
classes-teach how American educational system), check homework,
encourage children to check the locker
 Helping staff understand the challenges of low income/working
class/immigrant
 For example, Salvadorean immigrant takes kids to their jobs to keep out of
trouble, or to finish work and be safe---take and do homework, go to sleep
working
 Parent advocate, using the system, authentic voice, parent panel—credible
messenger

13. Henderson & Mapp
A New Wave of Evidence, 2002
 Effective programs to engage families and
community embrace a philosophy
of partnership. The responsibility for
children’s educational development is a
collaborative enterprise a among parents,
school staff, and community members...a
comprehensive approach to improve
student achievement is key.

14. What does the research say?
 Research findings
 Most of the literature is focused on school-
parent engagement
 Very little in mentoring and afterschool
 But some information is transferrable

15. WHY DOES PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS
MATTER?
 No matter what their family income or
background may be, students with involved
parents are more likely to:
 Earn higher grades and test scores
 Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn
credits
 Attend school regularly
 Have better social skills, show improved
behavior, and adapt well to school
 Graduate and go on to postsecondary
education.

16. 3 Types of Parent Engagement Practices
 Involving
 Engaging and
Serving
 Collaborating
 What type of
practice is your
organization using?
 Why?

17. Chronicle on Youth Mentoring
 One of the more complicated aspects of running a
youth mentoring program is figuring out how and
when to engage parents and other family
members.
 Parents can play a crucial role in supporting the
relationship between a mentor and mentee, but
programs often struggle to facilitate their authentic
engagement and define parent roles and
responsibilities.
 Some programs offer a wealth of services and
supports to parents to nurture their engagement,
while other programs don’t ask parents for much
beyond just allowing their child to participate

18. Afterschool Program
Engagement
 A research review
examining the
characteristics and
activities that effectively
support parent
engagement found that the
most successful programs
share a number of key
characteristics. Many
successful afterschool
programs:
 Promote a welcoming
environment
 Address misconceptions
that may be held by
teachers and parents
about the role of parent
engagement
 Use resources toward
supporting increased
parent involvement,
 Understand the effect of
children's home
environment on their
academic performance,
 Organize the program
structure to encourage
parent engagement, and
 Provide parents with the
information and tools to
support their children's
academic success

19. Parent Engagement Research
 Best Practices--Findings

20. Spencer and Basualdo-Delmonico,
A.
 Engaging and serving families: This approach is characterized by “…active
effort on the part of the staff to incorporate parents in the mentoring
process in meaningful and productive ways that were attuned to both the
strengths possessed by the family and the challenges they faced” (pg. 79).
 Staff engage in practices that serve to strengthen the
relationship with parents including home visits to get to know the family
system.
 Staff convey value and respect for parents including
communicating the value that parent check-ins/reports add, and the
understanding that mentors are added support rather than replacements
within youth’s existing family system.
 Programs adhere to the philosophy that “healthier families
lead to healthier mentor-youth matches” and thus use their community
connections to broker access to resources for families when possible.
 Programs create opportunities for families to learn from and
support one another (e.g., parent advisory councils and parent only social
nights).

21.  Collaborating with families: This approach is characterized by
an “…articulation of a team approach to promoting the
youth’s development and supporting the mentor-youth dyad,
with the parent serving as an equal and significant member of
this team” (pg. 79-80).
 Parents are experts of their child’s needs and are
enlisted as assets/allies with a voice within the mentoring
process.
 Staff engage parents in a respectful and non-
judgmental manner in order to facilitate bidirectional
communication and perspective taking between parents and
mentors.
 Program practices acknowledge parent’s
decision-making power (e.g., parent-mentor meeting prior to
match initiation).

22. P.E. Toolkit
 Building a parent
engagement toolkit?
 What does your
program do
currently that works
or doesn’t work?
Spend 10-15 minutes
writing down how your
organization
“connects with
parents.”

23. What do schools do?
 http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Other-Resources/Family-and-
Community-Engagement/Getting-Parents-Involved/Sample-Best-
Practices-for-Parent-Involvement-in-Sc
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiHMZuxsgUw

24. Target Marketing
 Know your audience
 Strategies that work for middle class parents
don’t work with low-income families and vice-
versa

25. Parent Engagement Research
 http://www.albany.edu/chsr/UnderstandingPare
ntEngagementtoEnhanceMentoringOutcomes.
shtml

26. Parent Engagement
 Reunification—
parent and child
 Partner with InMed
 Parenting Skills
 Discipline with
Dignity
 Parent Advocacy in
system/schools

27. Best Practices
 Accommodate parents' work schedules.
 Accommodate language and cultural
differences.
 - See more at:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr200
.shtml#sthash.1BicxfKz.dpuf

28. Scenarios
 Develop scenarios for training
 Mentoring
 After-school

29. Scenario 1
 Mentoring or Afterschool Program is
organizing a Parent Orientation to explain
program details

30.  Research has shown that engaging families
through youth development and after-school
programs may benefit children.
 Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Family PLUS
initiative.

31. Review Parent Engagement
Topics
 http://www.practicalparent.org/toc-english.html

32. Challenges
 Yet families and programs face numerous
challenges to implementing family strengthening
and engagement efforts. Parents’ work schedules
and time con- straints, transportation and child
care needs, family culture and language, and
residence outside of the neighborhood create
obstacles to family engagement (Debord, Martin,
& Mallilo, 1996; Weiss & Brigham, 2003).
Inadequate staff- ing and funding as well as
negative staff attitudes towards families or an
overall unwelcoming atmosphere prevent some
programs from effectively attracting families
(Intercultural Center for Research in Education,
2005; James & Par- tee, n.d.; Robinson &
Fenwick, 2007; Weiss & Brigham, 2003).

33.  Section 3. Communicating within the Family
 3.1 Communicating effectively with children at all
stages
 3.2 Developing Digital Responsibility
 3.3 Expressing and communicating feelings and
emotions
 3.4 Identifying family communication patterns
 3.5 Communicating with children about sexuality
 3.6 Dealing with anger in the family
 3.7 Helping children learn to manage and resolve
conflict peacefully
 3.8 Defusing family disagreement

34.  RULES FOR REACHING OUT TO PARENTS
 Be positive.
 Focus on the child.
 Emphasize their child’s strengths.
 Be sincere.
 Don’t talk down to parents.
 Don’t talk over their heads...watch the jargon.
 Don’t criticize their parenting skills.
 Avoid touching or being overly familiar with parents who don’t know you.
 Never assume parents don’t care about their children.
 Be aware of cultural stereotype statements, such as:
 “you people”
“you’re different from other _______ people” “many of my friends are
__________”
 Don’t blame or point out their weaknesses.

35.  BENEFITS OF PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT HIGHER
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
 Students achieve more, regardless of socioeconomic status,
ethnic/racial background, or the parents’ education level.
 Students have higher test grades and test scores, better
attendance, and complete homework more consistently.
 Students have higher graduation rates and greater enrollment rates
in postsecondary education.
 Student achievement for disadvantaged students improves
dramatically.
 STUDENT BEHAVIOR
 Students exhibit attitudes and behaviors that are more positive.
 Students have more self-confidence and feel school is more
important.
 Student behaviors such as alcohol use, violence, and other
antisocial behaviors decrease.

36.  CULTURE
 Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better
when parents and professionals work together to bridge the
cultural gap between home and school.
 The school’s practices to inform and involve parents are
stronger factors in whether parents will be involved in their
children’s education than are parent education, family size,
and marital status.
 Successful schools engage families from diverse
backgrounds, build trust and collaboration, recognize and
respect and address family needs, and develop a partnership
where power and responsibility is shared.
 For low-income families, programs offered in the community
or at a faith-based organization or through home visits are
more successful than programs requiring parents to come to
the school.

37.  AGE
 • Parent involvement clearly benefits students in the early years, but
continued parental involvement shows significant gains at all ages and all
grade levels.
 • Middle school and high school students make better transitions, maintain
the quality of their work, and develop realistic plans for the future.
 SCHOOL QUALITY
 • Schools with parent-teacher organizations have higher student
achievement.
 • Improved teacher morale and higher ratings of teachers by parents.
 • When schools are held accountable, school districts make positive
changes in policy and practice, improve school leadership and staffing,
secure resources and funding to improve the curriculum and provide after
school and family support programs.
 • Schools have more support from families and more respect in the
community. • Schools make greater gains on state tests.

38. WRITE DOWN Ten things
Programs want parents to do Parents want programs to do

39. Parents/Mentors/Afterschool
 Access
 Improve
 Acquaint
 Individualize
 Communicate
 Inform
 Conduct
 Initiate
 Coordinate
 Involve
 Develop
 Organize
 Encourage
 Prepare
 Establish
 Respect
 Identify
 Trust
 Implement
 Stimulate

40. Helpful Materials
 Parent Engagement
Handbook
 http://massmentors.org/sites/
default/files/Parent%20Engag
ement%20Handbook%20MM
P%20Web.pdf
 (1)Henderson, A, & Mapp K,
A (2002). New Wave of
Evidence: The Impact of
School, Family and
Community Connections on
Student Achievement,
Southwest Development Lab,
Austin Texas.
 (2)Go to the Center on
School, Family, and
 BGCA Family Plus
http://files.eric.ed.go
v/fulltext/EJ908207.
pdf

41. Organizational view
 How does your
organization view
parents and families?
 Create a parent
survey to determine
“parent satisfaction”
as customers
 Create a parent
advisory board made
up of credible
messenger from the
parents and let the
parents
lead/organization just
facilitator

42. What organizations can do
 Focus programs to support parents as advocates for change
and partners in school improvement as well as programs that
support parents as helpers at home.
 Educate and support parents with courses and training on
specific topics (GED, college credit, family literacy) and
general skills (effective communication, decision-making,
negotiation, mediation) so they can support their children’s
education.
 Sponsor workshops to improve parent knowledge of school
policies, procedures, graduation requirements and post
secondary school preparedness.
 Provide activities that promote fellowship and leadership –
parents building relationships with people like them will help
with their own role construction and sense of efficacy.
 Recruit parent leaders who are representative of the student
population to attend conferences and trainings on education
issues.

43. Parent Engagement
 Scenario (for training)
 Handbook--elements
 Orientation—parent orientation