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Homepage >The QSA Tool: Get Started with Your Self-Assessment! > Parent/Family/Community Partnerships
Parent/Family/Community Partnerships
A quality program establishes a strong partnership with families and communities in order to achieve program goals.
MORE ON PARENT, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
A quality program understands that families and communities play an important role in supporting and fostering the healthy development of young people. Creating effective collaborations with families and communities is approached with the understanding that they are assets and partners in the program’s learning environment. Creating partnerships with families and the surrounding community is an ongoing and multi-faceted effort. Specific steps are taken to ensure that information and programs are offered in multiple languages and formats.
Click here to fill out the Parent/Family/Community Partnerships section of the QSA Tool electronically.
Zooming In
For definitions of what each quality indicator might look like at performance levels 1-4, click here.
Taking Action
Program Element |
Quality Indicator |
Perf.
Level |
Timeline for Improvement and Improvement Steps |
Person(s) Responsible |
Resources Needed |
Parent/Family/ Community Partnerships |
#5 Provides opportunities for literacy and related educational experiences for the families of the participants in the program. |
1 |
Right Now |
1. Hold a meeting to take an inventory of program offerings, share promising practices, and identify successful events for families that can be replicated.
2. Bring families together to share their interest and availability to attend future workshops.
3. Create a monthly calendar of literacy and other educational workshops occurring in the community for families and other community partners. |
1. Site Director: Anne Johnson
2. School Staff: Pete Jones Susan Silver John Kim Carlos Rivera
3. Staff Members: Eddie Rivera and Jessica Rubenstein
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1. SEDL Curriculum database
2. National 4-H activity database
3. NYS Learning Standards 4. Training Facilitator
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This Year |
1. Provide ongoing staff trainings on family engagement strategies.
2. Develop a year-long calendar of workshops and educational activities for families.
3. Invite guest speakers to present on different topics of interest to families.
4. Create a plan for how to provide meaningful leadership opportunities for families, which can include coordinating peer education events, co-leading workshops, or managing the lending library.
5. Develop formal systems of evaluation that capture family input and feedback. |
Next Year |
1. Train a core group of parents as peer educators and provide opportunities for them to practice facilitating workshops and activities for families.
2. Create a family council to assist with outreach, recruitment, and program planning.
3. Establish protocols for communication so families are able to discuss concerns and progress regarding their child’s learning.
4. Build capacity of community partners to run trainings and events. |
 Tips for Success
We know that when families have a role in shaping program activities and goals, they are invested and committed to the success of the program. Consider these suggestions for fostering and developing partnerships with families:
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Have a family suggestion box.
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Invite all families to be a part of a family advisory committee.
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Provide meals and child care at meetings to decrease barriers for families to participate.
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Create a family liaison position as part of your staffing structure.
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Engage families in your fundraising efforts.
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Host family forums or discussion groups that allow parents/caregivers to meet one another. Discuss their concerns about child rearing and other family matters, and share their ideas of how the program can support them.
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Work with young people to plan and host a family appreciation event at your site.7
7 Focus on Families! How to Build and Support Family Centered Practice in After School, Harvard Family Research Project
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 Try This!
The Human Barometer
Examining attitudes regarding family partnershipscan be a first step toward strengthening relationships and communication between program staff and families. Below is an idea for starting this dialogue:
This activity is commonly referred to as the Human Barometer. Identify a facilitator who can create a relaxed space for staff to be comfortable with sharing their feelings, as they will be asked to respond to a number of statements about family partnership. Before starting the activity, post signs around the room as follows: “agree” on the left of the room, “disagree” on the right, and “unsure” in the middle. Start the activity with participants standing in the middle of the room. As each statement is read, ask participants to move to the designated sections in the room that represent their responses to the statements.
Here are a few examples of statements that can be used to begin the dialogue. Feel free to tailor these statements to fit your community and to add others:
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Parents/caregivers often don’t seem to care about their children’s developmental growth.
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Parents/caregivers who do not participate in events are not actively involved in their children’s lives.
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Parents/caregivers of teenagers have done their job and don’t need to be actively involved in program activities.
Take time to debrief to understand what is shaping staff attitudes and how they may be hindering or helping your work. As you begin to identify areas of improvement, consider how adjusting these beliefs will improve everyone’s relationships with families.8
8 Building Effective Partnerships with Families: A Guide for Teachers, Institute for Student Achievement
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Research, Tools and Templates, and Resources
Research
Focus on Families! How to Build and Support Family-Centered Practices in After School, Build the Out-of-School Time Network, Harvard Family Research Project, and United Way of Massachusetts Bay
Paper on family engagement strategies and services
Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshot: Engaging with Families in Out-of-School Time, Harvard Family Research Project Newsletter on evaluating family engagement strategies
Tools and Templates
2008 After School Parent Survey, San Diego Office of After School Education (English, Spanish) Sample parent survey
Resources
A Needs Assessment for PTAs, NYS PTA
Resource on engaging parents through schools’ PTAs
Family Involvement Website, Harvard Family Research Project
Includes a number of resources on family involvement, including the Storybook Project
From Birth through Young Adulthood: A Blueprint for Collaboration between the Early Care and Education and Afterschool Systems in New York State, NYSAN
This policy brief outlines how afterschool programs can build a system of support in which all children and youth have full and equitable opportunities to be healthy, safe, engaged, and prepared from "cradle to career" by working with early care and education programs.
Increasing Family and Parent Engagement in After-School, The After-School Corporation
Guide that provides tips to engage parents and families in afterschool, including outreach ideas, case studies, survey tools, and letter templates
News and Notes: All Aboard! Engaging Youth, Families, and the Community, New York State Center for School Safety,
Newsletter outlining several strategies for afterschool programs to use for family and community outreach
Parent/Family Involvement, Act for Youth, Julliet Coxum, New York State Center for School Safety
This 18 minute, web-based training module talks about the benefits and challenges of involving families in youth programs, and offers resources particularly for programs focusing on adolescent sexual health.
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