Resources for Increasing Participation of Apathetic Parents

[Anonymous]

Agreed. It is not about focusing on apathetic parents or assuming that parents are apathetic. It is about a lot of relationship building, trust building, and talent searching. Find people who care and have a vision for the school. Challenge them to step up around their vision and to use their talents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked with an after-school program for low-income kids with four sites that held workshops for families with literacy activities. The one that was most sucessful with parent involvement focused on creating events that busy families wanted to come to:

-serve dinner, not always pizza
-send kids home with stickers on their shirts with a reminder of the family activity that day
-have activities that anyone can do regardless of whether they can read--one family workshop was assembling small bookcase kits and giving the families a few books for their new bookshelves
-have meetings led by bilingual leaders or translate between Spanish and English (have announcements about meetings in both languages)

Yes yes yes. That can be a huge cuktural barrier! But in my experience you can get past it. It may seem like apathy but in reality it is intimidation.





-understand that many low-income and immigrant families desperately want their kids to get an education, but don't think of it as something they can really help with. They often assume that teachers, as professional educators, are best able to teach their kids and feel hesitant about getting involved at school, especially if they didn't do so well in school themselves. This is in addition to the practical barriers of time and transportation
-many people do not like to come to evening meetings in high-crime areas, especially when it gets dark early, especially if they do not have a car. Meeting on Saturdays during the day may work better.

[Anonymous]

Also if you have a bilingual or trilingual population, you HAVE to do everything in two languages. Not just some things, which means you can do 1/2 as much at any meeting. But for long term success and buy in it must be done this way. The best thing is to have co-chairs for everything, with each language represented.