Family Engagement: Adventure Central's Healthy Response to a Common Program Challenge
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Date
2018-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
A common concern for youth service providers is effectively engaging adequate parental support. Providers cite challenges communicating parent expectations and having parents demonstrate success in fulfilling those expectations. Providers recognize involving families in children's learning is key to academic achievement and overall health. Adventure Central, a partnership for positive youth development between Five Rivers MetroParks, Ohio State University Extension and 4-H has developed multiple strategies to involve families in their after-school program and has seen growing success. Specific efforts include mandatory annual parent meetings, regular family engagement programs, utilization of a parent progress report, and staff participation in self-evaluation and continuous improvement plan of family engagement efforts as part of a community collaborative initiative. This poster presentation will share successful strategies related to family engagement.
Description
A common concern for youth service providers is effectively engaging adequate parental support. Providers cite challenges communicating parent expectations and having parents demonstrate success in fulfilling those expectations. At the same time, providers recognize involving families in children's learning is key to academic achievement and overall healthy development (Epstein 1991; Fan and Chen 2001; Gettinger and Guetschow 1998; Hara and Burke 1998; Jeynes 2005); and as such, parent engagement in youth programs is essential. However, youth programs continue to struggle with how to attain and sustain family involvement. Adventure Central, a partnership for positive youth development between Five Rivers MetroParks, OSU Extension and 4-H has developed multiple strategies to involve families in their after-school program and has seen growing success. Specific efforts include mandatory annual parent meetings, regular family engagement programs, utilization of a Parent Progress Report, and staff participation in self-evaluation and continuous improvement plan of family engagement efforts as part of a community collaborative initiative. Introduced in 2011, Adventure Central has utilized a Parent Progress Report which serves as the backbone tool for family engagement and support for the program. This semi-annual report provides families with feedback in the areas of communication, youth attendance, submitting copies of youth report cards, parent volunteerism, and attendance at family programs. Families are given an overall score (1-100), and those with exemplary scores are publicly recognized for their commitment. Families with a score below 70 are required to attend a meeting with staff and are not eligible for preferred enrollment in future programs. Extenuating circumstances are taken into consideration, and families have opportunities to earn bonus points (by attended Extension-sponsored programs or other educational or family-oriented programs in the community). Overall, the Parent Progress Report has proven to be an effective method of clearly communicating program expectations with families, holding families accountable for these expectations, and increasing the positive program support available to youth, specifically noting increases in parent volunteerism and greater participation at events. Recent efforts with program staff to assess family engagement utilizing a local tool built on best practices, the Family Engagement System Self-Evaluation (or FESSE) (Adams 2014), is also providing staff with other perspectives on strengths of family engagement efforts and the ability to put continuous improvement plans in place for aspects that can be enhanced. This poster presentation will share successful strategies related to family engagement and the tools utilized to support those efforts. Lessons learned and practical tips for implementation will be included.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Nate Arnett, Educator/Director, The Ohio State University Extension, nate.arnett@metroparks.org (Corresponding Author); Angela Collie, Program Coordinator, The Ohio State University Extension; Crystal Sheppard, Program Coordinator, The Ohio State University Extension.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Nate Arnett, Educator/Director, The Ohio State University Extension, nate.arnett@metroparks.org (Corresponding Author); Angela Collie, Program Coordinator, The Ohio State University Extension; Crystal Sheppard, Program Coordinator, The Ohio State University Extension.
Keywords
family engagement, youth, urban, 4-H youth development, community
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 6 (2018).