Strategy 1: Home visits
The home is a logical place to conduct parent outreach, particularly when working with parents that, for a variety of reasons, don’t feel comfortable approaching the schools that serve their children. The home environment can provide a non-threatening space for parents to ask questions and share their concerns about their children’s postsecondary education options. Many of the programs we studied used home visits as a means to convey important information about how the family could work together to prepare the children for college. They also used visits as opportunities to build or strengthen connections between the parent and the child’s school.
‘We’ll stick this out’
Home visits play a central role in the Padres Promotores de la Educación program in Santa Ana, California. Through the program, a cadre of Latino parents is trained annually to go out into their community and deliver information about the K-12 educational system and the steps required to pursue postsecondary education. This peer-to-peer approach was adapted from an internationally-recognized health promotion model. Promotores conduct a specified number of initial and follow-up home visits a month, and receive a stipend for their efforts. They also receive ongoing training to sharpen their communication skills and deepen their knowledge about California’s postsecondary education requirements.
Promotores often find that, though the parents whose homes they visit sorely need information about the U.S. school system, what they truly crave is the personal connection that the program provides. Since many of Santa Ana’s residents live in fear that their undocumented status will be discovered, they limit their interactions with the outside world. As a result, they are alone in facing the challenges of raising an adolescent, and they don’t see a way to stay involved in their children’s lives. “We tell them, ‘I’ve been there and I know it’s hard, but we are going to stick this out because our kids need us now more than ever,’” explains Rosa Harrizon, a leader in the program. Establishing this shared experience paves the way for the messages that follow concerning increased involvement in the children’s schools.
“Knock and Talks”
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, another group of parents can be found knocking on their neighbors’ doors. These parents volunteer at Family Centers established at a number of middle and high schools through the ENLACE Albuquerque program. Family Center volunteers serve as resources to students, families, and school personnel. “A lot of times, a school principal will give the Family Center a list of the kids who haven’t been coming to school and ask them to make a home visit,” says Karen Sanchez-Griego, director of the program. “Then the parents go out and say, ‘I’m your neighbor from 8 th Street. I’m not a school employee, but I’m here because I’m concerned that your child hasn’t been going to school.’” The volunteers then provide the families with the resources needed to integrate the child back into the school.
In all their work with parents, the Family Center volunteers communicate the idea that the school is a place that welcomes parent involvement. “We want parents to know that the educational institution is open to them. They can walk through the school doors, they can ask questions, and they can participate,” notes Sanchez-Griego. At a time when federal mandates call for increased parent involvement in schools, this type of message is being touted across thousands of schools in the U.S. The Albuquerque parent volunteers can deliver it with uncommon effectiveness and credibility because of their unique position at the school.
A Part of the Family
Through its mentorship program, the ENLACE y Avance program regularly sends undergraduate students from the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB) to the homes of the 35 families that make up the program cohort. In their junior or senior year, the UCSB undergraduates commit to working with a particular school-age student and that student’s family during the course of an academic year. They receive training prior to starting their mentoring relationship, and they enroll in a sociology course designed to inform and document their experience as mentors. The program also supplies a stipend, provided the students keep up with their mentoring responsibilities.
“Undergraduates spend at least ten hours a week in the mentorship
program,”says Claudia Martinez, director of ENLACE y Avance. “That
could mean making one or two home visits, going to after school tutoring
class with your student, or taking your student to visit a college campus.”During
the home visits, mentors might help parents interpret their child’s
report card, or emphasize the importance of taking college preparatory courses
in high school. The program’s parent outreach coordinator, who is also
an adjunct member of the counseling staff at the students’school, stays
in close contact with all mentors. This link to the coordinator helps the
mentors understand their students’academic needs and communicate these
to the families.
The home visit often serves as a first bridging activity, breaking down the initial barriers between home and school. The programs in our study often used home visits with the understanding that parents’involvement would grow from that point forward. In addition to using the visit to provide parents with information about the school or about their child’s progress, programs also used home visits as opportunities to invite parents to attend school- or university-based events. Receiving a personal invitation made it much more likely that parents would actually show up at an event, thus opening the doors for the next level of involvement.
