Presentation” Tools, Strategies, and Activities for Communicating with At-Risk Families”

I had the pleasure of presenting at the National Parents as Teachers Conference last week.  Reflecting on my beginning relationship as a parent in the pilot program in the Ferguson-Florissant School District back in 1982, I shared the impact Parents as Teachers has made on my life and numerous others.  Initially, when I was pregnant with my daughter Anne, several of us were introduced at Parker Road Elementary School as members of the pilot project.  We immediately realized that we were neighbors, in our second or third trimester, close in age and giving birth to our first child.  Little did we know then that we would become life-long friends and maintain our support group throughout our passage through life.  We have held each others’ hands and dried each others’ tears through joys and sorrows.  Lisa and Sarah were bridesmaids in Anne’s wedding, as were Anne and Lisa in Sarah’s wedding.  Parents as Teachers fellow pilot Mom Mary Ellen has baked our wedding cakes.  (The last wedding will be this May.)  Yes, our children remained close friends, most recently sharing each others’ 30th birthdays.  (The sons are always there, too!)  At the conference, I attached materials and directions to make and take Christmas ornament/bookmark with their families at home visits that are a replica of the thumbprint ornament that my daughter Anne “made” when she was 7 months old.  (Yes, I carry it with me.) 

As I presented “Tools, Strategies, and Activities for Communicating with the At-Risk Parent”, I noted how much the Parents as Teachers program has changed since I was a Mom in the program.  In response to my query, every parent educator in the audience replied that he/she served high need families.  However, many voiced surprise when I shared that my daughter pays for Stay in Play, her neighborhood school district’s Parents as Teachers’ playgroup and would have to pay for home visits.  Mentioning social media, high and low tech tools, one parent educator shared her positive experiences with using a blog to reach and communicate with her families.  Others shared that they were using FaceBook to talk to their families.  Being a very active audience for such a large group (I ran out of the 100 handouts I’d taken), others shared technology apps and systems that they found helpful to use in their homevisits. 

We discussed the importance of establishing a rapport from the first home visit and I shared the development of a Family Facilitated Plan (FFP) and Worksheet designed for the parent to record, maintain, update, keep, own and share at his/her desire.  The FFP empowers the parent to identify and recognize their strengths and natural, intermediate and community supports that currently exist in the child’s life.  While the FFP might look like many other tools, such as, Circles of Support, MAPs, Futures Planning, Ecological Inventories, or Eco-maps, the FFP encompasses all of life’s passages, encouraging the parent to add/update any transitions or changes as they occur and take with them from one agency, service provider, or school to another.  Receiving positive responses, I encouraged participants to email me how they were using the FFP in their practice and noted that I hoped to report research results at a future conference.