Are you looking for concrete strategies to create and maintain a planning team?
Would you like to enhance your prevention plan through school-community partnerships?
Do you want to learn more about national initiatives that support partnerships?
If you answered YES to these questions, then this online workshop is for you!
This event provides tips, tools, and strategies for building school-community partnerships that will support and enhance your overall prevention initiative. You will have the opportunity to review materials, participate in a series of self-guided activities, and link to additional resources. Most importantly, you will be able to discuss course content with your colleagues and learn from one another.
By this end of this online event, you will be able to do the following:
Describe the role of school-community partnerships as facilitators of prevention planning and contributors to the overall effectiveness of your comprehensive prevention plan
Identify characteristics of school-community partnerships that support prevention programming
Build and maintain effective partnerships in your schools and district
Before you begin this workshop, you should visit the Orientation to Online Events website to ensure that you and your computer are prepared for this event. Then follow these steps:
First | Go to the Introduction for an overview of the Training Center's Online Continuing Education Plan. | |
Next | Visit What to Expect for an event summary, description of site layout, and instructions for where to go if you need help. | |
Finally | Review the Event Schedule to find out what you will be doing each day. |
Once you have completed these steps, you are ready to start this event. Have fun!
Click on the icon for some welcoming remarks from Yvette Lamb, project director of the National Training Center for Middle School Drug Prevention and School Safety Coordinators. (Click here to read her comments.) |
Note: The formatting of this website will vary across Web browsers. You may want to try viewing the site in more than one browser to see which you prefer.
Proceed to Day
1: Partnering for Prevention. |
The purpose of the Center's online continuing education training program is to provide a menu of skills-based, interactive learning activities that supplement the core training. It is designed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge into practice, enhance the exchange of effective practices among middle school coordinators (MSCs), and strengthen their capacity to implement effective prevention efforts.
The Center's online continuing education events differ from the five-day core training. They are meant to supplement the training by providing you with an opportunity to deepen skills and expand your resources as change agents. The events are intended to (1) provide support for the implementation of best practices that enable organizational change, (2) build on the foundation established by the five-day core training, and (3) foster the exchange of information and ideas that can help transfer knowledge into practice.
Each online event addresses challenges faced by MSCs and highlights opportunities you have as organizational change agents within your schools and communities. Sessions focus on the planning and implementation process surrounding school-community collaboration in order to address the developmental needs of students.
While instructional programs have been important, necessary, and effective at imparting knowledge, improving existing skills, and developing new skills, alone they are insufficient to produce far-reaching and long-lasting organizational change. Solutions to substance abuse and violence lie in more comprehensive approaches and strategies that promote change at individual and organizational levels with schools and communities working together. The Center's online continuing education program provides a means of strengthening these approaches and applying effective strategies to create comprehensive prevention plans.
The scope and sequence of the Center's online continuing education program are driven by MSC interests, identified needs, and professional responsibilities. Each online event is designed to provide MSCs with skills and knowledge around strategic areas, such as:
changing individual behavior among youth
initiating organizational change in schools
mobilizing community support for prevention efforts
Implementing effective prevention programs is challenging and requires careful attention to the following:
assessing local needs and assets
designing programs to meet desired results, using measurable goals
selecting and implementing programs that are based on research
evaluating and refining program efforts
Each of the Center's online events is designed and sequenced to assist MSCs in addressing these critical factors. Materials and activities take participants through a series of steps in a logical fashion. Each facilitated event includes explanations of how to apply the methods, use strategic planning tools, and locate additional resources, as well as opportunities to strategize and engage in dialogue with the event leaders and other MSCs.
Each event includes:
an introduction
clearly defined skills and strategies to be addressed
clearly defined methods, materials, and timelines
activities
discussion time
an event summary
client assessment and evaluation surveys
In order to prepare MSCs to effectively participate in these online events, the Center has also developed an orientation website. It is designed to help MSCs obtain the tools and skills that are necessary for full participation in online events, as well as an understanding of what to expect from these events. The Center's online events are open to all MSCs throughout the country who have completed the five-day core training.
The image below represents the overall process that these events are designed to facilitate.
You have completed this section.
Proceed to What to Expect. |
For many of you, participating in an online event
is a new experience. This section is designed to answer some basic questions about online learning -- including where to go to find out more! |
Promoting Prevention Through School-Community Partnerships is a five-part workshop designed to be completed over the course of five days. It is divided into these sections:
DAY 1: Partnering for Prevention. MSCs will review the critical role school-community partnerships can play in reducing substance use and violent behavior among youth.
DAY 2: Building and Sustaining Your Planning Team, Parts 1 and 2. MSCs will explore strategies for creating a planning team and tips for keeping the team functioning smoothly.
DAY 3: Expanding Your School-Community Connections. MSCs will learn about four approaches to using school-community partnerships to enhance program outcomes.
DAY 4: Looking for More? Resources that Support Partnerships. MSCs will be introduced to federal legislation and national organizations dedicated to supporting school-community partnerships.
DAY 5: Event Summary and Wrap-up. MSCs will receive a synthesis of the week-long online discussion, reflect on the event, and complete an online assessment questionnaire.
Each online event website includes eight sections:
Event Schedule
This section describes what participants will be doing each day of the event.
Materials
This is where participants can acquire a basic understanding of the event topic.
Materials will appear in a variety of formats and can be printed for future reference.
Activities
This section contains one or two structured tasks that participants will be asked
to complete during the course of the event. The activities are designed to help
participants apply the knowledge they acquired through the event materials and
discussion.
Discussion
Each day, participants are asked to visit the discussion area to share their comments
and questions about event materials and activities. Though facilitated by Training
Center staff, the event discussion is primarily intended to be a forum for the
exchange of ideas and information among MSCs.
Event Staff
This section displays brief biographies of the event facilitators, content developers,
and technical support staff.
Resources & Links
The information contained in this section is designed to complement the event
materials, facilitate ease of participation in the event, and enhance overall
learning.
Event Support
Participants with technical questions can go to this section and submit an online
request for assistance.
Glossary
This section provides definitions of many content-specific terms used throughout
the event.
Take some time to tour the site and familiarize yourself with its layout and content.
Participants with technical questions or problems can submit a request for assistance to Event Support. Your questions may also be answered by consulting Tips for Navigating this Site, Tips for Participating in Online Events, and Tips for Using the Discussion Area. Also, the Glossary may help clarify the meaning of various terms used throughout the event.
You have completed this section.
Proceed to Event Schedule. |
DAY 1Partnering for Prevention This section describes how school-community partnerships can enhance your prevention initiative and the range of community partners with whom you can collaborate. |
DAY 2Building and Sustaining Your Planning Team, Parts 1 and 2 This section highlights strategies for creating a planning team and tips for keeping the team running smoothly. |
DAY 3Expanding Your School-Community Connections This section highlights four approaches to using school-community partnerships to enhance program outcomes.
|
DAY 4Looking for More? Resources that Support Partnerships This section highlights federal legislation and national organizations dedicated to promoting school-community partnerships.
|
DAY 5Event Summary and Wrap-up This section contains a synthesis of the week-long discussion and an assessment form. |
You have completed this section,
though you may want to return to this schedule at the start of each day. Proceed to Day 1: Partnering for Prevention. |
DAY 2 Materials: Building and Maintaining Your Planning Team
This section describes:
|
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
Schools today play important and varied roles in children's lives. In addition to fostering the development of academic skills, schools also equip students with the skills needed to lead safe and healthy lives. Yet schools cannot and should not be the sole source of solutions to the varied social and health problems of students, nor can they work in isolation. Schools require the investment, support, and commitment of community stakeholders to achieve their multifaceted goals.
As a middle school coordinator, you are charged with building school-community partnerships comprised of these community stakeholders to guide and support your prevention initiative. Many of you have already begun this process; you have discovered the benefits of building partnerships to enhance both the planning and implementation of your prevention initiative, and have found that school-community partnerships are an effective strategy for preventing high-risk behaviors and promoting academic achievement.
A collaborative prevention planning process that includes key school and community members will improve your prevention efforts. Specific benefits include the following:
School and community members provide varied perspectives on community problems and populations at risk. They can play key roles in helping you conceptualize your needs assessment, they can provide a context for understanding the information you collect, and they may be able to direct you toward other assessment efforts that have already been undertaken in your community. In addition, partners can help you determine whether your community is ready to address a given problem or likely to support a particular type of program.
Participation in a successful, multifaceted group often produces increased involvement and commitment. People who are engaged in a collaborative process will feel a greater sense of "ownership" of the prevention plan and will be more invested in obtaining positive outcomes. They will also be motivated and better prepared to make decisions about which prevention strategies or programs should be selected to meet identified needs.
According to a national study, "If a planning activity involves the participation of members of the school community, it is expected to generate greater commitment among the individuals who will have to carry out the plans that are made." (Gottfredson et al, 2000) |
Partners bring a variety of complementary skills to support prevention efforts. A well-selected group of partners can provide you with access to many systems and resources that can help you get things done. For example, elected officials can host town meetings that allow you to share assessment findings; local artisans can help you design a newsletter; school committee members have the "know how" to influence policy change; area businesses can donate goods and services not allowable under your grant; and local graduate students can help you develop your evaluation plan. Ultimately, the more involvement school and community members have in the design and implementation of your prevention plan, the greater the likelihood that the research-based strategies you and your team select will be effective.
Click on the icon for some concluding remarks about the benefits of partnering to support prevention planning. (Click here to read these comments.) |
"We have been told that our collaboration efforts have been very helpful to our schools, just to keep up on the changes in our community. We have been able to be the information line to many schools, teachers, and community members on what is happening!" Janean Knight, |
In our second online event, Identifying Prevention Priorities and Strategies for Success, we emphasized the importance of coordinating school-based prevention with broader, "environmental" strategies that address change not only at the individual, classroom, and school levels, but also at the family, community, and society levels. To implement an environmental approach, schools must partner with families and a range of community groups and agencies.
School-community partnerships will enhance your ability to do the following:
The effectiveness of school-community partnerships to improve substance use and violence prevention outcomes is supported by research. Just recently, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention released findings from a 48-community study -- the largest community-based substance abuse prevention and health promotion trial ever conducted -- that showed that community partnerships can be a viable strategy for prevention and are ultimately more effective than traditional, more fragmented approaches.
Click here to learn more about the CSAP Community Study. |
Click on the icon for some introductory comments about the importance of connecting prevention efforts to academic achievement. (Click here to read these comments.) |
Schools gain more public support and are more effective when they coordinate with community resources and involve parents and community members in school planning and decision-making.
When school personnel are involved in the planning process, prevention activities are more likely to be successfully integrated within the academic curriculum and the overall context of the school day.
Teachers and administrators gain knowledge of community resources, which they can us to classroom instruction.
Parents and community members are more likely to take action to make basic school improvements.
Students can gain skills and talents, develop positive relationships with adults other than their parents, and feel a sense of belonging to the community.
Students who are healthy and safe are better able to learn. Partnerships that support safe and drug-free schools and communities enhance the ability of children to achieve both emotionally and academically.
Partnerships and Education Reform Building school-community partnerships represents a key strategy in the connected fields of prevention and education reform. Click here to learn more. |
There is no single formula for creating good partnerships. People -- and the situation -- determine how partnerships come about, who will participate, the actions participants will take, and the process they will go through to take those actions. In fact, the types of partnerships you forge as a MSC will depend largely on where you are in your prevention planning process and the tasks that you have identified. But here are some working definitions:
Partnerships can be relationships between two or more people or groups. Partners engage in side-by-side efforts to solve mutual problems, reconcile conflicting interests, and advance shared interests. The best partnerships are mutually beneficial, structured to connect individuals -- not just their institutions or groups -- and built to last.
As defined by your grant, schools means "middle schools." According to the National Council on Education Statistics, middle school can include grades 5 through 9, though most begin with grade 6. If you are located in a separate middle school, you may want to include representatives from "feeder" elementary schools in your partnership.
Community can be loosely defined as a group of people residing in a specific geographic area who are bound together by political, economic, and social interests. For this event, we will narrow this definition to the range of systems (e.g., organizations, institutions, offices, and groups) dedicated to increasing the health and well-being of local youth. The figure below includes a sampling of systems with which you may want to partner:
As a MSC, your challenge is to determine what each system can contribute to your prevention initiative and the best ways to tap into their resources. The people you choose to include in your partnership(s) will depend on a variety of factors, including what teams are already in place, the priorities you plan to address, the activities you select, and even your geographic location.
"In our rural school in the east foothills of San Diego, we have formed a collaborative . . . made up of law enforcement, border patrol, Kiwanis, Girl Scout leaders, school board members, parents, high school and middle school administration, students, teachers, local Native American tribe representation, and others interested in school safety.
|
Click on the icon for some final remarks about the value of partnering with different stakeholders before you begin the activity for this section of the event. (Click here to read these comments.) |
Tip Sheet: Potential Community Partners |
Activity 1: "Tell Me More, Tell Me More!"
Directions: Drawing on what you learned from today's materials and your own experiences, complete these tasks:
After you have completed the activity, click here for some suggestions. |
This completes today's work. Please visit the Discussion Area to share your thoughts about today's presentation! |
Center for Mental Health in Schools (2001). School-Community Partnerships: A Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (2000). Prevention Works Through Community Partnerships: Findings from SAMHSA/CSAP's National Evaluation. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (in press). Collaboration Training Manual, Working Draft. Developed for CSAP's Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.
Gottfredson, G.D., Gottfredson, D.C., Czeh, E.R., Cantor, D., Crosse, S.B., & Hantman, I. (2000, July). National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. Ellicott City, MD: Gottfredson Associates, Inc.
Hatch, T. (1998). How Community Action Contributes to Achievement. Educational Leadership, 55, 16-19.
National PTA (1998). National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs. Chicago: Author.
National PTA (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.
| Partnering to Enhance Education Reform | |
Across the country, policy-makers, educators, and the public are calling for improved academic achievement and school accountability. To achieve these goals, new models of school reform continue to be developed, implemented, and evaluated. All aim to improve student learning, and most rely heavily on family and community involvement to ensure success. Research-based school reform programs fall into two main categories: curricular and comprehensive. Curricular programs tend to emphasize improved learning in one or more academic disciplines and usually "fit" well into conventional school activities. Examples of curricular reform programs include removal of students from the classroom for focused instruction and the infusion of new content areas (such as prevention) into existing academic disciplines. In contrast, comprehensive programs tend to focus on changing or modifying school governance and organization (though they may also target revisions to curricular content). School-community partnerships play an integral role in both types of reform models. Research-based curricula such as Core Knowledge, designed to improve students' cultural literacy, and Reading Recovery, designed to improve reading skills, promote parent involvement. Other programs, such as the multidisciplinary curriculum Different Ways of Knowing, promote both parent and community involvement. Most comprehensive school reform models also emphasize the value of bringing together parents, educators, students, and community members to define a coherent vision or mission for a school. For example, programs such as Accelerated Schools, Community for Learning, and School Development have specific parent and community involvement components. In addition, many comprehensive models focus on expanding the notion of "classroom" to include students' larger learning environment. Programs within these models often promote linkages between schools and medical, psychological, and social services. Although each possesses a distinct set of features, all high-quality school reform programs share the common goal of promoting high academic achievement among students. Building strong and enduring school-community partnerships is an effective strategy for improving both learning and health-related outcomes among young people. As your planning team works to develop and implement a comprehensive prevention plan at your middle school, be sure to determine whether or not the school is already instituting a school reform program. If so, it is imperative that you become part of that initiative. Yet even if your school is not implementing a reform program, coordination with any and all education reform efforts in your school is vital to the success of your prevention activities. To learn more about these and other school reform models, please visit:
ReferencesWang, M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (1998, April). Models of reform: A comparative guide. Educational Leadership, 66-71. |
This section highlights:
|
Activity 2: Secrets to Success
Consider a planning team that you have been involved with. What characteristics made it successful or unsuccessful? Click here for a worksheet designed to help you evaluate your experience. |
Of the many partnerships you will create during your MSC tenure, your planning team may be the most important. Team members will help guide the direction and scope of your prevention initiative and provide the necessary support and connections to launch and sustain program activities.
Each of our past online events touched on the importance of assembling planning teams to guide and support your work, either to help you conduct your needs assessment or to guide your prevention planning. But, as many of you have shared in your online discussions, bringing together such a group is not always easy. How do you get started? Whom do you invite? What elements comprise an effective team? This section describes a five-step process for bringing together partners who can help you plan and implement your prevention initiative, followed by tips for keeping the team running smoothly.
Articulate a vision. One of the primary reasons many school-community partnerships fail is lack of vision: Members don't know why they have been brought together or where they should be going. Most of your prospective partners will no doubt be overworked and overextended. Even if substance use and violence prevention is a concern, it may not be their top priority. Your ability to articulate a vision is key to bringing colleagues on board and building enthusiasm for your prevention initiative.
So . . . before picking up the telephone or cornering a colleague in the hallway, sit back and think through your reasons for organizing a planning team and deciding who should participate.
"At this time I do not have a planning team. I was not comfortable
asking people to do this until they knew who I was and what I was doing."
Jane Wildman, MSC, Indianapolis, Indiana |
Consider these questions:
Knowing why you are collaborating and what you hope to accomplish is the first step to establishing an effective partnership. Once you can clearly articulate your vision, share it with prospective partners. As your team comes together, a "team vision" will emerge. Value the input and expertise of your team members and work together to create a new, shared vision of how the group will move forward. Write down the vision and post it, publicize it, and reiterate it at group meetings.
Connect with existing teams. Once you have clarified your vision, find out what teams are already in place in your school. Are there ways to coordinate your agenda with theirs? For example, most schools have several teams dedicated to increasing student achievement or related reform agendas. Try to find ways to have a voice on these committees and incorporate your prevention goals into overall school reform efforts. In some cases, it may make sense to join an existing team and strengthen those partnerships with your presence rather than to create a brand new team.
Similarly, look at what people outside the school setting (e.g., community-based organizations, health and social service systems, law enforcement agencies) are doing to prevent substance use and violence, and consider ways your efforts can complement or enhance theirs. By connecting with a variety of community representatives, you can improve your understanding of how their respective agencies and organizations operate.
"We have a community coalition of youth-serving agencies that meets monthly to share information and work to improve services for youth . . . Those of us who attend feel it is a great place for networking and keeping informed about what is going on in the community." Wanda Millard, MSC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin |
Select partners. Once your purpose is clear and you have scoped out the terrain, begin identifying the specific people, systems, and resources that are available to help you bring about change. Make sure you can articulate why their participation is critical; this will enhance your ultimate recruitment efforts. Be specific about what you need and knowledgeable about what they can offer, and think about how the partnership will benefit them. Finally, be discerning: You want a team comprised of school and community representatives who are in the best position to move your initiative forward; not just those most willing to participate or who are trying to further their own agendas.
Criteria for Selection
|
Include parents. Parent involvement is valuable at every stage. No one has a greater vested interest in children than their parents. Their participation is key for several reasons:
When parents are involved in children's education, the benefits are many: Children achieve higher grades and better school attendance; they exhibit more positive attitudes and behaviors; graduation rates are higher; and children enroll in higher education in greater numbers.
Parental involvement in your prevention initiative can be a catalyst for increased parental participation in other school activities.
Parental involvement will result in a prevention program that is more responsive and equitable to all children.
Parental involvement provides an opportunity to influence family and community norms that may support underage drinking and violent behavior.
Several recent surveys have found that educators and parents generally agree that children do better in school when parents are involved in their education. For example, in a survey conducted by the National PTA in 1998, 91 percent of parents polled felt it was extremely important for parents to be involved in their children's education. Unfortunately, many school-based programs struggle with establishing strong partnerships with parents. It is not a lack of interest that keeps parents and families from being involved in programs designed to improve the health of their children; rather, there are often genuine barriers blocking the way. The challenge is to overcome these barriers and help parents become meaningful contributors.
Tip Sheet: Overcoming Barriers to Parent Involvement. |
Click on the icon for a tip for maximizing parental participation in your district's prevention initiative. (Click here to read these comments.) |
Finally, form the team! In any school or community, there will be varying levels of interest, expertise, and questions about substance abuse and violence prevention. How or if people join your planning team or support your initiative will largely depend on two things: Motivation and time.
Each of your potential players will have unique reasons for joining or not joining your team. You will need to understand and appeal to their specific motivations in order to bring them on board. For example:
Principals, parents, and school committee members want academic success.
Community and school leaders and professionals need to feel that they are meeting the needs of students.
Principals need to be aware of and involved in all that is going on in their schools.
Teachers who are long-frustrated by increasing levels of social or psychological problems that interrupt instruction might welcome a constructive venue for addressing these issues.
Health specialists, nurses, guidance counselors, and social workers may be interested in developing or revising new health curricula.
Unfortunately, motivation isn't everything. Even the most motivated person may simply be too busy to sign on to your planning team. Try scheduling meetings at convenient times and places to make it easier for those who are already stretched to the limit to attend.
"Most community partnerships that fail do so because there is not a clear role for participating members. Members of partnerships need to feel needed. There must be collective planning and participation to ensure buy-in and follow-through." Marlana Schnell, |
As you approach potential members, recognize that even those with the greatest motivation and flexibility may at first be resistant to signing on. Be patient. Recruitment takes time! It may take several conversations to help them understand why they should care about your initiative, how it will affect the work they do, and why their participation on your planning team is critical.
Tip Sheet: Concerns of Potential Team Members |
Click on the icon for a tip for one possible recruitment strategy. (Click here to read these comments.) |
Checklist for Building Your Planning Team Include representatives of the key groups and settings that impact youth. Select individuals who want the initiative to succeed. Select a combination of "doers" and "influencers." Reevaluate membership regularly. Add members periodically to generate new ideas and enthusiasm. Be aware of politics and don't allow personal agendas to take over. Make sure that your team is large enough to get the work done, but small enough to reach consensus. Create subcommittees when necessary. |
To complete this section,
proceed to Part 2: Keeping It Going. |
| Part 2: Keeping it Going | |||||||||
Keeping your planning team enthused and running smoothly isn't always easy -- particularly once the initial excitement dies down and the real work begins. For every step forward, you seem to take two steps back: turf issues arise, hidden agendas surface, progress slows down, or your most dedicated members become disillusioned. No team is immune to these challenges, but they needn't be devastating. Here are 10 guidelines for building a team that not only functions well as a group, but also has the fortitude to withstand potential problems when they arise. Provide leadership. Respondents to a National Association of Community Action Agencies study identify the following as the most important qualities of successful collaboration leaders:
Successful leadership requires an awareness of how your own roles and responsibilities interconnect with those of your partners, and the ability to weave together the perspectives, needs, and resources of all involved.
Establish a foundation of trust and respect. Allow ample time for relationship-building, i.e., for partners to get acquainted, understand what each needs and can offer, appreciate what constraints each operates under, and focus on shared goals. Develop a common language and framework for discussing prevention; representatives from different agencies may use similar terms that have very different meanings. Then, create an open and fair process that allows everyone to participate, set the ground rules, and shape your prevention plan. When individual members represent a broad constituency, remember to respect their points of view. Don't expect them to be able to comprehensively characterize or analyze the perspectives held by an entire race, ethnic group, sexual orientation, or faith. Delegate. Your primary role is that of catalyst. Support the active engagement of all members. Allow group members to initiate and carry out effective problem-solving and to share leadership responsibilities. Ultimately, the team will need to establish a mechanism for ongoing communication, advocacy, evaluation, and problem-solving among the individuals and organizations involved.
Communicate. Communication within the school and between schools and community partners throughout the planning process will strengthen ownership and facilitate implementation of your prevention program. Be a good listener, and make sure that team members have a clear understanding of the group's purpose and feel free to express their feelings and points of view. Establish formal communication channels, such as weekly memos or electronic mailing lists, and send out meeting notes to keep those unable to attend updated on activities; this will help them feel included.
Be organized and explicit. Plan ahead: Set an agenda and stick to it. Make sure to keep the team on track and stick to pertinent issues. Have copies of all needed information available. Make sure that members know what you expect of them -- otherwise, important tasks may go undone. Always end a task-oriented meeting by identifying "next steps" and asking, "Who is going to do what by when?"
Respect people's time. Keep meetings to a reasonable length (approximately one hour), and schedule them at convenient times and in convenient locations.
Don't lose sight of the individual. Strike an appropriate balance between group productivity and the satisfaction of individual needs. Make intelligent use of the differing abilities of your members. Get to know team members and what their particular concerns are. Take their interests into account as you move ahead. Recognize team members publicly, and don't forget to celebrate your successes!
Learn from history. Find out everything you can about both your school's and your community's history of conflict and cooperation. Learn from their successes and mistakes. Revisit your vision and purpose regularly. To keep your team from going off on tangents, review your vision regularly and assess the extent to which the team is accomplishing its original purpose. Review your prevention plan: Are you accomplishing your goals? Are you meeting your timelines? Make sure to evaluate both your program and your process. Use the evaluation data to review and revise the course of your initiative. Get things done. Avoid getting bogged down in lengthy planning and abstract discussions. Keep moving toward action and accomplishment. Long-lasting partnerships keep on acting -- visibly, energetically, and effectively.
ReferencesBruner, C. (July 8 and 9, 1999). Remarks from Head Start Focus Group on Collaboration. Washington, DC. Center for Mental Health in Schools (2001). School-Community Partnerships: A Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (in press). Collaboration Training Manual, Working Draft. Developed for CSAP's Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc. Epstein, J. L. (1995, May). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701-712. Gottfredson, G.D., Gottfredson, D.C., Czeh, E.R., Cantor, D., Crosse, S.B., & Hantman, I. (2000, July). National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. Ellicott City, MD: Gottfredson Associates, Inc. Henderson, A. T. and Berla, N. (1995). A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education. Jehl, J., Blank, M. J., and McCloud, B. (2001). Education and Community Building. Washington, DC: Institute for Educational Leadership. Marx, E., Wooley, S. F., and Northrop, D. (1998). Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Massachusetts Department of Education (2000). The Parent, Family, and Community Involvement Guide. Malden, MA: Author. National Association of Community Action Agencies (1998). National Study on Collaboration. National PTA (1998). Parents on Public Education: National Survey of Parents of Public School Students. Washington, DC: Bennett, Petts, and Blumenthal. National PTA (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service. Wolff, T. (2000). Coalition Barriers and How to Overcome Them (or Help! I'm Trapped in a Coalition and Can't Get Out!). Amherst, MA: Area Health Education Center/Community Partners. Wolff, T. (2000). Coalition Barriers and How to Overcome Them: Part II. Amherst, MA: Area Health Education Center/Community Partners. Wolff, T. (2000). Coalition Leadership. Amherst, MA: Area Health Education Center/Community Partners. |
This section highlights four approaches to using school-community partnerships to enhance program outcomes. |
Your planning team is essential to the success of your district's prevention initiative; however, it is likely to be just the first of many partnerships that you establish to support your prevention efforts. In our second online event, Identifying Priorities and Strategies for Your Prevention Initiative, we presented a variety of research-based strategies shown to be effective in reducing substance use and violence among young people. Each of these strategies can be strengthened through partnering with students' families and the larger community. This section describes four ways to incorporate partnerships into your overall prevention plan, and key elements that must be present for these partnerships to be successful.
This completes today's work. Please visit the Discussion Area to share your thoughts about today's presentation! |
Billig, S. H. A Model of K-12 School-Based Service-Learning Mediators and
Student Outcomes. Learning In Deed Initiative. Available online at
http://www.learningindeed.org/research/slresearch/model.html.
Billig, S.H. The Impacts of Service-Learning on Youth, Schools and Communities:
Research on K-12 School-Based Service-Learning, 1990-1999. Learning in Deed
Initiative. Available online at:
http://www.learningindeed.org/research/slresearch/slrsrchsy.html.
Center for Mental Health in Schools. Integrating Mental Health in Schools: Schools, School-Based Health Centers, and Community Programs Working Together. Los Angeles, CA: Center for Mental Health in Schools, School Mental Health Project, University of California at Los Angeles.
Community Tool Box. Arranging News and Feature Stories. (2000). University
of Kansas Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development and AHEC/Community
Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. Available online at
http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/EN/section_1062.htm.
Community Tool Box. Preparing Press Releases. (2000). University
of Kansas Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development and AHEC/Community
Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. Available online at
http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/EN/section_1061.htm.
Epstein, J. L., Coates, L., Salinas, K. C., Sanders, M. G., and Simon, B. S. (1997). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Parent and Family Involvement.
Available online at
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/pa0cont.htm.
Strong Families, Strong Schools: Building Community Partnerships for Learning.
Based on Strong Families, Strong Schools (1994, September) by Jennifer Ballen
and Oliver Moles for the National Family Initiative of the U.S. Department of
Education. Available online at
http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/families/strong/.
U.S. Department of Education (1998, October). Yes, You Can: A Guide for Establishing Mentoring Programs to Prepare Youth for College. Washington, DC: Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, U.S. Department of Education.
| Involving Families | |||||||
"More than 20 years of research indicates that children benefit from family-school collaborations that provide parents with opportunities to shape their children's learning." Heather Weiss, Harvard Family Research Project On Day 2, we addressed the importance of including parents and caregivers on your planning team. Families also can -- and should -- play a significant role in your district's overall prevention initiative. Young people require support at home and at school to develop the critical-thinking, social, and emotional skills needed to avoid high-risk behaviors, build rewarding relationships, and achieve academically. Research-based drug and violence prevention programs typically incorporate classroom-based instruction to foster the development of these skills, and schools often establish and enforce policies that further guide appropriate behavior. These efforts will succeed only if they are reinforced at home.
There are many ways that your school can partner with families to prevent substance use and violence, including the following: Keep families informed about prevention efforts. Communication with parents and caregivers about school-based efforts to prevent high-risk behaviors increases their awareness of the different skills their children need to lead safe, healthy, and productive lives; helps them understand what they can do at home to support the development of these skills; and lets them know how their children are progressing. Your planning team and other school personnel might consider strategies like newsletters, phone calls, progress reports, personal notes, and home visits to stay in touch with students' families. Frequent and positive communication increases parents' self-confidence, comfort with the school, and willingness to become involved.
Invite parents and caregivers into the classroom and school. Parents and other family members should feel welcome at their children's school and have opportunities to visit with school staff, observe and volunteer in classrooms, and participate in different education and prevention activities. Some schools have even created parent centers that are equipped with comfortable furniture, coffee, and resource materials.
Build family capacity to support students' health and education. One important way to promote students' well-being is to increase the capacity of their parents and caregivers to address school- and health-related issues. Consider offering family education workshops as part of your district's prevention initiative.
As your planning team examines different research-based prevention programs, make sure to identify if and how they promote family involvement. Many research-based prevention programs include tools such as sample informational letters for students' families, agendas for parent meetings, classroom-based sessions that call for parent volunteers, and manuals for family education courses. Part of your role as a middle school coordinator is to support the implementation of these and other program elements.
|
| Improving Service Provision | ||
If your prevention initiative emphasizes service delivery to students and families at risk for substance use and violence, relationships with community-based groups will be invaluable. You and your team can develop these connections in several ways: Gather and disseminate information about community-based services. To connect at-risk students and families with the services they need, school personnel must know what services are available and how they can be used. Consider working with your partners to develop or update a directory of social and community service agencies that includes detailed descriptions and contact information. Distribute this directory to families and staff and, if possible, make it available online. You may also want to schedule regular community meetings devoted to sharing information about community services, obtaining input about additional services that may be needed, and/or highlight specific topics and community agencies (e.g., Aid to Families with Dependent Children, available health services). Improve on- and off-site service delivery. Schools vary dramatically in their capacity to provide mental and physical health services to students and families. Your school may want to improve service delivery by strengthening connections with community providers. Consider working with your planning team to identify any gaps in services and develop recommendations for consideration by district administrators and others. Build family and staff capacity to connect with appropriate services. In order to make the best use of available services, families and school personnel need to be able to identify problems and make appropriate referrals. Family education and professional development can help the important adults in children's lives identify problems, connect students to appropriate services, and follow up to make sure that needs are being met. If your planning team seeks to improve service provision for students and families at risk for substance use or violence as part of your comprehensive prevention plan, a prime objective will be to promote a continuum of services. One way to do this is to establish partnerships that include representatives from not only your middle school, but also your feeder elementary and connecting high school(s). Multi-school teams are very attractive to community organizations and agencies that often lack time and personnel to link with individual schools.
|
| Expanding Enrichment Activities | ||||||
Recreational and educational programs provide alternatives to dangerous activities like substance use and violence as well as opportunities to enhance skills children need to avoid these behaviors, build healthy relationships, and perform well in school. Partnerships can enhance enrichment initiatives in many ways: Link community service experiences to classroom instruction. Service learning is an increasingly popular teaching strategy that promotes student development through active participation in and careful reflection on community service (e.g., tutoring younger students or volunteering in nursing homes). Educators are drawn to service learning because research indicates that it produces important educational results for students, schools, and communities. Evaluations of service learning programs have revealed numerous positive effects on the participants, the teachers, and the overall school climate.
Build rewarding adult-student relationships through mentoring. While parents and other primary caregivers represent the single most important influence on youth development, it is important to acknowledge that other positive adult-student relationships can also have a highly beneficial impact. Mentoring programs offer young people a sustained connection to and structured time with a caring adult who can provide extra attention and guidance. Such programs are associated with reduced high-risk behaviors, including substance use and violence, and improved school bonding and performance among youth. The transition from elementary to middle school can be a particularly challenging time for young people. Especially for those already at risk, the presence of an adult mentor can reinforce the value of healthy behaviors, the importance of school, and the skills that students need to make good decisions.
Partner with local business to provide career guidance and support. Local businesses have a stake in the education of community youth: Healthy and successful young people are more likely to patronize businesses, and today's students are tomorrow's employees. Businesses can partner with schools to support student development by sponsoring career days and providing internships and school-to-work programs. These opportunities connect young people with caring and invested adults and create safe and productive alternatives to high-risk behaviors. Furthermore, they can provide direction, generate enthusiasm, and build skills among young people that can lead them down a healthy and rewarding path.
Service learning, mentoring, and school-to-work initiatives are all prime opportunities for developing strong and potentially enduring school-community partnerships. Whether as part of an actual research-based program (many of which incorporate these elements) or as a strategy to supplement your district's research-based program(s), these school-community partnerships can enhance any comprehensive prevention plan.
|
| Raising Community Awareness | ||||||||
In order to support school and family efforts to promote healthy attitudes and behaviors among young people, the larger community must understand the nature and severity of drug- and violence-related problems and be mobilized for action. Media and public education campaigns, as well as targeted policy changes, can increase community awareness about specific problems facing local youth, garner community support for prevention efforts, reinforce school-based programs, and alter community norms. Spread the word through press releases and news stories. Working with the media can help you raise community awareness and bring community members on board for prevention activities. There are many ways to connect with the media. For example, your planning team might solicit news coverage of an event or offer ideas for feature stories. You might also write a press release to notify reporters and editors of an upcoming event or recent development. To increase the chances of getting press releases and news stories published or aired, your team should cultivate relationships with reporters and editors.
Develop public service announcements. Public service announcements (PSAs) are educational messages designed to focus public attention on serious issues like drug and violence prevention. A variety of mediums can be used to communicate these messages, including television, radio, print, the World Wide Web, billboards, buses, and subways. Your planning team might consider developing PSAs that address issues specific to your community as part of your prevention initiative.
Bring community policies and practices in line with your message. Establishing and enforcing community policies that limit the availability of harmful substances and weapons represents another critical prevention strategy. Schools can partner with local and state government, public agencies (e.g., social service departments), and private organizations (e.g., HMOs, convenience stores) to effect policy changes. Although your community may need to create some new policies, many sound policies are probably already in place; the challenge will be to promote their consistent enforcement.
Subcommittees or work groups can be created to focus on selected aspects of a prevention plan. For example, a team of teachers, parents, administrators, students, and others from the school or community might target partnerships for prevention and education reform. They could take the lead on such tasks as assessing current partnership practices throughout your district and revising or writing new plans and policies for family and community involvement.
|
This section highlights federal legislation and national organizations dedicated to promoting school-community partnerships. |
During the past three days, we have described a variety of ways that school-community partnerships can enhance your overall prevention plan. Many additional resources are available as you continue the process of creating and sustaining effective planning teams and enduring collaborative relationships. This section will highlight some of the federal legislation and national organizations dedicated to supporting school-community partnerships. You can look to these initiatives for information, materials, tools, and potential funding to help you build, strengthen, and sustain partnerships across various sectors of your community.
The following federal legislation has called for schools to support family and community partnerships:
Click here to read about other National Education Goals related to school-community partnerships. |
Title IV of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act provides funding for Parent Information and Resource Centers. Grants were awarded to "nonprofit organizations who will collaborate with schools, institutions of higher education, social service agencies, and other nonprofit organizations to:
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (EASA) "makes family involvement a priority by supporting partnerships between families and schools while encouraging community efforts to improve schools and reinforce the importance of learning." This legislation includes key provisions to strengthen parental involvement:
A written parent involvement policy, jointly developed by school districts, schools, and parents, that documents how parents will participate in the planning and improvement of Title I-supported activities and in the process of school review and improvement
School-parent compacts (agreements) to help children achieve to high standards through shared responsibility for learning and ongoing communication
Training and assistance to build capacity for involvement, including materials and education for school staff and parents to strengthen school/family partnerships
Part B of Title I legislation, called Even Start, is designed to improve the "educational opportunities of the nation's low-income families by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified family literacy program." The program, which is intended to promote achievement of the National Education Goals, is to be implemented through cooperative projects that build on existing community resources to create a new range of services.
Many agencies and organizations are committed to the promotion of school-community partnerships. Their services range from the provision of information, research, and materials to the delivery of training and technical assistance.
The Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships, located at Johns Hopkins University, is dedicated to increasing the public's understanding of partnership practices that help all children succeed in elementary, middle, and high schools in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Current projects include the development of and research on the Center's National Network of Partnership Schools, which guides school, district, and state leaders, and teams of educators, parents, and others to improve school, family, and community partnerships. Studies are being conducted on the structures and processes used to "scale up" partnership programs to include all schools in a district or state, and the results of these programs.
The Coalition for Community Schools brings together local, state, and national organizations engaged in creating and sustaining community schools. By partnering with a range of community systems, community schools can provide supports and opportunities to children, youth, and families before, during, and after school hours. Based in Washington, D.C., the Coalition has developed a variety of articles, reports, and planning and evaluation tools designed to help community school advocates understand how to work more effectively with school and community leaders.
Communities in Schools, Inc. (CIS), is an independent network of local and state offices dedicated to coordinating public, private, and nonprofit resources so youth can get the support they need to stay in school. CIS-sponsored teams rally community support for children and broker services in the schools. Each CIS operation surrounds young people with a community of tutors, mentors, health care providers, and career counselors. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, CIS currently serves 1,500 school sites in 292 communities.
The National Association of Partners in Education connects children and classroom teachers with corporate, education, volunteer, government, and civic leaders across the United States. These community partners play significant roles in changing the content and delivery of education services to children and their families. The Association, also based in Alexandria, focuses on increasing the number, quality, and scope of effective partnerships; resources to support effective partnerships; and awareness about the importance of partnerships for promoting youth success.
The National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education fosters relationships among young people's homes, schools, and communities and advocates for the involvement of parents and families in their children's education. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Coalition advocates for strong parental and family involvement initiatives, conducts activities to increase family involvement, and provides resources and legislative information that can help promote parent/family involvement.
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) is 1 of the 10 regional laboratories funded by USED's Office of Educational Research and Improvement to provide research-based resources and assistance to educators, policymakers, and communities members. Their website's Pathways to School Improvement section, intended for use by school improvement planning teams, addresses multiple issues related to school-family-community partnerships.
The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, established by staff at the U.S. Department of Education in 1994, provides a "network of support for companies and organizations working to make education a community affair." The Partnership offers resources, funding, and conferences relevant to family involvement in education.
As you learn more about the many resources dedicated to supporting school-community partnerships, make sure you don't overlook those available at the local and state levels. For example, your state may be planning to use tobacco settlement funds to build partnerships to reduce smoking and other drug use among youth. Or an area college might house researchers or funds dedicated to community development and prevention programming. While it is important to tap into the knowledge and resources provided by national organizations dedicated to this work, local resources have the potential for providing both support and actual partners!
Click on the icon for a tip for some concluding comments on this section before you visit the Discussion Area. (Click here to read these comments.) |
This completes today's work. Please visit the Discussion Area to share your thoughts about today's presentation! |
| Goals 2000 Legislation that Supports Partnerships | |
Goal 3: Student Achievement and Citizenship states in part that "all students will be involved in activities that promote and demonstrate good citizenship, good health, community service, and personal responsibility." Goal 4: Teacher Education and Professional Development calls for partnerships to be established "among local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, parents, and local labor, business, and professional associations to provide and support programs for the professional development of educators." Goal 6: Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning requests that "every major American business will be involved in strengthening the connection between education and work" and that "schools, in implementing comprehensive parent involvement programs, will offer more adult literacy, parent training and lifelong learning opportunities to improve the ties between home and school, and enhance parents' work and home lives." Goal 8: Parental Participation calls for every school to build partnerships that will "increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children." One of the specific objectives for this goal is that "every school will actively engage parents and families in a partnership that supports the academic work of children at home and shared educational decision-making at school."
|
This section contains:
|
This document, which changes each day, summarizes the questions and comments posted by event participants and facilitators the day before. On Day 5, we will post of summary of the entire week-long discussion.
Assessment Questionnaire
This brief set of questions is intended to help you self-assess knowledge gained during this event. It includes 10 questions about event content and provides you with the correct answers as well as the locations of these answers within the text.
Thank you for participating in Promoting Prevention Through School-Community Partnerships! |
| Synthesis of Discussion | |
Below you will find a summary of the questions and comments that were posted by event participants and facilitators when this event ran November 26th-30th, 2001. Many of you shared suggestions for coordinating community resources and services for youth, which included the following:
Strategies for "drawing people in and getting them excited" about a new prevention initiative included the following:
Several MSCs debated whether it is "better" to join an existing, citywide planning group or establish a school-specific committee.
Several MSCs described difficulties bringing mental health professionals on board who are willing to provide services to students and training to teachers. Suggested strategies for overcoming this obstacle included the following:
Many MSCs presented strategies for connecting prevention to academic achievement, character development, and improved personal, social, and health skills, including the following:
Several MSCs described how they have incorporated service learning into their prevention programs. For example:
Another MSC described an interesting program designed to increase community awareness and affect social norms.
MSCs also presented strategies for increasing parent awareness of and involvement in prevention activities, which included the following:
|
Activity 1: "Tell Me More, Tell Me More!"
Activity 2: Secrets to Success
| Examples for "Tell Me More, Tell Me More!" |
Example 1: Convincing Your Principal that a Planning Team with Multiple Partners Is Important
Example 2: Convincing a Community Partner to Come On Board
|
| Secrets to Success Worksheet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: If you want to print this document, please choose either the MS Word or PDF file below. If you choose this option, you will be able to type information directly into the tables as you revise or fill in the tools that are provided. A PDF file will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader and can be printed, but not manipulated. Activity 2 Worksheet MS Word (32KB) | PDF (12KB) Answer the following questions for a planning team to which you have belonged. A majority of "no" responses may indicate a less than satisfying experience. Keep in mind, however, that there is no magic yes/no ratio for success, since you may assign different weight to different questions. Name of Planning Team: _________________________________
|
Yvette Lamb
Senior Project Director
Yvette brings to the Training Center a wealth of experience in planning and developing policy initiatives in the areas of education and health. While at the University of Pittsburgh, she worked for the Office of Child Development and served as an associate dean in the Graduate School of Public Health. She has also worked with community-based providers in establishing coalitions and collaboratives that address social change. Her research interests focus on collaborative organizational structures that involve faith-based organizations interacting with traditional service providers, such as schools, health care institutions, and social service agencies.
Connie Constantine
Senior Curriculum Design Specialist
Connie has more than 26 years of experience as a health educator. As the training and technical assistance coordinator for the National Training Partnership at EDC, she has spent the past five years working with state and local education agencies to strengthen their capacity to implement professional development, both through face- to-face training and distance education. The goal of the Partnership was to improve health education, especially HIV prevention, provided in schools and other youth-serving organizations.
Before coming to EDC, Connie taught health education at the elementary-, middle-, and high-school levels and spent three years as a district health coordinator. She was also the associate director for the Center for Health Promotion at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where she has been a member of the college's graduate faculty since 1994.
Melanie Adler
Lead Materials Developer
During her five years at EDC, Melanie has created numerous print and online materials. She has written extensively on school health and training issues, and has developed several tools designed to help schools and other prevention practitioners translate research into practice. Before joining the MSC staff, Melanie contributed to the conceptualization and writing of a resource guide funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help school personnel apply the Principles of Effectiveness. She also co-directed the development of a website to support the adoption and implementation of science-based HIV and AIDS prevention interventions.
Dana Meritt Wardlaw
Materials Developer
Dana brings to the position of materials developer extensive experience working in a variety of school and community settings. Trained in youth development and prevention science, she has directed weekly youth programs; provided health education to primary grade students; collaboratively developed and administered health screenings at a school-based health center; participated in the evaluation of a street outreach program; and researched factors that influence the adoption of HIV prevention technology among community-based organizations. Prior to her arrival at EDC, she worked with the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning on a large-scale review of school-based health promotion and risk prevention programs.
Mathew Mason
Administrative Assistant
Mat is responsible for attending to the many details that keep the Training Center running smoothly. In addition to supporting online activities and responding to coordinators' inquiries, Mat maintains the MSC website and database, assists with the design and preparation of informational and training materials, and coordinates travel logistics for project staff.
Overcoming Barriers to Parent Involvement
Concerns of Potential Team Members
Establishing an Electronic Mailing List
Matching Partners to Planning Needs
Questions for Family and Community Members
Assessing School-Family Communication
| Potential Community Partners | ||||||||||||||||||
From Center for Mental Health in Schools (2001). School-Community Partnerships: A Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Author. |
| Overcoming Barriers to Parent Involvement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Adapted from National PTA (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service. |
| Concerns of Potential Team Members | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Adapted from Fetro, J. (1998). Implementing coordinated school health programs in local schools. In E. Marx, S.F. Wooley, and D. Northrop (Eds.), Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs (pp. 67-95). New York: Teachers College Press. |
| Key Leadership Skills |
The most effective partnership leaders have the following skills and competencies:
Leaders bring energy and hope to their teams through both their style and their skill. It is rare to find one individual with all of these assets. Sometimes partnerships function well with co-leaders who have complementary skills. Adapted from Wolff, T. (2000). Coalition Leadership. Amherst, MA: Area Health Education Center/Community Partners. |
| Establishing an Electronic Mailing List |
Electronic mailing lists are useful tools for communicating with and maintaining connections to the different members of your school-community planning team. Here is some basic information. What is an Electronic Mailing List?An electronic mailing list is a software program run on a central computer that allows messages sent to one e-mail address to be distributed to a group of people -- the subscribers of the mailing list. Sometimes called listservs -- because that is the name of a popular list management software program -- electronic mailing lists can be used as a tool for information dissemination and discussion among individuals with similar interests and/or professional responsibilities. Are There Different Types of Mailing Lists?While all electronic mailing lists function similarly, lists can vary in their purpose, their openness to subscribers and messages, and the manner in which subscribers can elect to receive messages. One distinction is between announcement and discussion lists.
Another distinction is between public and private lists.
A third distinction is between moderated and unmoderated lists.
Finally, subscribers can receive messages as a digest or individually.
How Do I Create a Mailing List?There are many issues to consider when creating and running a mailing list. To be effective, you will have to make a variety of informed decisions. Make a plan. Before you set up an electronic mailing list,
you will need to
Get started. Once you have made your plan, follow these steps:
Spread the word. Once your list is up and running, you will
want to let |
| Matching Partners to Planning Needs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Matching Partners Worksheet MS Word (21KB) | PDF (23KB)
Adapted from National PTA (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service. |
| Questions for Family and Community Members |
Adapted from the National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs, National Parent-Teacher Association. These and other parent/family involvement tools are available online at http://www.pta.org/programs/invstand.htm. As your planning team considers building school-community partnerships to enhance your district's prevention initiative, consider the following questions that you may want to ask to help guide your partnership-building efforts. Sample Questions That Your Planning Team May Want to Ask Parents and Caregivers
Sample Questions that Your Planning Team May Want to Ask Community Groups and Businesses
|
| Assessing School-Family Communication |
Note: If you want to print this document, please choose either the RTF or PDF file below. An RTF file will open in Microsoft Word. If you choose this option, you will be able to type information directly into the tables as you revise or fill in the tools that are provided. A PDF file will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader and can be printed, but not manipulated. Assessing School-Family Communication HTML | MS Word (32KB) | PDF (9.76KB) Communication between the school and students' homes should be regular, two-way, and meaningful. Adapted from the National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs, National Parent-Teacher Association. This and other parent/family involvement tools are available online at http://www.pta.org/programs/invstand.htm. |
| Assessing School-Community Collaboration |
Note: If you want to print this document, please choose either the RTF or PDF file below. An RTF file will open in Microsoft Word. If you choose this option, you will be able to type information directly into the tables as you revise or fill in the tools that are provided. A PDF file will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader and can be printed, but not manipulated. Assessing School-Community Collaboration HTML | MS Word (23KB) | PDF (33KB) Community resources are used to strengthen schools, families, and student health and learning. Adapted from the National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs, National Parent-Teacher Association. This and other family/community involvement tools are available online at: http://www.pta.org/programs/invstand.htm. |
| Annotated Bibliography | |
Adler, L. & Gardner, S. (1994). The Politics of Linking Schools and Social Services. Washington, DC: Falmer Press.
Borden, L. M. & Perkins, D. F. (1999). Assessing Your Collaboration: A Self-Evaluation Tool. Journal of Extension, 37 (2). Available online at http://www.joe.org/joe/1999april/tt1.html.
Donaldson Jr., G. A. & Sanderson, D. R. (1996). Working Together in Schools: A Guide for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Epstein, J. L., Coates, L., Salinas, K. C., Sanders, M. G., & Simon, B. S. (1997). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Friend, M. & Cook, L. (1996). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for Professionals (second edition). National Professional Resources, Inc.
Harvard Family Research Project. Evaluating Family/School Partnerships:
Learning from Logic Models. Available online at http://hugse1.harvard.edu/
Hooper-Briar, K. & Lawson, H. A. (Eds.) (1996). Expanding Partnerships for Vulnerable Children, Youth, and Families. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education.
Kretzmann, J. P. & McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets. Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications.
Melaville, A. & Blank, M. (1991). What It Takes: Structuring Interagency Partnerships to Connect Children and Families with Comprehensive Services. Washington, DC: Education and Human Services Consortium. ERIC Accession Number: ED330748.
National Parent Teacher Association (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide to Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service. Available online at http://www.pta.org/programs/bsp/book.htm.
Partnership for Family Involvement, U.S. Department of Education. A Compact for Learning: An Action Handbook for Family-School-Community Partnerships. Available online at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Compact/.
Sensiper, S. Generating Family-School Partnerships Through Social
Marketing. Harvard Family Research Project. Available online at
http://hugse1.harvard.edu/
Shartrand, A. M., Weiss, H. B., Kreider, H. M., & Lopez, M. E. (1997). New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement. Harvard Family Research Project. Available online at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NewSkills/.
Shaw, K. & Replogle, E. (1995). Challenges in Evaluating Comprehensive
School-Linked Service Efforts. The Evaluation Exchange: Emerging
Strategies in Evaluating Child and Family Services. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family
Research Project, Harvard University. Available online at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2000). Prevention Works Through Community Partnerships: Findings from SAMHSA/CSAP's National Evaluation. DHHS Publication No. (SMA)00-3373. Available online at http://www.health.org/govstudy/ms666/findings.htm.
Taylor-Powell, E., Rossing, B., & Geran, J. (1998). Evaluating Collaboratives: Reaching the Potential. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-System Board of Regents and University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension.
U.S. Department of Education (1997). Keeping Schools Open as Community Learning Centers: Extending Learning in a Safe, Drug-Free Environment Before and After School. Available online at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/LearnCenters.
U.S. Department of Education and Regional Educational Laboratory Network. Putting
the Pieces Together: Comprehensive School-Linked Strategies for Children and Families.
Available online at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/
|
| Links |
Drug and Violence PreventionBlueprints for Violence Prevention Building a Successful Prevention Program (Western Center for the Application
of Prevention Technologies) CDC Programs That Work (Division of Adolescent and School Health) CSAP's Decision Support System CSAP's Model Programs Drug Information and Decision Support (DIADS) Assessment Join Together Online Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program Exemplary and Promising Programs (U.S.
Department of Education) Partnerships and Prevention Center for Mental Health in Schools Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships Coalition for Community Schools Communities in Schools Community Tool Box Harvard Family Research Project: Family-School-Community Partnerships Home and School Institute National Association of Partners in Education National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education North Central Regional Education Laboratory: Pathways to School Improvement National Network of Partnership Schools Partnership for Family Involvement in Education Strong Families, Strong Schools Federal Legislation that Supports PartnershipsGoals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994 National Education Goals Title IV/Parent Information and Resource Centers Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (EASA) Provisions to Strengthen Parental Involvement Part B/Even Start School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 |
Introduction:
Hello. I am Yvette Lamb, Director of the National Training Center for Middle School
Drug Prevention and School Safety Coordinators. It is my pleasure to welcome you
to our third online event, Promoting Prevention Through School-Community Partnerships.
This event focuses on building and maintaining partnerships to support prevention
activities and promote social change. Many of you contributed to the content of
this event, and we thank you for your input.
We are always looking for ways to make these online events new and exciting. For this event, we have included audio clips throughout the materials to supplement the text, so this will not be the last time you hear from me!
It has been wonderful getting to know many of you through our online discussions. Active participation is critical to the success of this and all online events. So again, welcome. It is great having you join us.
DAY 1: Partnering for Prevention
Clip #1:
Together, parents and community members can be powerful advocates for your prevention
efforts. Parent and community participation fosters support and ownership of your
prevention initiatives. Remember, involvement spurs involvement: People who are
involved in meaningful and rewarding activities will want to continue to be involved
-- they will also bring other people into the mix.
Clip #2:
Education is the mission of schools, and many of your school administrators and
policymakers may be quick to point this out In your role as a middle school coordinator,
it is up to you to emphasize the strong link between school-community partnerships
and increased academic success.
Clip #3:
As you've no doubt already discovered, different partnerships offer different
resources. Partnering with top-level school administrators is critical, because
only they can ensure you have the staff support and fiscal resources you need
to move your prevention initiative forward. However, neighborhood associations
and religious groups often have well-established networks. Use them! Bringing
them on board will strengthen your capacity to move your prevention initiative
forward. Ultimately, your goal will be to develop a range of both personal and
organizational connections that will sustain your program beyond its 3-year grant
period.
DAY 2: Building and Maintaining Your Planning Team
Clip #1:
It is likely that your school has a handful of parents who show up for every meeting
and every event. It's easy to call on these individuals whenever a parent representative
is needed, but remember, it is important to broaden your pool of parental supporters.
Consider working with the parent activists at your school to recruit other parents
for your district's prevention initiative.
Clip #2:
As we stressed in our first online event, data speaks louder than words. As you
approach potential planning team members, use available local data to heighten
awareness of the extent and types of drug- and violence-related problems facing
youth in your community. School and community members with a clear understanding
of the local data and your mission are more likely to actively support and participate
in prevention activities.
Clip #3:
One of your primary goals as a middle school coordinator is to ensure that the
work endures beyond the end of your grant period. Creating an inclusive and well-functioning
planning team is a key step in this process.
DAY 3: Expanding Your School-Community Connections
Clip #1:
One thing your planning team might want to consider is developing a website to
highlight and disseminate information about your prevention initiative. You can
create your own freestanding website or build upon your school or district site.
This can be a great way to update students, families, school personnel, and interested
community members about your drug and violence prevention activities.
Clip #2:
You may want to visit the website of the National Network of Partnership Schools,
which is run by the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships. This
website, which you will read about in section 4 and is included in this event's
list of links, shares information on how to build an Action Team for Partnerships.
DAY 4: Looking for More? Resources to Support Partnerships
Clip #1:
If your planning team plans to incorporate school-community partnerships into
your district's overall prevention plan, you will want to explore issues associated
with evaluating and sustaining collaborations. These will be different than those
related to evaluating and sustaining program activities. Visit our Resources and
Links section for sites and materials devoted to these and other important aspects
of building and maintaining community connections.
Adobe Acrobat: A collection of programs developed by Adobe Systems, Inc., for creating and distributing electronic documents. These programs let you create and/or read a Portable Document Format (PDF) for your files, which preserves the document's layout. This is an advantage over other electronic formats, such as HTML, where the layout can vary depending on the software being used.
Asynchronous discussion: Two-way communication that occurs with a time delay, allowing participants to respond at their own convenience. An example of an asynchronous discussion is the Discussion Area used for these online events.
Chat room: A "virtual" room where people have real-time (synchronous) communication with one another via computer. During a chat session, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard; the entered text will then appear on the other user's monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature.
Discussion Area: The section of this website where event participants can engage in asynchronous discussion.
Discussions: Online "conversations" that take place within central Discussion Areas of the WebBoard. Discussions appear on the left hand side of the screen. One or more discussion areas will be available to you during an event.
Internet access: One's ability to log on to the Internet. There are a variety of ways to do this. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company that provides direct Internet access via modem or high-speed connection. For a monthly fee, the ISP gives you a software package, user name, password, and access phone number. You can then log on to the Internet, browse the World Wide Web, and send and receive e-mail.
Link: In hypertext systems (i.e., the World Wide Web), a link provides a direct path from one document or Web page to another.
Logon: The steps you must take to gain access to a network. Most personal computers have no logon procedure -- you just turn on the machine and begin working. For larger systems and networks, however, you usually need to enter a user name and password before the computer system will allow you to execute programs.
Modem: A device used to link computers via a phone line; "modem" is short for modulator-demodulator.
Online: An adjective meaning that you or your computer are connected to another computer via a modem. It can also mean that you have unspecified access to the Internet.
Online learning: The process of learning new skills and acquiring knowledge via the Internet, without needing to be physically present in the learning environment.
Online resource: Information that is located on the Internet.
Post: Sending a message to the Discussion Area of the WebBoard that begins or continues a thread of discussion. You must first select a Discussion before posting a new topic (or continuing an ongoing one).
Reply: A posting/message made in response to another posting/message, always threaded under an existing topic on the WebBoard. Replies appear indented beneath the messages to which they correspond.
Synchronous discussion: Interaction between two or more people that occurs at the same time, that is, with no appreciable delay between the end of one message and the beginning of another. Talking on the phone and participating in a chat session are examples of synchronous discussion.
Threaded discussion: In online discussions, threaded discussions include a series of messages that have been posted as replies to one another. A single forum or conference typically contains many threads covering different subjects. By reading each message in a thread, one after the other, you can see how the discussion evolved. You can also start a new thread by posting a message that is not a reply to an earlier message.
T1 communication: A high-speed network link that transmits data at 1.5 mbps (millions of bit per second). T1 lines transmit data almost 30 times faster than an ordinary phone line.
Topic: A specific thread of discussion within a Discussion Area of the WebBoard. Topics appear indented, under a Discussion.
URL: Short for "uniform resource locator," this is a website's specific Internet address.
Web: Short for the World Wide Web, this is a method of using the Internet to access information via a graphical user interface.
Web access: One's ability to log on to the Internet, an online service, or another network.
Web browser: A software application used to locate and display Web pages.
Web-based learning (workshop/training): The process of learning new skills and acquiring knowledge through the use of an educational site.
WebBoard: The brand of software we use for the MSC online events to help conduct both synchronous and asynchronous online discussions.
Web server: A computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages to your computer. Every Web server has an Internet Provider address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the address <http://www.edc.org/msc> into your computer, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is <edc.org>. The server then fetches the page named in directories as "msc" (the general MSC website) and sends the requested page to your browser.
Web service provider: See Internet Service Provider.
Website: Any collection of pages that is accessible on the Web, usually referring to a constellation of separate pages accessed through a main title/menu or home page. You can access a website by instructing the computer to find and connect to the site's specific Internet address, known as its "uniform resource locator" (URL).
Last Modified: 06/30/2008
|