Engaging Families initiative

There is growing evidence that when parents are actively involved and engaged in their children’s learning, it can help youth boost their grades, improve social skills, stay in school, and improve relationships with their parents (see studies to the right).

The Engaging Families Initiative (EFI) works with a cohort of afterschool programs to practice new strategies and tools for increasing connections with families. Agencies are identifying and reducing barriers to parent participation and expanding staff time devoted to parent outreach and engagement. Since family has many influencing factors, we have intentionally chosen a diverse group of agencies serving youth from elementary to the teenage years, families with different cultural or ethnic identities, and agencies offering differing methodologies to achieve their goals. This learning community will be sharing their challenges and successes with others at a conference planned for Friday, June 6, 2008.