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Education for Communities, Communities for Education

What is a Parent Café? A conversation café brings people together for discussion, sharing, and support with the goal of creating a space that stimulates learning and further action.

Parent Café offers an easy to follow format for guiding parents in strength-based conversations centered on sharing ideas and successes related to supporting their child’s learning. It all begins

with a conversation …

*(P. Born, Community Conversations, Tamarack Institute) 

Parents play a critical role as their child’s “first and most important teacher.”

Research shows that when families, schools and communities work together in support of learning, outcomes are positively impacted.

There exists untapped strengths and assets inherent in families, school and community that can be engaged to enhance learning.

Meaningful conversation around shared issues can be an opportunity for community building - an important contributor to educational success and resilience.

The vast amount of information and quality resources available for parents today can be overwhelming for parents.

Why Parent Café?:

The Parent Café Framework

Incorporates the strength-based, capacity building elements of asset-based community development (ABCD) (Kretzmann and McKnight, 2003).

Acknowledges the consolidated research supporting the positive impact of family, school and community partnerships on learning outcomes. (J. Epstein, 2009)

Integrates lessons learned from influential educational learning theory supporting the need for community building (ie. systems ecological theory, social constructivism and social motivation).

Recognizes the municipal and provincial context and collective vision for education and community development.

Incorporates the principles of adult learning and attention to Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES) framework as an opportunity for parents to engage in their own capacity building.

This framework is designed to…

Increase parental efficacy and capacity to support both learning within the home and as advocates for their children’s learning within the school environment.

Help parents recognize and build their own strengths and assets to support learning.

Promote opportunities for parents to build the relationships and networks inherent in social capital, an important indicator of student success.

Provide an opportunity for parents to model engaged citizenship and lifelong learning.

Encourage parents to explore their role within the school system which may be new to them.

Support parents in developing positive working relationships with teachers and schools.

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Parent Café 2010-2012 pilot program:- 6 schools and community based organizations: Kindergarten parents (2 schools) K-6 parents (2 schools) Pre-Kinder Prep (2 community-based org.’s)- Small group and larger group formats.- Direct programming with parent leader and community educator involvement.- Made possible by Café volunteers and associates, individual donors, Alberta Community Spirit Grant, FCSS Calgary along with partner CBE schools, Calgary Reads, and Families Matters.

Parents talking about…

Connecting learning at home with

school curriculum.

Technology as a learning

asset.

Supporting literacy: the

foundation for learning

Your child, your

community: engaging all

assets.

Understanding and

supporting each child’s individual strengths.

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

The Parent - School

Partnership

Example:Supporting Literacy

Conversation starters…

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

How have I already

supported my child’s reading

and literacy development?

How do you help ensure

that your child enjoys reading?

What is literacy and why

is it important in today’s

world?

What resources, people or places

in the community can help to support

literacy?

How do you and your child

choose books to read?

Learnings

“The conversations and information were absolutely helpful. One parent emphasized how surprised she was that early play is beneficial to children in their preparation for school. Other parents expressed how much they enjoyed just sitting and talking about this sort of thing with parents.” (L.S. Community Educator)“I definitely feel that the parents that participated in the café’s felt more comfortable at the school in general and got involved in volunteering more.” (L.H. Parent Leader)“I liked how the sessions we did with the Kindergarten parents each had a specific topic. I think having an option for full families to attend really helped to build community… the potluck before hand followed by the PC discussion while kids played in an adjoining room (thanks to the generosity of kindergarten teachers) allowed for ‘guilt free’ adult time .” (C.L. Parent leader)“ Parent Café validated that I was not alone in my parenting challenges” (L.D. Parent Leader)“This year I have noticed an increase of folks attending parent council meetings…perhaps ideas discussed at Parent Café had a hand increased involvement?” (C.L. Community Educator)“I believe that parents have more knowledge and are comfortable talking with teachers regarding their children’s potential from a multiple intelligences framework.” (D.T. Principal)“Giving people a voice is something that has been confirmed for me.” (D.T. Principal)

What educators and parent leaders and are saying about Parent Café…

What parents learned and found most helpful about Parent Café…

Learnings

“I as a parent have the capability to improve her learning, not just the teachers... “

“…I just like learning and discussing ways that I can help my child learn easier and have a positive school experience.”

“I liked the brainstorming, sharing of parents strategies for encouraging literacy and numeracy in the home and out of school. I also liked getting information on resources to follow up on at home: websites, books, etc. ”

“how to watch for our child’s interests in everyday events, school, at home, etc.”

“how I can be a good role model for my child”

“whatever she learns from home, that’s what she applies to school”

“…make it mandatory to attend the program (Parent Café) to all parents for the sake of their children because a lot of things that we do affects our children without knowing it.”

What parents are doing differently after their conversation café’s…

Learnings

“I watch what I do and what I say in front of my child and spend more quality time with my child – let her play!”“Every night I read a book to my child”“I sent an email to the principal with some questions”“We started to think about kindergarten choices. Registration is so soon!”“I completed the police check to sign up for Calgary Reads”“We played in the kitchen measuring and cooking.”“We played on the computer together.”“I brought some of my concerns to the school council.”“I didn’t know I could talk to the teacher about my child. I was waiting for the conferences.”

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Parents:Uncovering untapped assets

“I could translate school information to Spanish for Spanish speaking parents”

“My husband works with the computer. Does the school need help with computers?”

“I taught ESL in my home country”

Parents explore ways to share their strengths and assets with their child, other children, and their schools

and communities.

Overall participants: 175# Evaluations received: 32

Learnings

• Parents finding conversations helpful- 100%• Parents taking action – doing something

different with child after conversations- 83%• Interested in further conversations in support

of learning- 97%• Recommend Parent Café to other parents- 97%

**participation rates varied among schools and non-registered programs

Reflected in the evaluation data…

Café’s Observations

Most parents that do attend participate in meaningful conversations and have provided positive feedback.

Information is well received – most parents ‘hungry’ for knowledge and resources. Parents generally want the best for their child but are often unsure about their role within

their child’s schooling and learning. Wide range of knowledge and levels of engagement. There is a vast amount of quality resources that are available but not being accessed by

parents. A great deal of collective knowledge - parents enjoy opportunity to tell own stories and

reflect. Desire for most basic information (ie. importance of sleep) to more complex issues (ie.

school governance and inquiry-based learning). Acknowledgement of ‘parents as most important teacher’ leads to a realization

that there is an opportunity to impact education. Discussions reinforce a shift from paradigm where school is isolated institution

– builds connections between learning experiences within family life, school and community.

S

Learnings

• Core parent leaders and parent council group develops capacity to continue to hold ongoing, guided conversations around learning with support of Café materials.

• Key parent leaders have contributed to the development and refinement of Café materials.

• One school adopted parent strengths/talents exercise to highlight resources for leading school-wide student conference.

• After acknowledging the difficulty for parents coming into the school community for the first time, grade one parents joined forces to provide orientation and support for new kindergarten parents. “Parent Café was very much the stimulus for “Yahoo/Boohoo” – a meet and greet kindergarten parent led orientation for new parents”. It was encouraged and supported by the kindergarten teacher – very positive for parents”.

Other notable outcomes…

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Café’s Challenges…- attendance for first time when not part of existing program.- very diverse levels of experience with education in Canada and ESL levels – need for providing plain language resources.-short time frames for a lot of information and discussion.- providing ‘easy to follow’ facilitation materials for guided conversation.

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Parent Café evolves:

direct --> indirect programmingdeveloping modules specific for ECD (early childhood development)continued consolidation of resources and supports for parents/educatorsfurther development of additional themes‘clearing house’ concept for quality resources

More Parent Café to come…

Outdoors and

Environmental Literacy

NumeracyPhysical

Health and Wellness

Financial Literacy

Bullying and Self Esteem

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Education for Communities, Communities for Education

Join the conversation – Its easy to offer your own Parent Café!

Are you a parent leader, teacher, or community educator with an interest in bringing parents together in support of learning?

Café provides orientation, materials, ongoing support and reference materials for Parent Café leaders. CAFÉ

canhelp…contact us now!

www.cafeinstitute.org info@cafeinstitute.org 403-287-0611