Best Practices / Engagement / Direct Outreach
Engagement
Direct Outreach
- Best Practices
- Featured Program Metrics
- Additional Program Metrics
- Organization of Activity
- Activities’ Transition Time
- Staff Positively Guide Behavior
- Youth Relations with Adults
- Youth Relations with Peers
- Space Adequacy
- Overall Socio-Emotional Environment
- Informal Time: General Staff Performance
- Informal Time: Youth Engagement and Behavior
- Youth Feel Challenged
- Supportive Adults Present
- Helps Youth Academically
- Helps Youth Socially
- Social-Emotional Skills
- Measurement
“Engagement” indicates keeping parents/students who have registered (for example, registered in May for summer programming) engaged to ensure they will show up on Day 1.
- Newsletters: these could include countdowns to program start date, reminders, event calendar, and answers to frequently asked questions (Newsletter template – coming soon!)
- Flyers: send home full color flyers with pictures of last summer’s program, student quotes, contact information, and the program start date (Program Flyer template – coming soon!)
- Personal letters/notes: handwritten letters may be a good way of connecting with hard-to-reach parents
- Birthday and/or Holiday Cards (Birthday Card template – coming soon!)
- Cards should be personalized, and either handed to students or mailed to students’ homes
- Possible holidays to consider: Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Memorial Day
- Emails: duplicate any flyers or notes sent home via email; email can also be a tool for answering parent questions and sending event invitations.
- Direct postal mailings: important programmatic materials can be sent via mail.
- Informal check-ins: program staff can use pick up and drop off times at school (or afterschool program) to check-in with students and parents
- Parent-teacher conferences can be utilized to remind parents about the summer program
- Check-in phone calls: these can come administrative or program staff and should remind parents of the summer program and answer any questions
- Text messages: send brief reminders to parents through text, such as program start day and what to bring for Day 1 of programming