Fall, 1996 No. 1 National Network of Partnership Schools
Volunteers Help at School and at Home
Mavis G. Sanders, Assistant Director
As the 1996-97 school year opens, school-family-community partnership activities begin. Schools across the country are conducting orientation days, back-to-school nights, and a variety of other activities to "kick off" the new school year. When these activities are well-designed, they strengthen school-family-community connections to support students' learning and development.
Many Partnership Schools are not only conducting activities for each of Epstein's six types of involvement, but they also are meeting the challenges that accompany them. For example, Curtis Bay Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland is meeting a challenge of Type 3 - Volunteering by recruiting widely for volunteers and matching families' time and talents with the school's needs.
At the beginning of each school year, the Action Team for School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Curtis Bay offers a volunteer workshop where parents hear all the things that they can do to help the school. Parents also complete a survey about their interests and whether they would prefer to volunteer at the school or at home. This survey also is printed in the first school newsletter so that parents who cannot attend the workshop are included.
The Action Team's subcommittee for Type 3 - Volunteering compiles the information and lists parents' names, phone numbers, interests, and availability, and gives a list to each teacher. A copy of the list is also kept in the main office so that any interested parent can be welcomed and provided with something useful to do. As principal Mary Minter notes, "We never turn a parent away."
Curtis Bay Elementary School is one of many schools in the National Network of Partnership Schools that is meeting the challenges of Epstein's six types of involvement and making school-family-community partnerships more equitable and inclusive.
