FREE TRAINING FOR SCHOOL-AGE AFTER SCHOOL & CHILD CARE STAFF Communicating with Families

For the success of a program, it is important that program staff recognize and accept family members as partners.  Staff must acknowledge their feelings about families and discuss how these feelings help or hinder working with a family as the first step to developing good communication and positive relationships with families. 

In this training participants will:

• Identify their attitudes towards families.
• Consider how their attitudes can enhance or detract from their ability to develop positive relationships with families.
• Examine how a program’s overall environment supports strong staff-family communication.

Content Overview:

Icebreaker- Back to Back

Participants take part in an activity to help them towards understanding some of the benefits of developing positive partnerships with families.

Attitudes Toward Families

The basis for developing a family-friendly atmosphere is good communication with families.  Participants will reveal and learn to understand their attitudes about families.

Opinion Statements

Participants will react to different statements about families and consider how their attitudes enhance or detract from their ability to develop positive relationships with families.

The Communication Climate

Participants will discuss what they are going to do to develop effective partnerships with families through a positive communication climate.