As an Educator, How do You Engage Parents & Community?
While the use of apps, a website and/or any technology is a prevalent mode to survey community, genuine communication must take place through conversation. A mainstay in the LatinX community is “the platica,” or “the cafecito.” We engage families/community by inviting 6–8 families and engage them through a roundtable discussion with some coffee, pan dulce and a focused series of questions where they have time to process, discuss with one another and then share out their ideas.
The process is not foreign to the grassroots organizing techniques utilized by the United Farm Workers, the Civil Rights Movement and currently through the teachings of Marshall Ganz who has almost perfected the process after organizing during both aforementioned movements. The key component is not to lose valuable time talking at participants. Schools and organizers should provide a 5–10 minute context at the beginning, providing paper and pen, illustrating the questions on a television/projection and then allowing the families to work with another in groups to cultivate their answers. Circle back and allow participants to share out with minimal interaction from the organizers other than:
a) Asking clarifying questions
b) Providing necessary context that could be an impediment to an idea
c) Adding to the idea to engage other families and creatively problem solve to turn an idea into a plan
Engaging community and families should minimize sharing out information and reversing it to cultivate information. The aforementioned format should be repeated with several other families to try to galvanize as much community output as possible.
One may ask, why not organize families at the same time to save on time and effort? The secret of this model is that it provides genuine feedback given the small and intimate nature the “cafecito” model provides. People are incredibly hesitant to share ideas in a large group and often only the most outspoken of individuals will share out. By creating small gatherings and then grouping them in smaller groups, one can get to the root of issues by allowing families and community members to feel they can share out in a small and protected space.
There are no short-cuts in this model. The time savings come in avoiding complicated issues that could have been prevented from listening to parents. Schools should implement policies and solutions are are a direct reflection of the community you serve. Once the community actually sees their input taken and implemented, you bet they’ll increase their participation and efforts.
