Important Topics for Parent/Family Nights
Recently I read an article about a school that was putting on a family night to help educate the students and parents about mental issues. It was a free event for youth and families to shed some light on the dark stigma associated with mental health concerns. This is a great topic. It is a message that is needed to help promote understanding and respect. I believe the more we understand and respect one another the less likely are to gossip, isolate and spread rumors.
What really caught my eye was how they had a strategy in place to convey the message and inspire students and parents to want to attend the event.
First of all they were serving pizza. That way attendees would not have stop home to eat before attending the event.
Secondly they asked the teachers to offer attendance at the session as extra credit. If the students brought family members and they all stayed for the entire presentation they would receive the credit.
Thirdly they also put together a raffle with prizes donated from local business. At the end of the presentation they drew the tickets and the people that remained present during the raffle had the opportunity to win a prize.
The topic they were presenting was enlightening and so was their strategy to promote it, bring people in and keep them there. If you’ re planning a parent night or family event you may want to implement some of these ideas.
If you have other suggestions that have worked for your school parent nights please share and I will make them available to our readers.
Copyright Richard Paul 2013
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