Advocacy plan for students in Poverty

PROBLEM:

I currently work with a first grade team that wants to improve our dedication to providing support for our students not only at school but also at home.  When we discuss this topic as a team we have identified the need for more home and school collaboration with our families.  

GOALS/OBJECTIVES:

Objective 1: My team holds weekly meetings with our Principal and usually a few other important teachers that pull students for special services.  During our PLC meetings we can bring up any concerns we have or anything important we need to discuss.  My first goal would be to discuss the problem and have a conversation about providing our students with more home and school collaboration in the PLC meeting.  I would ask them what they think or if they had any suggestions,  I would also ask if they would be willing to listen to a presentation in the future at a staff meeting.  

Objective 2: I would want to give a presentation to the whole staff in our staff meeting on the importance of supporting families in poverty. During the presentation I would discuss information and ideas we could implement in our school in order to provide more home and school collaboration which would encourage more educational support at home. I would also offer a time for staff to voice their concerns and inform them we can set up a time to discuss any of the ideas mentioned.  I think it would be important to have them write down any questions they still have so I can collect them and make sure their questions are recorded and not forgotten.  

Identify Expected Allies and Opponents:

 I know most teachers in my school feel the need for more relationship building and home and school collaboration. Most teachers in my school understand the importance of supporting our students any way we can and providing them with supplies/tools they need to succeed. Some teachers understand this will involve more time and effort, but others may not when it comes to making school wide changes.  They may not want any changes made to how we do things at our school because they do not like change, or feel like they are already overwhelmed with the workload/expectations.  

Goal: 

The goal is to ensure that teachers understand the importance of supporting families in poverty by emphasizing home and school collaboration.  

TARGET AUDIENCE:

My target audience will be my school Principal and school staff.  I chose this audience because I think we can reach our parents in ways that we do not know we are capable of as a staff.  Our students already love us and even though there are barriers when it comes to communication, I think we can do better as a staff connecting with families in order to support all families especially families in poverty.  

PRIMARY MESSAGE:

The primary message of my advocacy plan would be to ensure that all teachers and staff understand the importance of supporting families in poverty and provide support that helps encourage home and school collaboration.  I want families and staff to feel as if we are one safe community.  Families should feel comfortable with their children’s school and feel like they can rely on school staff for support.  Teachers and staff can do more in order to build relationships with families so they feel more welcomed. 

STRATEGIES:

My plan to get the message out would start with discussing my ideas with my team and a few special services teachers in our weekly first grade PLC meeting. After discussing with my team I would then prepare a presentation to present to the whole school at a staff meeting. I would explain to the staff that our school would be creating a committee dedicated to locating resources for our school to use for all students.  This team would make sure we have resources in the school that ensure more home and school collaboration. I would email them my presentation and also have them fill out a questionnaire at the end to discuss any questions or ideas they still had. Once all the information is gathered I would come up with a plan to get the message to all staff on how we are going to start providing more support for our students at home and at school.  When I have support from the staff and approval from my Principals we will discuss how we can start developing a team that will create a detailed yearly plan which will provide our students with things they need to be successful throughout the year at home and school. Eventually after planning out duties of the committee I would want the committee to hold an organized community meeting where the parents are able to attend and voice their needs and concerns. 

Reaching out to my team during a scheduled PLC meeting is a great way to introduce this topic.  Most of the time we do not have much on the agenda and I would not be using anyones plan time. My next idea was reaching out to the whole school during a scheduled staff meeting.   I think reaching out to the whole staff in a staff meeting is a great idea because everyone in the school has to be present, and we usually end them early so I would not be taking up anyone's personal time. I think these are manageable expectations and goals that my school staff can actively participate in, this is the main reason I chose these mediums.    

During this process I would ask members on my team to support me and also all of Admin.  Once the plan takes off and becomes more developed I would hope to build a committee or team that advocates for providing home and school collaboration at our school. As a leader of the committee I would hold meetings and reach out to teachers to see if they would be interested in joining because it will support our students and help create a more welcoming environment in our school.

MONITOR SUCCESS:

In order to monitor the success of this plan the committee and I will revisit the objectives and goals every week in order to discuss the changes that have been made.  I will also work with the Principals and our committee once the plan is developed and put into action to come up with a plan that will collect data.  We will also meet up to discuss what specific data we want to collect whether that be parent involvement or number of students we have serviced throughout the year etc.