Reframing Family Engagement
Search Institute has identified six mindset shifts that reframe and re-energize how schools and organizations partner with families. Use 6 Shifts: Where Is Your School or Organization? to reflect on your school or organization’s default mindsets, which can surface starting points for refreshing your partnerships with families.
6 Shifts: Where Is Your School or Organization?
Partnering with families is a key strategy for the success of schools, youth organizations, social service agencies, faith communities, and others who have a stake in young people’s well-being and thriving. Yet building those partnerships with families can be challenging.
Before assuming that the solution to creating family partnerships is for families just to do their part, it’s important for leaders, staff, and volunteers in schools and other organizations to reflect on how their views on families and family partnership may be helping or hindering strong, positive connections between their organization and families.
Too often, our mindset about families and their roles in organizations and in their children’s lives can get in the way of a strong, mutual partnership.
Through our research, the research of others, and our work with hundreds of practitioners, we’ve identified six mindset shifts that are vital to make to form a strong, relationship-centered partnership with families that can overcome challenging barriers and energize your work with families:
- A shift from focusing disproportionately on one developmental period and one setting (in this case, preschool child care) toward engaging families across multiple transitions and settings.
- A shift from focusing on families’ deficits, risks, or dysfunction toward building on families’ strengths, including their resilience in the face of challenges.
- A shift from recruiting families to participate in programs toward deepening mutual, trusting relationships with families.
- A shift from building parenting skills toward nurturing relationships within families.
- A shift from helping individual families on their own toward cultivating relationships among families.
- A shift from serving families toward activating families to lead.
Tool / Playbook
Reframing Family Engagement
Resource Audience
Resource Type
Read Time
Participants
Related Resources on Engaging Families
![Teacher Child2 420x340](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/TeacherChild2_420x340.jpg)
Relational Practice
Approaches to Challenging Growth
Ten approaches that can be integrated into classroom or program activities that build the Challenge Growth element of the developmental relationships framework.
![Girls soccer](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/girls-soccer.jpg)
Video
Thriving Through Sports
Sports are an excellent way to build relationships with young people. Video and reflection
![Collaboration12 420x340](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/Resources-Hub/Class-or-Group-Setting/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/Collaboration12_420x340.jpeg)
Activity
Roses and Thorns
A check-in activity that invites participants to share the highs and lows of their week.
More about the Developmental Relationships Framework
![Child Group3 420x340](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/ChildGroup3_420x340.jpeg)
Activity
What Makes You Happy?
Activity where participants share their deep interests, talents, or activities — their sparks — with a group.
![Student Math Homework](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/Student-MathHomework.png)
Tool / Playbook
DR + Math Toolkit
The DR + Math Toolkit supports and encourages math tutors and educators in building culturally responsive developmental relationships with young people.
![Child Online4 420x340](https://d2pck61xhq74q6.cloudfront.net/Resources-Hub/Familes-and-Networks/_920x480_crop_center-center_none/ChildOnline4_420x340.jpeg)
Relational Practice
Virtual Check-ins to Keep Connected
A series of digital check-ins designed to help practitioners engage in meaningful ways with the parenting adults and guardians of young people they serve.