306: Youth and Family Engagement Strategies

1. 306: Youth and Family Engagement Strategies Engaging Youth and Families on Advisory Boards

2. Overview • Be aware of the importance of engaging youth and parents on advisory boards; • Know the cycle of youth and family engagement on advisory boards; • Understand tools and techniques that are helpful for engaging and supporting youth and families on advisory boards;

3. Overview (cont.) • Know common challenges and barriers related to engaging youth and families on advisory boards; and, • Understand the perspectives of youth and families that have served on advisory boards. 

4. What does the Research Say? • Builds a sense of belonging and connection to their communities; • Creates civic awareness and action; • Experience a sense of mastery and self-efficacy; • Child safety actually improved when the family is connected strongly to the community and not the child welfare system;

5. What does the Research Say? (cont’d) • Professionals view input as essential; • More energized and committed to the organization; • Helped clarify and focus the organization’s mission; and • More attuned to the needs of the community.

6. Keys to Fostering Youth and Parent Engagement • Support; • Youth/Parent-friendly environment; • Opportunities to complete meaningful tasks; and • Opportunities to learn and use new skills.

7. Using the Roadmap Monitoring and Continuous Quality Improvement

8. Readiness Assessment • Focuses on the needs and values of the board – both professional and personal • Assesses several key areas: • Board needs; • Leadership needs; • Board policies and procedures; and • Board diversity.

9. Recruitment • Develop a strategic recruitment plan: • Who do you need? • Where can you find youth and parents? • What are some potential challenges and their solutions? • What are your benchmarks?

10. Develop a Recruitment Plan • Individually or with other colleagues from your agency: • Think about who you need (or would need) on an agency advisory board. • Where would you find these people? • How would you engage and recruit them? • What are some potential challenges and solutions? • Develop a recruitment plan with three outcomes.

11. Selection • Interviews • Realistic job descriptions • Background clearances • Succession planning • Focus on diversity

12. Orientation • Roles and responsibilities • Mentorship • Training • Connections • Strategic Sharing

13. Support and Mentoring • Before, during, and after meetings • Sharing meeting rules • Clarifying expectations and roles • Meeting logistics

14. How much can I handle?

15. Monitoring • How will we know we are successful? • Logic models • Who monitors what? • How will we measure success? What tools will we use?

16. A Tale of Two Boards • How are youth/parents participating on the board? • How do you think they feel? • How do you think the other committee members feel? • What about the advisory board structure will enable or hinder youth/parent participation? • How would you implement changes to deal with barriers?

17. The Youth and Parent Engagement Checklist • What are your board’s or organization’s strengths? • Areas needing improvement?

18. Key Advice from the Experts • Chris Nobles, Youth Ambassador • cnobles@pitt.edu • Denise Hoffman, Parent Ambassador • dmh104@pitt.edu

19. Moving Forward • Questions and Answers • Next steps in recruiting, training, and supporting parents and youth on your advisory board • Sources for support

20. Resources • This presentation was adapted from the free publication: • Say Y.E.S. to Youth: Youth Engagement Strategies, Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension http://downloads.c.as.psu.edu/4h/yesbookweb.pdf