Parent Involvement in After-School Settings
Wake County 4-H, UNC-G Human Environmental Sciences, and NCSU Department of 4-H Youth Development are leading a research-to-practice project that seeks to discover and develop effective practices to foster greater parent involvement in after-school settings. In 4-H community clubs or YMCA sprots programs that may mean increased parent ledership and active support with youth. In other settings such as after-school programs during work hours, facilitating paretn contact with staff and providing family learninr enrichment activities can help promote positive involvement despite linited participation during youth events. Projected sequence of events:
- Community mobilization: The Parent Involvement team began by recruiting youth-serving organization leaders to partner in designing a focus group procedure and survey to investigate "what works."
- Research: Students from the University of North CArolina-Greensboro conducted focus group interviews with youth (10-13 years and 14-16 years), parents, youth leaders, and organization heads to gain insights on what parent and youth organization practices make a difference with youth. Participants and additional partners completed a survey on parent involvement to provide further insight.
- Teaching Kit: Insights from research-based findings on parenting, youth development, and parent involvement, together with specific findings from the focus group and survey study will be developed into a teachint tool, supported by several fact sheets and fun activities, to be shared with youth-serving organizations statewide.
