Dr. Melodie Fearnow-Kenney, from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for School-Community Collaboration, and her colleagues recently investigated child and parent perceptions of FAST in their empirical article, “Child and Parent Voices on a Community-Based Prevention Program.” While Fearnow-Kenney and her colleagues…
Family Service Association of San Antonio has been a fixture in the community for 114 years. Established in 1903, Family Service has been providing financial assistance to families struggling with poverty and in need of support. Guided by its mission…
The majority of FAST Program implementations involve a partnership between a school and a community-based organization or social-service agency. The organization administers funding, handles FAST-related administrative tasks such as distributing the evaluations, and typically provides a team member, the Community…
In this blog series, “Building relationships between schools and community partners,” we have explored the advantages of partnerships between schools and community-based organizations for the purpose of implementing FAST. Community partners serve schools by administering funds, participating as a member…
There’s the saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” For schools seeking to form a partnership with a community-based organization, a positive first impression might mean demonstrating that you will be a trustworthy and responsible…
The last blog post, “How to Find Community-Based Organizations: Start with the End Goal in Mind”, described the benefits of starting with the end in mind, and determining the outcomes you wish to achieve within your school, before approaching a…
A previous blog post explored how relationships with community and social-service organizations can be instrumental in implementing the FAST® Program at your school. The community organization typically leads the FAST implementation, providing funding and support, while working closely with the…
Like most activities that are worthwhile and result in long-term change, implementing Families & Schools Together’s evidence-based parent engagement program, FAST®, can take significant resources — time, money, and staff. Fortunately, you and your school don’t have to do it…
In the Fall of 2016, Families & Schools Together, Inc. surveyed education leaders—principals and administrators—to learn more about parent engagement efforts at their schools. More than 1,400 principals, vice principals and head teachers completed our survey. All too often, practical…
First, what is a coalition, exactly? A coalition is a group of organizations that collaborate to work on improving a larger social problem. The idea behind a coalition is that a group of organizations working together will have a larger…
