A Caribbean Experience — Parent Involvement and the 21st Century Exploring Parenting Program

Occasionally, both research-based and common-sense knowledge appear to dance together in support of an initiative, an idea, or a dream. Such, I believe, is the case of parent involvement and the male parent movement. Parenting is one of the hardest fulltime jobs, and many families need support in parenting. Fathers may need support tailored to meet their own needs— different from support for mothers.

The Municipality of Mayaguez Head Start Program and the Seasonal Head Start Program (both located in Puerto Rico) recognized that their parents, including the dads, needed support. The programs decided to implement The 21st Century Exploring Parenting (EP21) curriculum on a trial basis. Developed by the Head Start Bureau, the curriculum offers parents guidance to support positive parent/ child interactions and to build their confidence as their child’s first and most important teacher.

I became involved as a trainer and process consultant in their efforts to implement EP21. Both programs have contributed a unique perspective to the challenge of implementing this parent education program in the Caribbean.

The Mayaguez Training and Implementation Workshop
Over a three and a half day period in December 2003, 30 staff members of the Mayaguez Head Start were trained to be facilitators and parent trainers. Using a Spanish version of EP21, family service workers, social service staff, home visitors, and others worked as a team to develop their skills.

At the same time, the management team planned how best to support a trial implementation of EP21 in the centers. They developed these four guidelines for implementation of the parenting curriculum:

• Ensure that participant-trainees develop effective training strategies
• Create training teams
• Determine the number of participating parents
• Find ways to make existing program procedures more flexible to better serve parents

As a result of these discussions, a technical assistance module was added to the curriculum to support the trials. The module included the following tasks for local programs:

• Develop strategies to ensure final approval of an implementation plan
• Provide criteria for decision-making and evaluation
• Initiate task-oriented processes
• Establish timelines
• Plan evaluation strategies

During the workshop, facilitator trainees were assembled into teams based on their observed strengths and need for improvement. For example, introverts who were detail and task-oriented were paired with strong, outgoing extroverts. The learning experience for both the staff and the management team was designed to build competencies and effective working relationships.

Special Parent Training Initiative in Mayaguez
The enthusiastic workshop participants suggested conducting an immediate follow-up session to reach parents. A few weeks after the workshop, 300 hundred parents, grandparents, and personnel met in Mayaguez for a special session. Program personnel wrote letters to employers and took other steps to make it possible for employed parents to attend.

The half-day session, which was followed by an afternoon social, presented parenting as an enterprise in which both mother and father can view themselves as associates. Presenters provided information about EP21 and emphasized these points:

• The parent is the principal educator.
• Males need to be integrated into parenting.

Significantly, a large group of males assisted and contributed substantially to the session. Although the average age was approximately 32 years old, there were grandfathers as well.

Male participants expressed a marked interest in what they called “real participation” in their children’s learning and development. They wanted to become more involved and engaged. Fathers cited mowing grass and painting Head Start centers as normal expectations for men but expressed a strong interest in playing a more important role in family life.

Responding to a question on a survey about future trainings, one father wrote, “I will keep participating in these workshops, to continue forming myself as a person.” Other participants made suggestions about how programs could improve parent involvement, such as “Create more opportunities for parents, including the men, to share with their children.” The positive feedback from this session provided further impetus for Mayaguez Head Start to implement EP21 to reach more parents.

The Seasonal Head Start Training and Implementation Workshop
The Seasonal Head Start Program also conducted an implementation training workshop over a three day period similar to Mayaguez. But the Seasonal program differs in some important ways that were reflected in the implementation workshop:

• The Seasonal program is newly established and a smaller organization. Almost all personnel in the program participated in the implementation workshop.
• The seasonal and migrant families have needs relevant to their unique situation, such as their constant change of residence and temporal employment. Though there are no marked seasonal changes in Puerto Rico, work for the rural sector is often temporary and infrequent. The on-and-off employment experience in the rural areas is so prevalent that it has been named “chiripeo,” a social phenomena meaning “doing bits and all.” In important ways, this population differs from the coastal and urban families served in Mayaguez Head Start.
• The management team of the Seasonal Program was very involved in the implementation training initiative. They made rapid decisions producing immediate support for successful implementation. They expected the entire staff to participate as trainees, facilitators, and support staff during implementation.
• The Seasonal implementation workshop trained 25 staff members as facilitators. It was expected that all of the communities and families would receive the EP21 training.

Outcomes of the Training Experience
Staff from the Mayaguez and Seasonal Head Starts who participated in the implementation workshops voiced enthusiasm about The 21st Century Exploring Parenting Program. As they developed understanding and ownership of the material, their attitudes about parent involvement evolved. Through practice, their facilitation skills improved. Some participants stated that they learned new methods for working with fathers through training. One commented: “I learned strategies to work with parents, suggestions for facilitators, and how to identify the groups to work with.” Another said, “I will utilize training to better integrate with parents and obtain positive results with them.” Importantly, the management teams expressed commitment to future training events. They developed strategies for training and strengthened communication within the programs.

Implementation Is Going Ahead
Five Mayaguez centers were selected by the management team to participate in the trial implementation, beginning in April 2004. Selection criteria included the availability of facilities to use as training centers, the relationships between the selected communities, and available funds. One member of the management team was appointed to facilitate and support the trainers and to serve as a liaison to higher management. A sample of 24 parents in one community was selected for the trial effort. These parents were delighted to participate.

After an initial presentation for selected parents and staff, the management team planned training strategies. They agreed to negotiate training dates, resources, child care, and other matters that would affect attendance. They acknowledged the need to develop creative approaches to distribute work and handle organizational procedures. For example, they offered to address the needs of parents by adapting training hours to parents’ schedules and holding meetings after regular work hours.

After the implementation workshop was conducted for the Seasonal Program, the management team initiated a planning and preparation phase, targeting three centers in three communities. They planned an introduction activity for all the parents and a recruitment marathon to interest fathers. The implementation phase is in the early stages.

Lessons Learned
Based on their experiences in the training workshops, management in both the Mayaguez and Seasonal Head Starts have learned that the planning process should:

1. Consider particular program needs
and realities (i.e., budget and demographics)
2. Brainstorm ways to improve program procedures and structures to support the new effort
3. Include technical assistance to promote work planning
4. Design post-training activities with parents
5. Target, recruit, and induct male parents
6. Expand the role of fathers in children’s lives

Head Start has always been in the forefront of early childhood initiatives and parent involvement. I believe that stressing the importance of father involvement in the learning and development of children is one of Head Start’s most worthwhile priorities. Happily, the implementation of EP21 in the Caribbean is generating waves of change in this diverse and complex location.

Tomás Reyes is a parent-education consultant based in Puerto Rico. T: 787-764-4649; E: treyesp@prtc.net