Engaging Parents

If your school or organization is like most, you've found that those you'd really like to reach, are the least likely to come to your event. Oftentimes, there is tremendous excitement about the effects that will follow your planned event. Unfortunately, this is usually followed up with a let down over the amount of parental/adult participants. Weeks and sometimes months spent preparing for an event, ensuring everything is in place is met with a response of 15 parents (if you're lucky). A location that could hold hundreds was used for only a handful of attendees. To make matters worse, the ones that came are the ones already on board, supporting the message. The group that you really set out to reach didn't even show up. We have not even considered the amount of money spent on pizza, chips, cookies, door prizes, etc. If this illustration describes your efforts, I've written this to help you increase the effectiveness of your outreach.