Parent Engagement Workshops

When it comes to programming in the youth department, libraries have a tremendous reputation for serving children from birth through elementary school. We put immense amounts of staff time and library resources into creating programs that will have optimal impact on our intended audience. Yet how often do we consider serving their parents and caregivers? By providing opportunities for parent engagement, libraries can solidify their reputation as an institution invested in family and community.

This 2-week course will prepare library staff to:

• Identify opportunities to support parent needs with library learning experiences
• Apply youth services expertise and community connections to facilitate parent confidence and knowledge
• Evaluate the impact of parent engagement workshops at the library

Through a combination of weekly readings and two live online meetings, this course will help learners to understand the theory behind offering parent engagement workshops aimed at patrons with children from birth through elementary school as well as to gain practical knowledge to create meaningful parent engagement opportunities at their library. Learners will leave the course with strategies for setting goals for parent workshops, supporting parents through topical, engaging programs, and evaluating the efficacy of library efforts to support parents.

Course Description: During this two-week online course, learners will explore the reasoning for, goals of, and general formats for offering parent engagement workshops in the youth library setting. Weekly live online meetings will complement the readings, providing a balance of both the theory behind parent engagement as well as practical examples of workshops offering libraries across the country. Learners will explore a range of workshop formats utilizing the library collections, staff expertise, and community resources, and content will include discussion of how to identify topics for parent workshops that are relevant to a given community. Learners will leave the course with skills and resources to create intentional parent engagement workshops as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of those workshops among the intended audience.

Online Meetings

Meeting One: Thursday 11/16/17 12pm Pacific Time / 1pm Mountain Time / 2pm Central Time / 3pm Eastern Time

Meeting Two: Wednesday 11/29/17 12pm Pacific Time / 1pm Mountain Time / 2pm Central Time / 3pm Eastern Time

Note: Please make every effort to ensure that you are able to attend these two meetings before enrolling in the course. If this is not possible, archived recordings will be made available.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: Parent Engagement: Serving the Adult Audience in the Youth Room
  • What is parent engagement? (including goals of parent engagement)
  • Why include parent engagement in the suite of youth programming?
  • Parent engagement through resources
  • Parent engagement through staff expertise
  • Parent engagement through outside expertise
  • Determining areas of parent education need

Thanksgiving Break 11/21 - 11/27

• Week 2: Designing and Evaluating Parent Engagement Workshops
  • Choosing the optimal workshop format
  • Finding the experts in your community
  • Strategies for engaging parent learners
  • Capturing parent confidence outcomes
  • Strategies for surveying parents
   

  Pre-course Assignment: None

  Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2 ½ hours per week, for a total of five course hours. Each week's module contains an online meeting, readings, and various options for assignments and discussions. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

  Who Should Take This Course: Youth services librarians, youth services providers, public library administrators

  Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at: infopeople.org/training/online_learning_details.

  After the official end date for the course, the instructor will be available for limited consultation and support for one more week, and the course material will stay up for an additional week after that. These extra weeks give those who have fallen behind time to work independently to complete the course.

  Keywords: Adult services, Children's services, Community engagement