Download ABCs of Parent Leadership

ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
ABC’s of Parent Leadership
Acknowledgements
This initiative is offered through PEAK Parent Center, in collaboration with Early
Childhood Connections, Developmental Disabilities Division.
Special thanks to the Parent Leadership Development Project at the FPG Child
Development Institute- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Finding Your Way Through Vision & Action: Day 1
Time
Topic
Registration
Lead
Facilitator
Activity


Welcome




Overview,
Highlight
objectives





Personal Life
Maps
Introduction of
facilitators
Announcements
Ground rules
Presentation
Objectives
Agenda
Consensagram
Parents create a
personal map
illustrating personal
milestones




OT-Day 1 Objectives
OT-Day 1 Agenda
Dots/ Consensagram


Presentation

Blank OT or life map
Blank OT, markers
Large blank sheets of
paper
Markers, stickers,
glitter, etc.
Notebooks
Survival kit
Address card file
Flip chart/markers
OT (4) Leadership
HO-How do Parents
Learn to be leaders?
HO-Leadership KnowHow
True Colors


Group discussion

Family symbols






Participant
materials

What is
Leadership?


Pass out materials





Presentation
Brainstorming




Personality &
Communication
Styles
DINNER
HOSPITALITY
Family
Symbols
Materials
Nametags
Agendas
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Finding Your Way Through Vision & Action: Day 2
Time
Topic
BREAKFAST
Lead
Facilitator
Activity
Day 1 Summary
& Evaluation


Highlight
Objectives


Life Roles,
Relationships,
and Personal
Supports

Materials

HO Day 1 Evaluation


Highlight Day 1 and
ask parents to
evaluate
Presentation
Day 2 Objectives,
Agenda
Small group
presentation
Presentation

Group discussion

OT Day 2 Objective
OT Day 2 Morning
Agenda
Flip Chart, markers
HO life roles
Day 1 flip chart of
leadership qualities
HO Parent Leadership
Roles
HO Relationships/list
Personal Supports
HO Communication
self-assessment
HO Communication
Skills






Wrap up


Communication
Skills
Communication
Skills







Presentation
“Draw a Sailboat”
activity

Role playing small
groups
Presentation
Small group







What is My
Vision?



Presentation
Helicopter Activity





Personal
Leadership
Journey
Personal Goals
for Leadership
Roles


Work in twos
 Question/Answer
Session
Homework Assignment


HO Role Play grab bag
HO Identifying…
HO Suggestions for..
HO On the One…
HO Communication
tips
HO Communication
Types
OT (2) What is Vision?
OT Vision Statements
Vision/Goal
Statements
OT Steps to a Vision
HO Parent Leadership
Goal Worksheet
Blank OT or flip chart,
markers
HO Questions to Ask
Yourself
 HO Personal
Leadership Goal
Worksheet
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Wrap Up

Group discussion

HO Personal
Leadership Steps
Worksheet

Evaluation form
Day One
Welcome


Inform participants where the restrooms are, feel comfortable to take care of needs.
Provide background of how this training was developed and implemented.
Distribute agendas
Introductions
Ask participants to share a brief introduction to include their name, where they live, a little
about their family and then one fun fact. Fun fact could be: favorite family vacation, a family
ritual, favorite holiday, favorite season, etc.
Opening Objectives
Make the following points:
 This training is to validate our experiences as parents.
 The early childhood field considers parents as essential advisors and forces of change.
 Families are constantly required to adapt
Description of Life Maps
We have an opportunity to get to know each other and tell more about our life stories.
Facilitator should prepare a lifemap that describes/illustrates the milestones of your life that
have brought you to today. Then present your lifemap as a demonstration. Explain to group
that we will all be sharing personal information throughout our time together and it is important
for us to respect differences and to honor confidentiality.
We have flip chart paper and lot of materials for you to create your lifemap. Tell participants
that this does not need to be a perfect arts and crafts project, just try to have fun!
Give parents 15 minutes to prepare their lifemap. As participants are creating lifemaps,
periodically, tell participants how much time they have to complete.
Ask for volunteers to present their lifemaps. This will take a large amount of time to get
through all the participants AND it sets the tone for a powerful retreat.
What is Leadership?
Ask participants to think of leaders they know and respect. Ask them to think of the
characteristics in those leaders they admire.
Give them a couple of minutes.
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Lead a large group discussion, noting that is is sometimes easier to identify skills in others and
harder to think of ourselves as leaders. Take a minute to identify your top 3 strengths.
Remember these daily.
Discuss the content on the Leadership powerpoint slides.
Personality and Communication Styles—True Colors
Pass out booklets, describe that True Colors is a framework for us to think about our personal
styles and help us understand others personal styles.
Give directions of how to use the cards and complete the word search.
Corporate America utilizes True Colors philosophy in its marketing….think of Starbuck’s,
Disney
Activity, split into pairs and plan a family vacation that would be appealing to all colors. Have
groups report out to the large group.
Read the Crayon Box that Talked poem…
Make the following key points:
 We all have valuable perspectives and unique experiences.
 Understanding True Colors assists in our partnerships with doctors, teachers, providers,
etc.
 There is not a “right” or “wrong” color, just different avenues of communication.
Dinner
Family Symbols
After dinner ask everyone to return to the meeting space and to bring a photograph of their
family and a symbol that represents their family. Ask everyone to share their photos and
symbols.
Day 2
Life Roles
Ask participants to think about the roles they have in their life. Record responses on a flip
chart and/or whiteboard.
Key points
 Parents believe their impact on others may be perceived as one thing when the
professionals perceive their leadership style differently. Example, self inventory of
leadership style/ skills was different than professionals inventory of my leadership
style/skills.
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

ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Parents play many roles, some are inherited and we may not be conscious that we’ve
stepped into the role.
Learn that we may need to let go of some roles and recruit others to assist because we
cannot be all the roles.
Parents need to identify and prioritize the roles to spend their time and energy.
Ask parents to refer to the Handouts in the Life Roles tab and discuss the Leadership Roles.
Ask parents to complete the Life Roles handout. Note they need to think of the life roles they
have and to think about how they would like to be perceived by others.
Circles of Support
Describe the framework of Circles of Support developed by Judith Snow.
Ask participants to complete the Circles of Support handout by identifying the people in their
circles.
Key points
 People with disabilities have often been isolated from their community and that limits the
opportunities to be in the circle of participation, and circle of friendship.
 Everyone has circles of support, we all had some levels of support to be here today.
 Family members are not always the individuals within our intimacy circles.
 We go to different people for different needs.
 People with disabilities participating in our communities slowly increases the
understanding and acceptance of differences.
 Circles of support is a tool for you to reflect on personal relationships in your life and
your child’s life. Sometimes we may have more people than we thought we did in our
circles OR we may have less people in our circles. It is important to note that
relationships take time to build and require bold steps of participating in your
communities.
Communication
1.
Drawing Activity
I need two volunteers. I will give one of you a picture, and the other person a pad and
pencil. The person with the picture will give directions to their partner and the partner
will draw the same picture.
Note; you cannot tell the person what the picture is or describe the picture using any
shapes
Debrief the activity by mentioning that it what we witnessed was two people
communicating with each other. Both are trying hard to communicate. People often
approach from a variety of experiences/background.
2.
Powerpoint Slides and Handouts
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Refer participants to the handout…these are specific skills we can learn to improve the
way we communicate. Without good communication, we tend to jump to offering
solutions to people who may be sharing concerns with us. We may think we
understand someone’s meaning, but find later that we were mistaken.
3.
Role Play Activity
Split participants into groups and ask them to select a role play to perform. Give about
10 minutes for the groups to prepare. Purpose of this activity is to increase our
awareness of communication skills we have discussed.
Debrief the role play activities.
Refer participants to the additional handouts that are included in their notebook.
Vision and Goals
Helicopter activity
Identify Personal Leadership Goals, steps and resources….
Review the handouts.
Closing
Pick one word to describe your experience over the last two days….
AWE!
ENERGIZED!
OVERWHELMED!
INSPIRED!
REFRESHED!
MOTIVATED!
HOPEFUL!
Ask participants to complete evaluation forms and distribute stipend payments.
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
Day 3
Welcome
Allow time to have informal chit-chat.
With ppt slide “If you could choose one word to describe my experience since our last retreat, it
would be_______ because_____________.”
Refreshed because of mental breaks
Busy, everything
Busy, everything, projects
Challanging, making calls, learning systems
Stressful, finals-tax class
Rewarding
InterestingRenewal
Update on Leadership Goals
Invite parents to share their leadership ideas with the large group.
Problem~Solving
Leadership requires the ability to problem solve. We are going to take some time now to
discuss causes for and strategies to help resolve problems/conflicts.
Show video tape of “the IFSP meeting”
Debrief the video using the following handouts;
How to Solve a Problem
Causes of Disputes
Collaboration
Connect the Dots
 Tell the participants to listen carefully to the following instructions as they will be the only
ones given.
 Give the participants the following sketchy instructions:
 “I’m going to give you instructions as a pair.”
 “One person in each pair close your eyes.”
 “Place four dots on the piece of paper and connect the dots.”
If participants ask for clarification or seem to be confused, you may want to repeat the
instructions. Do not give additional instructions.
 Wait for all of the pairs to complete the task. You may need to remind the member of the
pair with his or her eyes closed to keep them closed. If you can’t see all of the pairs, ask if
everyone has finished connecting the dots.
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
When all the pairs have finished, lead a discussion with the large group around questions such
as:
 “How did you go about doing this?”
 “Why did you do it that way?”
You may need to ask some probing questions:
 “How did you decide who was going to close his or her eyes?”
 “Who put the dots on the paper? How did you decide who would do that?”
 “How did you decide who would connect the dots?”
 “Did you devote any time to discussing the process, or deciding who wanted to do what, or
how it would be done? How did you divide responsibility or decide where the dots would be
placed?”
“Did one of you give instructions to the other?”
Collaboration skit
Divide participants into two groups, give each group 5-7 minutes to prepare a 2-3 minute skit.
The setting for the skit is a meeting to plan transition activities for children and their families
from one learning environment to another. Assign one group to present the skit presenting
what Collaboration Is and the other presenting Collaboration Is Not.
Refer participants to Collaboration Is /Is Not handout.
Watch Video IFSP Meeting;
Divide group into 2 groups one to take the perspective from the professional point of view and
one from the parent point of view.
Discuss the handouts regarding problem solving.
Keep IEP handy to discuss with teachers
Teaming
Discuss handouts;
Definition of Team
Characteristics of Effective Teams
Team Stages
Individuals and whole teams may be at different places
Orientation—examples of expectations, i.e, time commitment, 2 year terms, etc.
Trust Building-common vision, long term loyalties and interests, hidden agendas, knowledge
and experience related to the team’s purpose, team members dedication to the task,
confidentiality, follow through, dependable,
Goal/Role Clarification- articulate the big vision for the team, facilitate discussion, maintain
morale and member commitment, communicate clearly and in a variety of ways, solve
problems, manage conflict, delegate, plan meetings make decisions, be flexible
Commitment- Willingness to try on new ideas and to follow through without turfism. It
means giving energy, time and concentration to both the team’s purpose and the the
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ABC’s of Parent Leadership - Facilitator Guide
development of the team. Review what resources are available , decision-making processes,
How will we do it? How will decisions be made? How often should we meet? How will we
communicate.
Evaluation
No Problem Flowchart
Renewal—
Strategies for renewal,
o talking with a friend
o Holding Retreats
o Using a facilitator
o Suspending a team meeting agenda in order to envision the future
Balancing it all
Wrap up
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