Upgrading Your Community Engagement Board
Your board is off to a great start! Here are some ways to help your board grow and evolve.
Expanding your board to work with more students
- Consider inviting students with chronic absenteeism concerns
- Work with elementary students and focus on early intervention
- Invite students that have been withdrawn for lack of attendance
- Recruit schools and attendance teams to host individual Community Engagement Boards at their schools
Virtual Boards
- Host your boards virtually
- Utilize tools like QR codes, Zoom and Google Classroom
- For paperwork, consider verbal agreements, Laserfiche or DocuSign for online signatures or Google Forms
- Use a translation channel via Zoom if possible with families who need translation services
- Consider reaching out to other districts or even other counties, to partner in hosting boards!
Expand your volunteer recruitment
- Connect to your districts current volunteer pool
- Reach out to local universities and colleges
- Make connections in your community
- Take advantage of the virtual world and reach out to other communities
Create a more equitable volunteer CEB
- Consider surveying the students and families attending the board to better understand what needs are being met at the board
- Get to know the community partners and agencies that work with the students and families in your community/district
- Evaluate the resources within your district: student advocates, family liaisons, school counselors, teachers, connect with the staff that know the students and families well
Engage your students and families
- Get to know the students and families that you serve
- Make a connection with the student, give them clear guidance on what the CEB’s purpose is, and ensure that they are comfortable attending
- Consider setting the board up to be more comfortable and accessible for the family: location, time and number of board members. Consider hosting the board virtually or on a Saturday.
- Remind the family that the CEB’s purpose is to support the student and family and you are a team
- Be creative in how you send out your invitation: QR codes, texting, phone call reminders, home visits