Online courses

Engaging parents who stay away from services 

Date: 15 & 22 July 2020

Time: 1.00pm – 2.30pm

Delivery: Online

Cost: $165 incl GST

Registration: Click here to register

Strong relationships with families help to promote positive parent-child relationships and early learning environments and experiences for children.  This series of on-line seminars (2 x 90 minutes) is designed to equip professionals with the confidence and tools necessary engage with parents who may have find services difficult to access. 

What does Engaging Families involve? 

Through this series of workshops  participants will: 

• explore the concept of parent engagement from the perspective of families who find it difficult to access early years services 

• Understand the barriers and enablers of parent/practitioner engagement 

• Be equipped with strategies and approaches to enhance engagement between families and early years services. 
  

About the facilitators

Paul Prichard’s career has focused predominantly on the provision of services for individuals and families who view the service system with suspicion. He has made a significant contribution to the family support field influencing approaches to parent engagement across Australia. His work has culminated in a PhD titled Transformations in parenting: New possibilities through peer-led interventions.

Martin O’Byrne

Martin commenced with the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) as part of the Tasmanian team in 2010, leading an action research project and participating in the Learning and Development Strategy as part of the development of the Tasmanian Child and Family Centres initiative.

Martin has extensive experience in early childhood education having trained and worked as an early childhood teacher. He has also worked in community development roles in Victoria and Tasmania. Martin now facilitates training for early years practitioners across Australia through the Training and Development team within CCCH and is interested in practice change and how partnerships can assist better outcomes.

Face-to-face course

Hearing the truth about why families choose to avoid  our services might be a bit uncomfortable, but it could provide helpful information about what we need to change.

Even when we are inspired to make changes to ensure that our service is as engaging as can be, it can be tough to know where to start. How might a local service model look if it were truly shaped and influenced by the families it is intended for?

How can we enter into a genuine partnership with families to redevelop what we do and how we do it?

This one day workshop explores the concept of parent engagement from the perspective of families who are service resistant. The workshop helps practitioners to engage, identify and employ strategies that promote and support parent engagement within and across services.

Learning objectives

To increase participants’ understanding of:

• engagement as a term that lacks uniform definition;
• ‘engagement’ as a culture of practice;
• worker and service characteristics that support parent engagement; and
• strategies to promote engagement within and across services

Course outcome: Participants are able to identify and employ strategies to promote and support parent engagement within and across services.

Cost: $320

Duration: 1 day

For enquiries email training.ccch@rch.org.au