Empowering Parents

In TFS’ Parent Engagement Program, parents participate in year-round activities and events designed to increase their knowledge and skills of youth development and empower them to make use of best practices. TFS works to promote trust, open communication, and parent stewardship of their child’s academic career. We connect with parents through family events, advisory committees, newsletters, regular progress reports, and expert guidance from external partners.

While TFS has served our participants’ families for over 25 years, 2015 saw a marked enhancement of these services and a deepening of our partnership with families. As the active engagement of a supportive parent or guardian is critical to creating a complete and positive learning environment for our students, parents are key partners in our process. Our Parent Engagement Program is based on industry research and best practices and strongly influenced by Dr. Joyce Epstein’s “Six Keys of Parent Engagement.” The TFS model, however, has been adapted to successfully target the low-income communities we serve. We are combining the best high-level strategies with local-level evaluation and strong community relationships, which we believe is the foundation of any success in parent engagement. We received a significant grant from AmeriCorps ($205,500 over three years) to jumpstart the refinement and expansion of our Parent Engagement Program and will provide dedicated Parent Engagement Associates to serve students’ families at each of our program sites.

For more information about The Fishing School and to get involved, please visit www.fishingschool.org, or call (202) 399-3618.

We also invite you to ‘Like’ our Facebook page and follow our Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts.