Parent Workshops

Are you having trouble with getting parents to come to your Parent Workshops? Try some of these ideas from Illinois abstinence groups:

1. Student/parent simultaneous trainings: Have a short joint session, then break out into different rooms for specific training.
2. Parent meeting during student activity (e.g. during Jr. High dance).
3. Student/parent joint meeting with task, puzzle, or a problem for the family to do together.
4. Offer free family Christmas photographs after your workshop.
5. Student performance – poetry, drama, or music on abstinence theme.
6. “Inside” another pre-existing event (15 minutes at half-time, beginning, or end of game).
7. Pre-session workshop before beginning classroom abstinence program to communicate content of upcoming classes.
8. Have Case workers relay pertinent information to their clients during personal meetings with individual parents.
9. Mother/daughter and Father/son meetings (Beauty/"facials", sports figures/hunting tips).

When you have the Parent Workshop make sure to speak on interactive, relevant, cutting edge subjects such as:

• Internet: pornography, sexual perpetrators, myspace.com
• Music: What do those lyrics mean?
• What can an iPod really do?
• Text messaging
• Teen sexual trends in your area
• HPV shot as advertised on TV (is it like getting the measles?)

Have you tried any of these for your Parent Workshop? If you have other ideas, please leave us a comment with more suggestions.