Involving Families as Advisors
Are you looking for ways to involve families in your work?
As a professional, partnering with families makes good sense whether you work in education, healthcare, or the wider community. Families of children with special health care or developmental needs have a lot to offer, teach and share. Incorporating their unique perspectives and valuable feedback as you consider new directions, plan and evaluate programs, or develop policy will result in positive outcomes.
There are a number of ways to involve families as advisors and partners, such as members of advisory boards, feedback groups, committees, task forces or community coalitions; as trainers or guest presenters and/or reviewers of written materials.
Here are 4 basic steps to guide your work as you involve families in an advising role:
- Decide what kind of family involvement will work best for your organization
- Recruit the right people
- Prepare and facilitate the involvement
- Follow up and closure
It may also help you to complete a Project Planning Worksheet for Involving Families.