20 Ways To Partner With Parents

At The Orange Conference 2014, the XP3 team lead the Orange student interactive.  Before the interactive we polled all the attendees asking:  What is the one question you would ask the Orange XP3 team?

We received an overwhelming amount of answers.  But there was a reoccurring question that kept coming up which was:  How can I best partner with parents?  

So our team asked the top student ministries in the country who are successfully partnering with parents to share their tips. Our team compiled their best practices and created a document highlighting the top  20 ways to partner with parents and we gave it to each attendee at the interactive.

So we thought we would be nice and share this resource with our XP3 tribe.

Without further adieu here is the 20 best ways to partner with parents:

 (20)  Host Meet & Greets with parents before special events.

(19)  Do a family survey to determine what families need and which families are engaged.  Our friends at Stuff You Can Use has a  free family survey here.  

(18)  Set a monthly time to have parent office hours, where parents can meet with you and discuss anything.

(17)  Create a parent consulting board with key influential parents that you trust. Elect one parent to be the chairman.

(16)  Create and utilize monthly Parent CUE emails or newsletters that inform, equip, and encourages parents

(15)  Create a parent Facebook page for your student ministry. Use it for parent-to-parent connection, discussion, and training.

(14)  Use MailChimp to measure which parents are opening emails and learn how to better manage your communication.

(13)  Host a parent open house to help your small group leaders connect with parents of students in their group, cast vision about your student ministry, and allow parents to see your environment in action.

(12)  Send a welcome video to all rising 9^th grade parents.

(11)  Mail a personalized card with a gift card to every new family that checks out your student ministry

(10)  Develop a fundraising & scholarship plan to ensure that all parents can send their teenagers to special events.

(9)  Host a parent and small group leader breakfast twice a year.  Again our friends at Stuff You Can Use has a resource that instructs you on how to do a parent and small group leader breakfast.

(8)  Develop a Christian counselor network that can provide support and family counseling.

(7)  Do a family together event that enables students and parents do something fun and meaningful with each other.

(6)  Coordinate a student ministry cookout for parents, leaders, and students.

(5)  Pray for families three times a week.

(4)  Be humble and willing to listen to parents’ needs and feedback.

(3)  Be organized at all event registrations.

(2)  Train leaders to regularly connect with parents.

(1)  Create events that honor family rhythms and schedules, even if that means doing fewer events.

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What great ways do you partner with parents?  Please share your best practices in the comment section below.