February 2008 Parent Newsletter
Launching a Three for Me Program at Your School
Parent involvement in schools is much more than parent-teacher conferences and the PTA. However, asking parents to volunteer for one more activity is tough. But who can say no to volunteering three hours over the course of one school year? That’s what the founders of the parent volunteer program called “Three for Me” discovered.
Three for Me is a national parent volunteer organization founded by two Indiana moms. By asking parents to pledge just three volunteer hours a year per child, they generated far more volunteers and volunteers hours than they thought possible.
The National PTA has adopted the program, and now more than 8,100 schools and 4.5 million parents are involved. Parents in other countries, like Canada and New Zealand, have also expressed interest in starting their own programs.
Tips for Launching Three for Me
- Gather together a small committee of parents, teachers, and community members to discuss current volunteer opportunities and the barriers that have prevented parents from volunteering in the past.
- Draft parent volunteer guidelines, unless the school already has them.
- Send out a volunteer survey to find out what parents want to do.
- Create a list of volunteer activities, and get input from teachers.
- Don’t forget about parents who can’t come to school. They can still contribute by working on projects at home, like creating flashcards or preparing bulletin board materials.
- Kick off the program during a PTA meeting. Send home pledge cards and a list of possible volunteer opportunities the next day.
- Pull together a group of volunteer coordinators (one for each classroom).
- Have volunteer coordinators match parents with their interests and confirm assignments via phone or email.
- Consider posting the names of parents who have completed their three hours at school.
Many parents do want to volunteer, but they just don’t know how to get started. The Three for Me program is an excellent way to begin. In fact, the founders of Three for Me discovered once they connected parents with the school, many went far beyond the three-hour commitment. During the first year, parents averaged 15 hours each. Three years into the program, parents logged a total of more than 10,000 volunteer hours.
Volunteer programs like Three for Me are creative ways to connect families to their child’s school and strengthen home-school-community partnerships. For additional information, visit the Web site,
www.three4me.com, for a free starter kit.
2008 Parent Newsletters
2007 Parent Newsletters