Community and Government Case Studies

A Large Community College Continuing Education Department

Length of work: One-year project Presenting problem: A parent education program had a good start with numerous classes and other activities. The program director wanted to expand services, reach many more parents and increase enrollment. Intervention: A set of monthly newsletters for parents of infants was developed in cooperation with staff of maternal and infant care units at local hospitals. The newsletters described growth and development for each month, activities to do with the newborn, a topic of the month, and suggested parenting resources. Members of a civic organization volunteered to personally distribute the Newborn issue of the newsletters to parents of newborns in participating hospitals. During that visit, parents were given the opportunity to sign up to have the remaining issues mailed to their homes. The hand-delivered Newborn issue and all mailed issues were stuffed with a schedule of classes and other activities at the community college parent education program. Outcome: Enrollment increased over a number of years, reaching a high point of almost 7,000 parent-students during one 12-month period. At that point, the parent education program enrolled almost one-fourth of all the students at the college. Comment: The newsletters were so successful in attracting and educating parents that the series was widely distributed and has reached the parents of almost a million newborns in the US and abroad. The series is published in English and Spanish. «Back