Family Engagement

Building Connections with Your Early Childhood Program and Temple Family During COVID

Trying to engage our families and congregants during Covid and connect them to your Temple’s family may seem like a struggle. Now more than ever these connections are vital. With careful planning and a team approach, this goal can be easily attainable. 

For many parents, looking for an Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program may be one of the most important decisions they make. Jewish ECE programs are not just entry points into Jewish learning but also a re-entry point back into a synagogue for many families.

With Covid, we have been faced with many new challenges.

• How do we sell our programs to new families who have never seen the inside of our walls?
• How do we engage our existing families in our EC programs?
• How do we share these Jewish experiences with our families?
• How do we connect our clergy and leadership to our families?

Whether in person or in many cases now “virtually”, quality programming, meaningful family experiences, and activities for all ages are key to the Temple’s role in a family’s Jewish journey. 

In addition to committees involving ECE staff, clergy, parents and temple leadership, it is important to have a Covid task force committee consisting of medical personnel to safely implement any new programming to attract new young families through communication, marketing, and outreach. 

Through these committees, our leadership has implemented ways to further connect ECE families with our synagogue life.  Here are just a few!

• Tour beyond your program.  Like many programs, our doors are closed to visitors. Tours can be scheduled virtually or even pre-recorded.  Regardless of how they are done, make sure to show them your Sanctuary and introduce your clergy.  (Parents love seeing the Rabbi’s study!)   Show them your religious school, the public spaces in your Synagogue, and your youth lounge if you have one.  Introduce them to your Religious school Director and/or Youth Director.
• Be inviting!  This year for Rosh Hashanah, our Membership committee was present at our carpool giving out gift baskets along with Siddurs for those watching services virtually.
• Gift of a Lifetime.  Any new ECE family receives a free year of temple membership. 
• Be an Ambassador! An ambassador should not JUST make an initial welcoming phone call. Rather, throughout the YEAR, ambassadors can call and invite new families to family programs whether in person or virtual. Remember, this first year makes a huge difference in whether or not a family will stay connected! 
• Virtual PTO Meetings. Keep your parents connected! Our first PTO meeting consisted of a virtual tour of the school in session. With an Ipad, one can visit every classroom making sure to point out each child of those in the meeting.
• Clergy and Board presence. Any opportunity that arises, making sure Clergy is present is key… have parents make a connection!
  • Have Clergy join a PTO meeting. This goes a long way toward building relationships. 
  • Have clergy present at the carpool line at least once a week. A quick hello is always appreciated.
  • Children love spending time with clergy on a regular basis in the classrooms. Parents love seeing the child-clergy connection – include photos from their time together in ECE and temple newsletters!
• Virtual Programming
  • Include your families in any classroom celebrations. Some of our families send birthday party invitations to extended family along with parents in the classroom.  Zoom has become our parent’s best friend.
  • Shabbat Mystery Reader with Zayde and Bubbee. Each Friday a grandparent signs up to be a mystery reader in their grandchild’s classroom. We have had grandparents from all over the world join us on Zoom.

Stacey Katz
Director
Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El
Plantation,  Florida

October 2021

Customer service is customer service, no matter what industry you are in. In our positions, our customers are our families.  Part of the service we provide is building relationships, to us and between families.

The customer service journey, or in other words, the journey to start building relationships should begin even before a family calls or walks through the door for the first time.

One way is to use videos. Creating a professional video for families that exemplifies who you are and what you do as individuals and as a school will leave a lasting impression. Please click on the link to view an example of a school video.  

In a post-COVID-19 world, home visits before the school year starts are another impactful way to begin to develop relationships. 

It is important to realize that each family is different. How you create a strong and lasting connection can look different and take on many forms. What family engagement means and looks like depends on the unique characteristics and the individual comfort levels and understanding of each family. Here are some examples of tactics you can use to build a relationship between you and your families:

• Smile and greet families by name every single day.
• Establish a time to meet with families face-to-face and help families design a plan to reach the dreams and goals they have for their children.
• Share observations and other strength-based information about their children.  This goes a very long way.
• Ask families questions about their children.
• Communicate with families daily using storyboards, emails, notes home, pictures, communication sheets with information about routines, phone call, and newsletter.
• Invite families to share what they see and hear their children doing at home or in the community or how they celebrate certain holidays or rituals in their home.  For example, for Hanukkah, you could share a slide show of families celebrating Hanukkah in their homes.
• Find ways to ask them how they are feeling about the program, such as a family survey, and discuss any concerns they might have.

We know the children will come to school and make friends, but it’s just as beautiful to see parents making friendships they will have for life. You can help facilitate these relationships by creating an environment in a way that encourages families to spend time together. Examples include:

• Keep the entrance area open and uncluttered with simple but attractive signs welcoming families. 
• Consider setting up a large board on a wall near the center of the room for parents to leave daily messages for each other.
• Create a comfortable spot for parents to hang out and kibitz after dropping their child off for school, or before picking them up.
• Hold programs where the entire family can participate. These can take place during the school day, in the evenings, and on the weekends.

Shelly Sender
Early Childhood Education Director
Temple Emanu-El Early Childhood Education Center

February 2021