Family Leadership Makes positive social change possible
 The Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) is a first-of-its-kind family civics program.
Program graduates spend more than 120 hours to develop skills needed to become effective
leaders in their communities. Once recruited and accepted in to the program, participants
attend a 20-week curriculum that integrates personal and child development, leadership
training, civic literacy and civic participation skills. The curriculum includes four components:
an initial retreat, two 10-weel sessions that focus on knowledge about the change process,
skill building, and tools of civic engagement; and a community project.
In only 20-weeks, Institute graduates make a signifcant impact within their communities.
Through their community projects they demonstrate that when given civic and leadership
tools, families can guide public policy and decision making directly and indirectly through their
actions and commitment to children, youth and the community.
The Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) started from a public-private partnership
between several statewide organizations, business leaders and community members.
Collectively these organizations discovered three things: 1) Families are eager to learn how to
participate in democracy; 2) Civic leaders and organizations benefit from informed families;
and 3) Communities are strengthened when the voice of the family is valued.
FLTI reflects a vision for the future – a vision that sees all families participating to make their
communities healthier, cleaner, safer and better learning environments for children, and
that creates support and encouragement for those activities.
About FLTI
The Family Leadership Training Institute is a public-private partnership that works with local
communities to provide parents/youth/communities with the knowledge, skills and tools
for civic engagement. The goals of FLTI are to effect positive family leadership development
by:
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Helping families become leaders in their communities through civic engagement |
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Expanding and facilitating the capacity of families to be change agents on a
neighborhood, regional and state level |
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Developing supportive communities of families within regions of the state |
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Facilitating family involvement in state and local policy decision-making processes |
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Increasing parent-child interaction through family involvement |
Mission Statement
The Family Leadership Training Institute prepares families to become leading advocates for children. Families’ opinions are often unheard. Although families may lack advocacy skills, their strong motivation and will to change their children’s lives is apparent. The FLTI teaches families, who wish to improve the lifelong health, safety and learning of children, how to become practiced change agents for the next generation.
Families define the curriculum and participate in its evaluation and outcomes. Family supports, such as child care, are included. Each class of families mentors the next class, creating a pyramid effect of community caring and developing a coalition of family leaders.
General Program and Purpose:
The FLTI program is a two-generation strategy to encourage family involvement while promoting the lifelong health, safety and learning of children. The program integrates child development leadership and democracy skills into a family curriculum. Family members attend a 20-week program. The application process is competitive. Family supports such as child care, meals and transportation are provided. Each class mentors the next class, creating a pyramid effect of community caring and a developing coalition of families. The classes are evaluated by families for both short and long-term outcomes.
The Core Learning of Family Leadership Training:
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Work with diversity |
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Form useful coalitions |
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Define needs |
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Collect and utilize data |
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Assess and define problems |
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Reach successful outcomes |
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Speak publicly |
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Become familiar with state and federal law |
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Utilize the media |
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Understand ordinances |
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Review child and family data |
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Strategize for action |
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Evaluate a program |
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Plan for whole agendas using a step-by-step process |
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Understand personal history and its impact on self image and empowerment |
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General Family Leadership Training Institute Goals Seek to:
1. Help families become the leaders they would like to be for children;
2. Expand the capacity of families as change agents for children;
3. Develop supportive communities of families within targeted regions of the state that will support one another in both their skills development and successful parent action for young children;
4. Develop supportive communities of families within parent-driven institutions such as Head Start and Title I programs;
5. Facilitate familiescapacity to offer input into community efforts on the neighborhood, city, regional and state level;
6. Facilitate systems change for family involvement with increased utilization of families in policy and process decisions; and
7. Increase parent-child interactions and quality children’s programs through family involvement.
Who the Families are:
Family participants represent the demographics of the State of Colorado. Their ages span from teen parents to grandparents raising grandchildren. They are single parents, stepparents, foster and adoptive parents, and others concerned about improving systems for children. Classes are comprised of 20-25 parents. There are occasional regional symposiums.
Families as Beneficiaries:
There is no single or special interest policy agenda underlying the FLTI. The goal is to dignify the role of families as change agents within community and government by building their capacity. families use the tools developed to address social policy issues of concern. Families are taught the tenets of democracy and their rights to utilize government optimally in the best interest of children. Public policy, media and outreach are demystified and fully explained. The families trained, their children and those touched by their growing leadership, are the beneficiaries.
Children as Beneficiaries:
Family participation in children’s issues encourages parent-child relations and leads to positive outcomes. Parents feel stronger about their own capabilities as they develop leadership skills. This increased sense of self-regard rapidly improves parent-child communication. Children sense the potential to effect change in their own lives and other lives. Hope increases in a time of diminishing expectations. Children’s readiness to learn increases as parents participate more in their lives, through language and expectation.
The tools of leadership among parents and community build opportunity for children. Family participation in children’s issues concretely improves children’s programs within the community. As families develop speaking and needs assessment skills, they are better able to articulate issues and guide solution-building. Graduates have facilitated the development or expansion of several programs ranging from children’s libraries to preschool opportunities to programs for grandchildren being raised by grandparents.
Systems as Beneficiaries:
Similarly, institutions, through family leadership training, improve their capacity to work with and empower parents. The FLTI has worked with early care and education programs, social services institutions and cities to improve: 1) family involvement policies; 2) consumer-driven service delivery; and 3) leadership opportunities for families. Frequently programs do not see how to involve families. Training or family leadership can offer a shift in attitude and arouse new interest in family potential.
The FLTI is relational:
The FLTI treats each family with the depth of relationship that we expect of family roles within family. Family leadership does not emerge from slick curriculum, but from developed trust, substantive dialogue, skills building, hope and expectation. These ingredients offer families, who seek to create change for their children and others, a ladder toward leadership.
The FLTI is building community:
Structurally, the FLTI selects each class as a community. Participants apply and receive a one hour interview. Each candidate enters on his or her own strength and special characteristics. Families are selected for the class with consideration for how their participation will enhance the diversity, strength and learning for the group as a whole.
The FLTI focuses both on content and process:
The program curriculum relies on process, content and context. This form of analysis is part of each class, meeting or public engagement. Families are routinely taught to analyze the event, the process and their situation within it. Personal history, self-assessment, systems analysis and social economic understanding are blended into each class.
The FLTI is intergenerational:
The FLTI offers leadership training to families as well as grandfamilies. We recognize that multiple generations are presently raising children. The children attend dinner and participate in childcare while families, grandfamilies, or other caretakers are in class. They are exposed to numerous policy debates, systems and structures of governance. The children become comfortable in City Hall, reading newspapers, and watching their families speak. The graduation offers many children the chance to witness their family, grandfamily, or other caretaker graduate. This family-child participation in leadership enhances the children’s visions of their own potential to affect change.
The FLTI creates a pyramid:
Family graduates serve as mentors for the next class of students as well as ad hoc family programs on capacity-building. Families attend graduation, facilitate retreats and offer program support to the next class. Families participate, advise, speak and mentor other families and programs seeking to work better with families as consumers.
The FLTI offers on-going support and technical assistance to family leaders:
The FLTI provides a part-time staff position to create the community of families for each class. She selects each candidate. She assesses the strength of the group and works with the teacher in finalizing candidates selections. Between classes, she is the “glue person,” to address service needs, resources and strategy discussions between and among families.
The FLTI is family-based rather than institution-based:
Families are accepted through their own application. Institutions do not apply or purchase slots
for families to be trained in single-issue agendas. The FLTI seeks to bolster a constituency of families that can access and utilize both government and community agencies optimally for children.
The FLTI offers on-going training for family leaders:
Family graduates are invited to attend and speak at numerous policy and teaching engagements requested of the Family Leadership Training Institute of Alexandria. The site offers a fertile training ground for families interested in law, budget and public speaking. Connecticut Commission staff members may invite FLTI graduates to Washington to speak on capacity-building. These roles are then analyzed to deepen families’ understanding and evaluation of presentation, communication and policy impact.
The Evidence of Need - Initial Research
The FLTI two year research project found that families, across race, gender, and class lines, are able to describe the needs of children and the obstacles to address them. Yet, they do not see themselves as capable of influencing change. The majority of families do not know how to work within the city, school, or state system, nor do they believe they are entitled to do so.
There is a critical gap between need, desire and capacity to effect change.
Testing the premises of family leadership, the Commission on Children spoke with state and national family leadership efforts to ascertain and ask: 1) What are the crucial variables to success? 2) What leads empowerment to be enduring? and 3) What are the significant processes to bring in families?
The findings included the following:
Motivators leading families to actively participate on behalf of their child(ren) are:
(1) Knowing that their participation is part of something successful;
(2) Knowing that they can make a difference in their lives and the live of their children;
(3) Feeling supported, respected and acknowledged for their time and efforts;
(4) Receiving hands-on training and guidance; and
(5) Receiving family supports such as food, child care, transportation, etc.
Maintaining involvement and empowerment within a family group entails:
(1) Creating a space where families feel safe, comfortable and valued;
(2) Developing realistic and attainable expectations and goals;
(3) Creating a sense of ownership in the change process;
(4) Acknowledging efforts and inspiring next steps; and
(5) Seeing the progress in families’ efforts.
Structuring and building leadership in a program consists of:
(1) Working with families in a non-patronizing, inclusive environment;
(2) Establishing rapport with other “leaders”, e.g., local and state policy makers;
(3) Holding trainings that can be easily applied to a variety of settings;
(4) Establishing a peer network among the group and with community contacts;
(5) Following up on actions that take place outside of the group;
(6) Scheduling time for personal sharing and listening; and
(7) Providing a network of mentors.
Ensuring involvement of people on a local level includes:
(1) Demystifying the political process;
(2) Making friends;
(3) Creating a list of contacts;
(4) Developing specific goals and tasks related to accomplishing a goal; and
(5) Encouraging people to get out of “victim” or passive roles and into responsible action.
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| “I have been a leader who has not grown, who has put off life for far too long. FLTI woke me up. I am learning to lead again. It is my destiny. “ |
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| “I have always been striving to make change for the better for all children but FLTI has given me the tools necessary to accomplish this.” |
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“Before FLTI I thought if I were to act as if I were an ostrich and stick my head in the sand I would not be responsible or accountable. After experiencing FLTI now I know that even if I refuse to learn or
accept what is going on around me I am still responsible and accountable.” |
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| “FLTI has been an educational eye opener to the process it takes to create changes within the community” |
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Resources
Community Projects
How Families are Leading Social Change in the Community (Samples of Community Project Titles below)
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