MED 7503 Week 7 SEL
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School
Wilmington University *
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Course
MED-7503
Subject
English
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by DeaconLightningBuffalo36
MED 7503
Structured External Assignment
2/25/24
A communication plan is a document created by a team that defines what information should be communicated, who receives it and when and how the information will be delivered. A
communication plan is an essential component to a successful school district. It should align to the district’s mission, vision and strategic plans. The plan must identify both internal and external stakeholders. It is a tool that can be used to ensure that all stakeholders within the district are kept up to date on important goals, events and changes. It also lets the stakeholders know a timeline for goals and objectives. A well thought out plan will build trust between the district and the community and provide transparency for all involved. Joyce Epstein’s Framework of Six Types of Involvement is an excellent tool to use when creating a communication plan. Epstein and her colleagues created this framework in the early 1990’s to enhance the relationships between school, family and community partnerships and continue to make revisions based on the changes on society and education. However, the foundation of the six types of involvement have stayed the same. The six types are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. When a school district uses the guidelines, the Epstein sets in framework, it leads to the creation of a successful communication plan, better collaboration amongst all stakeholders and success for all involved. In order to develop a comprehensive plan that incorporates family involvement and community stakeholders, you need to create surveys and needs assessments and present them to internal and external parties. These surveys and assessments need to identify community
resources that are available and the needs that students and parents have. They need to help you identify the type of diverse culture, social and intellectual needs of students and parents and what
community resources are available to help with these needs. Lastly, assessments need to be used to gather data that can be used to create a plan that has equity and covers the needs of all internal and external parties. When thinking of needs and resources, a survey can be created that allows parents to anonymously answer questions about their home and work life. It can ask questions about financial income, living arrangements, ability to provide shelter and food, clothing needs and anything else that is critical for a student when they are in school. These surveys can be shared via social media, email or meetings held within the school or other public places. Once the data is gathered then the planning committee can start to locate resources within the community or build resources within the district. A perfect example of a need that may be identified is the lack of food resources that available to students within the district that live with parents that have financial struggles or are homeless. Committee members can then collaborate with stakeholders and identify resources that are available within the community. An example of perfect collaboration is when our district partnered with the Food Bank of Delaware and other stakeholders within the community and created a food pantry that serves numerous families within our district. This information can also be used to clothe students and provide families with
a list of resources, such as Love Inc, if they are struggling to pay rent or utility bills. There is a plethora of resources available for families within a district and when a communication plan is created this provides an opportunity for internal and external parties to collaborate and achieve goals that are set to help families and students within the district with their needs. Another key part to an effective communication plan is being able to identify diversity of everyone involved. This includes culture, social and intellectual diversities and also the resources
available within the community for those diversities. Surveys can also be used to gather this information and dispersed in the same manor as the surveys used to gather information about needs of stakeholders. These questions could easily be put on those same surveys so parents are not be bombarded with multiple surveys. Surveys can also be given to community members to identify resources available within the community to assist with the different diversities. It is important to remember when creating these surveys that they are given in multiple languages. The three most spoken languages within a district are normally English, Spanish and Creole but make sure there is an option for stakeholders that may speak something completely different. Everyone needs to feel valued and being able to answer a survey in their native language is a first
step to bridging gaps and making them feel that their voice matters. Once the data is collected from these surveys then it can be used to determine resources needed and how to communicate with them. For example, the data shows that you have a population of 30% white, 30% African American, 30% Haitian and 10% other. The committee creating the communication plan now knows that they need to present information in multiple languages. They can now identify stakeholders within the community that can help when holding in-person informational sessions. For example, If I want to reach the Haitian community, I can work with leaders at the local Haitian churches to hold informational sessions at their locations and they can help with translating the information between both parties. An effective communication plan will use the diversities within their district to build strong relationships and create an inclusive partnership between the internal and external stakeholders. An effective communication plan will have goals and objectives that the district wishes to
achieve to insure success for all involved but mainly the success of their students. These goals and objectives need to align with the districts mission and vision statements so when creating the
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plan, the committee needs to use those two statements to guide their decisions. All stakeholders need to know how the communication process works and the best way to communicate. For this reason it is important to list who the internal stakeholders are. For example, all district staff, students and school board are the most common internal stakeholders. External includes but is not limited to parents, civic groups, community groups and local businesses. The communication
also needs to take place in multiple forms and languages. Such as, print, social media and in person meetings. Once all players have been identified, the surveys distributed and data gathered and the goals and objectives set, the committee needs to create a timeline of when they expect goals and objectives to be met and who they will need to assist with this. This living document is
the key to success for everyone living in a school district and needs to be a collaboration of many
people from all areas of life. Only then will this communication plan lead to the success of all.