Learning Curve
The long road to the fair
Posted on March 14, 2024, by GAPMP
DeKalb Parent Mentor Lisa Lake was thrilled at the attendance for her Transition Fair event on Saturday March 2 2024. She was so excited about the success of her event, she decided to share all the details of her planning with us.
“Approximately 257 participants pre-registered for the event. My director said this is the largest event the Exceptional Education department has hosted! I was forced to close my registration form almost a week before the event because we had already exceeded the venue capacity, so next time, we need a bigger venue! If you build it, they will come! We had 170 attendees on Saturday, including several Spanish speaking families, and two families with deaf and hard of hearing members. We had Spanish and ASL interpreters available to accommodate,” she said.
VISION
Lisa Lake
My vision was an informational event, where families could meet the staff from every department in Exceptional Education and learn about all the services and supports the county can provide a child with a disability. My director allowed me to help lead the planning team. We asked all Exceptional Education departments to host vendor tables, so parents could meet the staff in the different departments, give out information, answer questions, and engage with parents. Parents could also choose from (6) different informational breakout parent sessions to attend.
Here are some details of her planning
What was your budget for this event? I was not given a budget for this event so, we had to do everything using what we had, with the help of other departments and I used some of my parent mentor funds.
Did you have to pay for the site? No, I didn’t pay for the site. We used one of our schools in our district.
What about the promo items you got printed? I asked my director if there were any funds that had been allotted to the Parent Mentors in the past for materials and she said “yes”. Then, it took months to find out exactly how much money was available and to have it put into the correct accounts for me to be able to use.
Since you didn’t have a budget, where did the funds for your promo materials come from? Do you report these funds to your office? (Many mentors including me get donations from folks and it is hard to know how to “account” for these funds). I didn’t have to report any funds, since I didn’t receive any monies, but I was also able to get some giveaway items donated from local nonprofits. We have a form that departments fill out any time an in-kind donation is received.
This is a struggle for many parent mentors, especially in small districts.
Were the promo items you had made just for the fair, or do you plan to use them for all your training year round? The promo items I had made can be used year round and for any parent mentors in the future. This included the parent mentor table cloth, banners, basic flyers, as well as the event posters I had printed at GLRS. Since these are events our director wants to do annually, they were laminated, and can be reused. I just made sure not to include a date or location.
Who did you work with in your district and in the community to put this event together? This was definitely a team effort. My director served on the planning team with me along with several coordinators and two administrative assistants. We also contacted all of the department heads within Exceptional Education to provide informational tables and breakout sessions including Preschool Special Education, GNETS, 504 team, Hospital Homebound, Intellectual Disabilities, transportation, behavior team, and assistive technology. Our Metro East GLRS helped me a ton with printing and blowing up posters, registration materials, ect.. and Parent to Parent of Ga teamed up with me to co-facilitate a parent session that was for parents by parents.
How did you advertise the event? We talked with the district marketing team to add digital banners to the district website and social media pages for marketing, family engagement department provided ASL and Spanish translators, and we sent out district wide text messages and emails through infinite campus to all families in Exceptional Education as well as asked all our area principals to add our event to their weekly announcements, and thru class dojo with the help of our Exceptional Education teachers.
What have you learned about the best way to reach parents? The best way for me to reach parents is thru their child’s teacher and weekly announcements going out from their local school.
How did you get vendors? The vendors were all departments of Exceptional Education, with the exception of GLRS and Parent to Parent of Ga. I created invitation letters for all the department heads, and also reached out to Parent to Parent and GLRS directly and asked if they would attend.
Did you ask for feedback from attendees and vendors? Yes, all attendees were asked to do a survey before they left the event. All vendors were asked to submit feedback and suggestions for improvement.
What trends did you notice in the feedback? Many parents wanted more time to engage, ask their questions and get information from the different departments. Many also wanted an opportunity to attend more breakout sessions. Generally, the feedback was good, and parents were excited to attend, happy the event was offered and wanted more events like it hosted in the future.
What, if anything, will you do differently next year and why? I would start planning a lot earlier and get a larger venue because many families were not allowed to attend due to reaching our venue capacity very quickly after we started advertising the event. I would also have activities for students to enjoy. This event was really just for parents, but we had lots of children and entire families attend.