Projects
Projects we've done to help spread
the awareness of Putting Family First in our communities:
Putting Family First Night
The first annual Putting Family
First Night, an evening when families were encouraged to
cease all other activities (homework, sports, music, dance,
meetings, etc.) and stay home together took place in the
communities of the Wayzata School District in Wayzata, Minnesota
on Monday, March 7, 2005
The goal of Putting Family First Night was to help raise awareness about the
importance of close family relationships in child and youth
development and the impact that over scheduling has on all
of us. Putting Family First Night provided an opportunity
for families to eat dinner together and to enjoy one uninterrupted
evening together.
Putting Family First Night was formally endorsed by the Wayzata School Board
who passed a resolution in the fall of 2004 “highly recommending there be no homework, no meetings, no practices and no organized activities on March 7th.” Putting Family First Night was also endorsed by Plymouth Mayor, Judy Johnson, the Plymouth City Council, the Plymouth Youth Advisory Council, Wayzata Rotary, Plymouth/Minnetonka Rotary, and the faith community. The Wayzata Rotary and the Plymouth/Minnetonka Rotary also provided funding to help cover the costs of promoting Putting Family First Night.
Putting Family First Night received extensive media coverage thanks to 135
packets of information about the event that were sent to community organizations, including all schools, sports organizations, and faith communities. 60 media kits were also mailed to local and national media outlets with background information about the grassroots initiative of Putting Family First and ideas and suggestions for Putting Family First Night. Presentations were made to every PTA/O in the school district about Putting Family First Night.
Two communication techniques that were particularly well received were Putting Family First Night “dots” --- small, adhesive circles imprinted with “PFF” that
could be placed in the center of a wrist watch. Thousands of these dots were
distributed (via schools and faith communities) prior to the event, and people
were encouraged to wear them to remind themselves about Putting Family First
Night.
In addition, two weeks prior to the event we paid the local community newspaper
to include reminders about Putting Family First Night --- in the form of printed
sticky notes --- on the front of each newspaper that was delivered to almost
all of the homes in our community. This provided another easy and high-profile
way to remind people to save the date for Putting Family First Night.
By all accounts, the first annual Putting Family First Night was very well received
by the community, particularly by families with elementary-age children. The
second annual Putting Family First Night will take place Monday, March 6, 2006!
School and Faith Community Flyers
Following the school districts calendar theme of "Celebrating
Family Involvement" and focusing on some of the family related
national events that already exist, we decided to help PTA
and Faith groups promote these events by providing them with
a variety of resources. Our own very talented, Bugs
Peterschmidt, created the comical cartoon family scenes for
all our flyers. See our Calendar page to download any of our
flyers.
We send the flyers along with newsletter layout options and
an Idea list to the schools via email. Each school decides
which way to promote and distribute the "family themed" information.
We also provided posters to be hung permanently with a slot
to attach the current flyer.
2003-2004 Wayzata School District Calendar titled "Celebrating
Family Involvement"
PFF offered to help create the 2003-2004 Wayzata School
District Calendar by brainstorming ideas for every month,
focusing on different pieces of research that contribute to
success in family involvement. We also provided some Web links
to national organizations, took some of the pictures used
in the calendar and suggested a sponsor, Anchor Bank.
"Suggesting ideas to celebrate family life for each month
of the calendar is a good way to remind people to put their
families first and to let more people know what the organization,
Putting Family First, is about", said Barbara Carlson, one
of the cofounders of Putting Family First.
School calendars help families connect to their children's
school life. A total of 10,000 calendars are printed each
year with 6,500 being mailed directly to families in the
district and 1,200 being distributed to District 284 staff.
The Seal
Within the vision of strong, balanced families flourishing
in a vibrant democratic community, the goal of the Putting
Family First Seal was to reorient the relationship between
families and the groups that schedule outside activities of
family members. The groups included sports, religious, and
fine arts programs, and other activities. The Seal was developed
to counteract the erosion of family time and the overly-competitive
world. The Seal was awarded to groups and organizations with
a demonstrated commitment to supporting family life while
providing enriching opportunities for individuals. Here are
the six criteria for the Seal followed by a statement about
families' own responsibilities to the activity programs they
sign up for.
Criteria For the Seal
- Balanced priorities:
A written statement affirms that other life priorities,
particularly family relationships, come first in participants'
lives.
- Clear expectations:
All time and financial expectations for participants and
families are made clear in advance and in writing.
- Family-friendly scheduling:
Scheduling is done with families' needs and schedules in
mind. Whenever possible, events are scheduled so as to not
interfere with family dinners, holidays, and religious participation.
- Family decisions honored:
In written policy and in practice, decisions by participants
and families to prioritize family activities are fully accepted,
with no penalties or recriminations.
- Religious commitments honored:
Children and youth are not arbitrarily denied participation
in an activity if their family limits their involvement
because of religious commitments.
- Parents have a common voice:
Parents have the opportunity to meet with one another to
give group feedback to program leaders about scheduling
and costs, to evaluate how well the program's values
about family life are being enacted, and to make recommendations
for future years.
Families have responsibilities to outside groups and programs that will require
effort, good will, and mutual respect among all parties. We
all have a stake in strong families and rich community opportunities
in which children, youth, and adults can learn, grow, and
contribute to their communities and the larger world. Families
themselves bear important responsibilities in making the Putting
Family First Seal work in practice.
- Families must make their own decisions, based on their
values and priorities, about balancing family time and outside
activities.
- Families must inform activity leaders in advance about
limits they will place on their child's participation.
- Families have to speak up when asked to make time commitments
they believe to be unreasonable.
- Once they agree to a schedule of activities, families
are responsible to follow through.
- Just as activity leaders must respect family life, families
must respect activity leaders and other program participants
by being faithful to agreed-upon schedules.
- When a family priority requires an absence or change in
schedule, the family has the obligation to inform the activity
leader as far in advance as possible.
Three organizations (The Wayzata/Plymouth Youth Football
League; Wayzata High School Band; Birchview Elementary Book
Worms) applied for and were awarded the Putting Family First
Seal. Due to time, money, and lack of volunteers to
facilitate the process, we are currently no longer offering
the Seal.
Family Day
In Sept 2002, PFF volunteers promoted "Family Day-
A Day to Celebrate Dinner at Home" by printing flyers.
Some schools sent flyers home with students, while other schools
included the information in school newsletters, on their website,
or thru daily announcements. A Middle School Family
Consumer Science teacher offered extra credit to any student
that cooked dinner for their family that night. A local
newspaper featured an
article on it. We conducted a poll, asking "How often
does your complete family eat a meal together? The results:
3% never; 7% seldom; 16% 1-2 times per week; 34% 3-5 times
per week; and 40% said they ate dinner together more than
6 times per week. For more information about "Family
Day", see our Dinner
Time page.
Partnership with Faith communities
A small group of Putting Family First people have been
busy over the last several months building a partnership with
area faith communities. Representatives from 11 area faith
communities will attend their first action meeting on September
24, 2002. All the representatives, on invitation from their
clergy, attended a launching workshop held over the summer
to acquaint them with the work of Putting Family First and
our plan to expand the conversation in our community. The
workshop proved to be a wonderful opportunity to explore the
personal stories and share concern for our families struggling
to find balance in a frantic, over sheduled world.
This project began in the Spring, when all of the clergy
serving people in the Wayzata school district area, were invited
to information meetings about Putting Family First. Those
attending saw the need for a community wide commitment to
take on this issue effectively and agreed to find lay leaders
in their faith communities to work with us. Their role will
be to have one foot in the community organization, Putting
Family First as citizens and the other in their faith communities
as leaders, championing the Putting Family First movement.
These lay leader representatives will be gathering together
for monthly meetings. We hope that together we can share best
practices with each other, develop strategies together to
further the conversation in the Wayzata area and in the process
support each other in having a family life that works.
Popcorn Quiz
May 28, 2002 marked the debut of the Putting Family First
Popcorn Quiz. Nearly 800 quizes complete with popcorn,
score sheets, and instructions were distributed to all Wayzata
West Middle School students and staff. The quiz, written by
Barbara Carlson and Bill Doherty, appears in their book "Putting
Family First", published in August, 2002.
Funded by the WMS PTA, each family received this playful
way to continue the conversation of overscheduled kids and
underconnected families at their own kitchen table. Families
were encouraged to register their results with either their
child's homeroom teacher, or to visit an online poll that
we set up on the web.
Parent Groups
The mission of Putting Family First is to help create
a community where family life is an honored and celebrated
priority. Easy to say, we know. But to achieve that
dream requires the personal commitment of parents, as well
as the general support of the community. We know that
many times parents feel all alone in their efforts to find
family balance in this overscheduled world.
During the winter of 2001-02, two members of the Putting
Family First "Family-to-Family Action Group" helped facilitate
a series of parent group discussions at a local church in
hopes of providing a safe, non-threatening atmosphere to address
this issue. We met four times, for two hours in the evening,
over a five-week period to share strategies for reclaiming
family time, share ideas for creating family rituals of connection,
relaxation and fun, and to provide support and encouragement
to each other. Putting Family First co-founder, Bill Doherty,
created a simple outline to follow at each session that included
time to share each person's interest in this issue, a process
for family self-assessment, the development of action steps
to try within our own family, and ways to share these strategies
within the broader community.
During the sessions, parents shared stories about the complexity
of their lives (many were having a hard time finding time
to sit down for dinner as a family) and were very open about
ways they both succeed and struggle to maintain family time.
Some felt they were doing pretty well, but others expressed
frustration about their inability to keep balance in their
lives. Some worried that, while they felt somewhat in control
with their younger children, they could see the pressures
building for increased activities for their older kids. All
agreed that the time spent together during our sessions helped
to validate the struggles we are all facing and provided them
with specific strategies to try within their own families.
The mutual reinforcement that was gained through these
four sessions was probably the most gratifying aspect of our
time together.
These kinds of one-on-one conversations among parents are
an easy and profound way to share the Putting Family First
message within a community. We found they are most
successful within a structure that already exists -- a parent
education series at a faith community or through the local
parent/teacher organization at a school. It would be an easy
process to replicate in your community!
Glitterized Kitchen Float
On September 9, 2001, Family Life First marched in the
James J. Hill parade in Wayzata, Minnesota with their award
winning "Glitterized Kitchen" float. Wayzata High School
Football coach Brad Anderson, his wife Maari and their two
daughters waved from the glitterized kitchen table, depicting
the rewards and joys of sharing a simple meal together. Parent
and children volunteers walked along side the float, and in
keeping with the family meal time theme, distributed over
2000 after dinner mints (complete with printed web address!)
to the cheering crowds lining Lake Street.
Holiday Online Forum
In late 2001, PFF hosted a time-limited online panel discussion
and public forum (via discussion boards -- see the transcript)
on what you and your family can do during the holiday season
to make it more meaningful -- for your family, your relatives,
your friends, your community. Featured panelists were:
- Barbara Carlson, President, Putting Family First
- Bill Doherty, Professor of Family Social Science at the
University of Minnesota
- John Holst, Pastor, Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata,
MN
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