This guide, volume four of a six-part series, describes several community-outreach methods and provides practical outreach suggestions that are based on experience, as well as typical problems and the ways practitioners have chosen to resolve them. The guide is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on recruitment. Specific topics cover ways of getting to know families and enlist their help, forming community partnerships, and educating the public. Part 2 provides suggestions for sustaining program participation. It discusses staff training, ways to make the program accessible and to meet family needs through linkages, and methods to stay attuned to parent interests. Part 3 covers how to ease a participant’s transition from an early-childhood education and family-support program to the school system. A brief section on recruiting teen parents and fathers is included in the appendix and is followed by a resource guide that lists further sources of information about community outreach. (Contains 11 references.) (GLR)
