Parent & Family Workshops

ENACT believes that healthy, strong family relationships are an important part of a student's ability to succeed in school and life. In our parent and family workshops, ENACT seek to give parents, guardians, and caregivers the positive communication skills they need to be active, effective partners in their children’s education and to help them become responsible community members. Participants gain tools and resources to:

  • Better understand their children.
  • Communicate productively with teachers.
  • Recognize their own behavior patterns, which will enable them to be more open to change.

Utilizing ENACT's signature combination of theatre games, reflective role-play, and guided discussion, these workshops recreate parent-child, parent-parent, or parent-teacher conflicts, allowing participants to experience for themselves the situations from multiple perspectives. Our teaching artists lead the group in processing the scene and giving options on different ways the conflict can be resolved, enabling them to recognize ways that they can influence their child’s behavior and choices. Workshop topics include:

  • Meeting Your Child Halfway: Managing Feelings and Utilizing Compromise
  • Every Day Counts - Helping Your Child Buy into their Education
  • "When I Grow Up I Want to be Just Like You!": Being a Positive Role Model
  • Walking in Their Shoes: Understanding Your Child
  • Take a Step Back: Analyzing a Problem Effectively
  • Raising Responsible Digital Citizens: Understanding Cyberbullying
  • Working Together: Positive Parent-Teacher Communication
  • Follow-Through: Lowering Your Child’s Resistance to Commitment

Workshops can be scheduled in the evening or on a Saturday when family members are available. Workshops are offered as single workshops or in packages, and ENACT tailors programs to the specific needs of each school. Spanish-speaking instructors are available for bilingual groups.

In 2009-10, 18 New York City schools chose ENACT to provide Family Literacy Workshops to parents and families for the next three years, through the federal 21st Century Community Learning initiative. This first year we offered a total of 143 workshops and served 943 parents, family members, and caregivers of New York City public school students.

For more information, or to have ENACT create a program for your school, contact Natasha Anderson, Vice President of Programs, at (212) 741-6591 ext. 224 or natasha.anderson@enact.org.