Family engagement is more of a calling than a job. In order to be successful in this field, you need to really care about parent engagement and seeing children succeed. If that's your passion, then you'll be successful here.

Senior FAST Trainer Supervisor & Institute Coach

What would you say to someone who wants to join this field? &gt;&gt; I would tell them that it would take really caring about parent engagement in seeing children succeed. If you have that, then you'll be able to do it. I always tell people, this is not really a job for me. That's why I've been doing it now for 21 year, is more of a calling. Yeah, I really enjoy it. Every time I go to train a site, and I have the opportunity to see how the program is working in different schools, it just really touches my heart. So, in order for you to be successful in a field like this, you must really care about parent engagement in seeing children succeed. 

Support & Encouragement

Encouragement For People Interested In Family Engagement

My name is Donetta Bracey, and I live in Camden, South Carolina. I am a trainer supervisor for FAST, which stands for Families and Schools Together. And what I do is I train teams which consists of community partners, parent partners, and school partners that go into the schools to implement the FAST program, which is an eight week parent engagement program. In 2001, I was working for an organization by the name of Communities in Schools. At that time, the state was receiving TANF funds to have the FAST program all over South Carolina. And so I became a trainer under the umbrella of Communities in Schools. The program was so fascinating at my local site that I was just amazed by what it was doing for my family. So I was interested in training statewide, and so I started to train as a FAST trainer around the state. And then I inquired with the director that was with the national office about being a FAST trainer nationally. And so I started to train all over the nation, and then I became an international trainer and started to do some international work for FAST also. After the very first cycle of FAST, which I was on the team, I wasn't even a trainer at that time, it was amazing what I heard families saying. I heard some parents saying that they were going back to school to get their GEDs. They were going back to college. Some of them were saying that they were going to put in for positions to be managers. So that was really good. I heard a lot of good things. Children were doing better in school because their parents were not afraid to go in and talk to the teachers anymore. So it was a lot of good outcomes, a lot of good outcomes from the very beginning. &gt;&gt; How did you know that this is something that you wanted to do? &gt;&gt; That's a good question. People often ask me, how did you even start this? I actually majored in Business Administration, concentration in Marketing. But when I got out of college, I was working for school district back at home, and I will see kids come in and parents so frustrated. And they were just saying, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my child, and my heart just kinda went out for the kids and also for the parents. And so I said, I'm really interested in going into the schools. I was actually an assistant for the assistant superintendent of the school district. And I told her I was interested in working in the schools and she was actually a board member of Communities in Schools. She said, I think I have a good part time job for you, but she didn't know I was gonna leave her. [LAUGH] So she said if I would have known you're gonna leave, I wouldn't have told you about that position. But once I started to notice kids were coming in and parents needed help, I just wanted to do it. &gt;&gt; I know that you didn't really graduate with a degree in education per se. You said you studied business. How did you kind of navigate your way from there to here again? &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] That's funny. So after I graduated from college, I started to work at the school district. Being in a small community, you're gonna laugh at me, my thing was I wanted to be an executive secretary. But I majored in business, and then there was a position to be an assistant to the assistant superintendent with the school district and I jumped on it, I thought it was great for me. I'm thinking business-wise, this can be a door open for me, not knowing that it was gonna lead me down a different path. It was just the best thing. I never really done anything business, although the founder when she first found out that my major was Business Admin, concentration in Marketing, she kinda laughed and said, we normally have social workers, psychologist, and then we have you. [LAUGH] And so the funny thing about it now is if you talk to her, she will say, I think it's a great thing that you had the business background, because as a business person, you have to be a team player. You have to know how to sell yourself and also a program. When it comes to FAST, you have to make people believe in it and let them know what the program is all about. So all of those pieces were definitely things that you needed to have to be successful in this field. So it kinda just all worked out. I definitely never knew anything about FAST. It kinda just fell in my lap and I feel like it was the right thing. &gt;&gt; What would you say to someone who wants to join this field? &gt;&gt; I would tell them that it would take really caring about parent engagement and seeing children succeed. If you have that, then you'll be able to do it. I always tell people, this is not really a job for me, that's why I've been doing it now for 21 years. It's more of a calling. Yeah, I really enjoy it. Every time I go to train a site, and I have the opportunity to see how the program is working in different schools, it just really touches my heart. So in order for you to be successful in a field like this, you must really care about parent engagement and seeing children succeed 

Interview

My name is and I live in Camden, South Carolina, I am a trainer supervisor for FAST, which stands for Families and Schools Together. And what I do is, I train teams which consist of community partners, parent partners and school partners that go into the schools to implement the FAST program. Which is a eight-week parent engagement program. In 2001, I was working for an organization by the name of Communities in Schools. At that time, the state was receiving TANF funds to have the FAST program all over South Carolina, and so I became a trainer under the umbrella of Communities and schools. The program was so fascinating, that my local site, that I was just amazed by what it was doing for my family. So I was interested in training statewide. And so I started to train as a FAST trainer around the state. And then I inquired with the director that was with the national office about being a FAST trainer nationally. And so I started to train all over the nation, and then I became an international trainer, and started to do some international work for FAST also. After the very first cycle of FAST, which I was on the team, I wasn't even a trainer at that time, it was amazing what I heard families saying. I heard some parents saying that they were going back to school to get their GED, they were going back to college. Some of them were saying that they were going to put in for positions to be managers. So that was really good. I heard a lot of good things. Children were doing better in school, because their parents were not afraid to go in and talk to the teachers anymore. So it was a lot of good outcomes from the very beginning. 

Experience

How I Became A FAST Trainer

My name is Donta Bracy and I live in Camden, South Carolina. I am a trainer supervisor for FAST, which stands for Families and Schools Together. And what I do is I train teams which consist of community partners, parent partners and school partners that go into the schools to implement the FAST program, which is an eight week parent engagement program. I actually majored in Business Administration, concentration in marketing. But when I got out of college, I was working for a school district and I would see kids come in and parents so frustrated, and they were just saying, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my child and my heart just kinda went out. I always tell people this is not really a job for me, that's why I've been doing it now for 21 years. It's more of a calling, every time I go to train a site and I have the opportunity to see how the program is working in different schools, it just like really touches my heart. So in order for you to be successful in a field like this, you must really care about parent engagement and seeing children succeed. 

Donetta Bracey Highlight

So Fast is an eight week program. And before team members can be facilitators for the program, they have to go through a two day training. So that's what I do, I train them during the two day training. So it's eight hours each day. And so that team consists of a school partner, two community partners, and also a parent partner. And the parent partner at that school must have a child in that school. And then the community partners must know their community very well. And then the school partner must know the school very well and work at the school. And so what I would do is we will bring a team together with those four positions. And then we will train them for those two days to implement the program for those eight weeks. Once the families start coming out for eight weeks, they'll come out and do different components that is all about helping the child and parent engagement. So what we will do as a trainer is we have to also do three site visits. So we will go during session one, three, and eight. We will just make sure they're implementing the components correctly and doing everything that they need to do. The most rewarding part to me is at the end of the program, we have a graduation on the eighth night. And so just hearing the parents say, this program has really changed my life. I actually have somebody that I can go to. I feel more comfortable in the school, I have friends now. I used to cry at every graduation, because when people would stand up and tell how much the program helped them, it just made me feel really good. So just hearing that, people have the support that they need. In Fast we have something that we talk about a lot called social capital. And what that means is having as many positive people in your life is gonna make your life better, right? And so at Fast we have all these positive pieces that we're given the families. And so to hear them say, wow, this has really changed my life, I think that's the biggest piece for me. At the end, just hearing that and seeing that it's changed lives, is like, it's a good thing. 

Day In The Life Of A Family Engagement Trainer

How did you know that this is something that you wanted to do? &gt;&gt; That's a good question. People often ask me, how did you even start this? I actually majored in Business Administration, concentration in marketing. But when I got out of college I was working for a school district back at home and I would see kids come in and parents so frustrated, and they were just saying, I don't know what I'm going to do with my child. And my heart just kinda went out for the kids and and also for the parents. And so I said I'm really interested in going into the schools. I was actually an assistant for the assistant superintendent of the school district, and I told her I was interested in working in the schools and she was actually a board member of communities of schools. She said, I think I have a good part time job for you, but she didn't know I was going to leave her. [LAUGH] so she said if I would have known you're gonna leave I wouldn't have told you about that position. But once I started to notice kids were coming in and parents needed help, I just wanted to do it. &gt;&gt; I know that you didn't really graduate with a degree in education per se, you said you studied business. How did you kind of navigate your way from there to here again? &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] That's funny. So, after I graduated from college I started to work at the school district. Being in a small community, you're gonna laugh at me, my thing was I wanted to be an executive secretary. But I majored in business, and then there was a position to be an assistant to the assistant superintendent with the school district, and I jumped on it. I thought it was great for me, I'm thinking business wise, this can be a door open for for me not knowing that it was gonna lead me down a different path. It was just the best thing. I've never really done anything with business. Although, the founder when she first found out that my major was business admin concentration in marketing, she kind of laughed and said, we normally have social workers, psychologist, and then we have you. [LAUGH] and so the funny thing about it now is if you talk to her she'll say, I think it's a great thing that you had the business background because as a business person, you have to be a team player. You have to know how to sell yourself. And also our program, when it comes to FAAS, you have to make people believe in it and let them know what the program is all about. So all of those pieces were definitely things that you needed to have to be successful in this field. So it kinda just all worked out. I definitely never knew anything about FAAS, it kind of just fell in my lap and I feel like it was the right thing. 

My Career Path

With the fast program, what we do is your team must be culturally represent your families. So like say for instance you have all Hispanic families on your team and you wanna make sure that your families that you're serving look like your team, okay? And so that's why we always say It's important for you to have a diverse team because we understand the importance of having somebody on that team that can relate to everybody that's participating in that program. And so yeah, we definitely believe that you should have people to represent families that come from different backgrounds. And one of the things that we really stress to schools If you have parents that have another language to make sure you have an interpreter there. Because I don't think people realize that having their child or a youth to interpret what the parent is saying it can make them not feel empowered. And we want parents to feel empowered. So even respecting them on that level, and making sure that they feel important. And just like we can't talk to you but you just have to be able to speak our language is not a good thing. 

Culture

Creating Culturally Affirming Spaces

I would say the biggest challenge was just getting parents to come. Unique thing about FAST that makes parents wanna come and be engaged is that the program checks off all the boxes. So with that team, we have community partners that know the community very well. So say, for instance, a family needed help with food or if they were going through a divorce, these community partners can give them all the resources that they need. So if you had a parent that was having problems with their child at school, well, that's okay, because guess what? We have a school partner that has all the connections with the people in the school. And then with the parent partner, just having them to be there, to be in a leadership role, also let the parents know that we believe in them too. So bringing in that collaboration, all of those people together to help them is just a big piece of that. Yeah, and I know that's what makes the FAST program work. And it makes parents feel like, I can come to this because it's checking off all those boxes where they may feel intimidated. It makes them feel comfortable about coming into the schools. And with that being said, one of the biggest challenges, too, of getting parents to come out is that they feel intimidated. We've surveyed them several times. And if you have parents that didn't do well in school or they had a bad experience, they don't wanna come into the school. And especially every time they get a call from other people from the school, it's about their child doing something bad. So just changing that and making it be more about parent engagement is huge. Because if you have that partnership, you're constantly telling them good things that their child is doing, and it's not just about bad things. And you're making them feel empowered and letting them know the importance of who they are. 

Struggle

Challenges With Family Engagement

What does disengagement look like? How widespread do you think that is? &gt;&gt; It's terrible. It's terrible and unfortunately, we don't work with the entire school, and so you have a group of families that we work with each cycle, and I can tell you there's definitely a disconnect by not reaching out to parents like they should be reached out to. I'm gonna give you an example, I know some schools that I've been in, in order for them to get parents engaged or to have family engagement, what they would do is send out a flyer and say, come to this, or we want you to come to the parent teacher conference. But they never talk to them and the only time parents hear from them is if their child is doing something bad,and so with that being said, the parents don't wanna come out. Why would they wanna come to the school? And we see that happen so often, you have to give them the other pieces. But on the other hand, I have to say, I kinda feel sorry for teachers and school staff too, because they have so much that's going on. It's very difficult for them to do the extra, the extra meetings and reaching out with them and building those relationships is definitely not easy for them to do, but we do understand the importance and to be honest with you, there's more parents that are not being engaged, because they just don't have the staff and the teachers that make them feel comfortable about coming in. 

Conflict

Negativity

Family Disengagement

What kind of skills do you think someone ought to have or ought to obtain for a position like yours? &gt;&gt; The skills would be being very observant, you have to do that, [LAUGH] Being able to see things, being able to step back and just look and see how things are flowing. And being able to see if there's things going wrong, being able to look at facial expressions and hand gestures. Because one of the things we have to do as a trainer is we have to make sure that there's no problems going on within the program. And sometimes people don't use their mouth. You have to just be able to look at gestures and stuff to be able to see if there's anything going on. You have to be a team player, you have to be able to work with other people and understand that everybody is different. You can't just be the type of person that believe it's your way and if it's not my way then it's not gonna work cuz you definitely have to understand that we're all different. And being able to work with different people with different backgrounds and people of different races and being a people person, just a people person in general. But not only that, you also have to be able to work independently because on the other side, you have to step away from the people sometimes. And look at what's working and what things you may need to change when it comes to parent engagement and having an open mind. 

Donetta Bracey

Senior FAST Trainer Supervisor & Institute Coach

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Donetta Bracey

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My work combines:

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Skills & Qualities Beyond School

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Donetta Bracey

Senior FAST Trainer Supervisor & Institute Coach

Videos

Donetta Bracey

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Education

Non-Profit Organizations

Teaching / Mentoring

Skills & Qualities Beyond School

Advice for Getting Started

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