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Recruitment: The difficulty of recruiting parents was the most frequently expressed frustration. Not only were those involved frustrated, but they were also surprised at how much more difficult it was to recruit parents than they ever had imagined. Some experienced little to no problems (either due to “captive” audiences or because of pre-existing connections with parent groups), but most felt that their original proposals had not adequately addressed effective methodologies for recruitment.

Ongoing Parent Education: Interestingly, many parents who attend classes do NOT want to leave when it is over! After six or eight sessions, they have learned a lot, they have met other parents, and they are in community. They don’t want to graduate! This is an interesting dilemma, but it is of great concern to those who are face-to-face with the parents. After all, the educators know that those who have a small infant will essentially have a completely different child to deal with in just a few short months! It is very difficult to turn an eager parent away when you know that there will be so many new questions in a very short time.

Public Awareness and Publicity: The lack of awareness of the importance of parenting education, early childhood development and the importance of the first three years of life is not as well known as we like to think. Individual agencies do not have the expertise and are not adequately funded to develop logos and launch media campaigns. In addition, publicizing individual programs is difficult from the “ground zero” position – it appears fraught with self-interest.

Training: One of the best methods for retaining parents (i.e., preventing drop-out) is to have well-trained parent educators. Each curriculum we selected provides excellent training, but the need for more is essential. Ongoing training from the curricula developers is needed to keep educators up-to-date and to train new educators. But, the need for training extends beyond just this. Educators need more specialized training to be better able to deal families -- many educators are simply not prepared to deal with the chaotic family structures and environments of those in their classes. Educators also know that it is important for them to learn more about clever ways to use to music, play, and language (to name but a few things) in a child’s life. The curricula we are using are superb, but in many ways they only scratch the surface. If parents are going to continue to learn, the educators must be ahead of them on the curve.

Communication and Community: The need for better (more consistent, complete, ongoing) communication between partners (and funders) was expressed. On November 25th, so many of the participants were surprised to see how many others were involved with PMNC – and yet we had invited only a small portion of all of those involved. The need to clearly understand the mission of PMNC, the desire to know the partners, the need to have information and problem solve was unquestionable. It is critically important that we have a time and place to share our stories (successes and failures) and to celebrate our accomplishments. If we do not take the time for these things, we will lose the most valuable way we have to make and change history. Finally, because of the commitment of the foundation and the dedication of so many hard workers, San Antonio has the potential to be the national leader in the development of “best practices” – but only if we are communicating with each other clearly and often. The development of a strong community of professionals and para-professionals could also attract and secure other resources to help in accomplishing the goal.

Information and Knowledge: The PMNC partners have been eager to please and have adjusted to many changes in the requirements of the foundation. While the praise for the foundation is high, we did ask for suggestions … and we got them.

• Decisions about many policies seem to be made during individual conversations with specific grantees. Someone calls with a question, an answer is given, but not everyone gets the same answer.
• Not everyone is clear on the mission, vision and goal of PMNC. This makes for confusion among PMNC partners; and, lack of clarity among foundation staff can lead to decisions that are not consistent with one another.
• Reporting requirements have been confusing.
• PMNC partners are interested in developing evaluation plans and reports that are meaningful.