Engagement Training: 

The key to success with WorkFirst parents is engaging them from the first point of contact.  People participate willingly and enthusiastically in activities that make them feel good and that have meaning for them.  If we want to increase and maintain participation in WorkFirst, we must make sure that parents view it as positive and meaningful from the beginning.  We must create situations where parents’ internal voices say, “This is a good program.  It will help create a better life for me and my family.  I want to be part of it.”  Parents will not make these statements merely by being told that WorkFirst is good for them.  They will need to believe it and feel it deeply in their hearts and souls. 

Before we can create engaging experiences for parents, we will need to learn about them.  We will want to know about their strengths, skills, talents, interests, dreams and visions of the future.  We can then use this information to engage them in discussions about improving their lives and becoming self-sufficient.  This requires a shift in thinking and behaving for WorkFirst staff who are accustomed to helping parents understand the system, but have not thought about helping the system understand the parents it serves.  We cannot engage parents when we talk about what is important to us.  We must focus on what is important to them. 

Engagement training helps staff

• acquire questioning and communication skills that “hook” parents and invite them to participate in WorkFirst.
• acquire empathy skills that increase their ability to understand and support parents.  
• link WorkFirst participation to self-sufficiency, and to develop specific strategies for making this occur. 
• improve success rates with parents who have not had good experiences with WorkFirst. 

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