Effective liaison between CSF and APE

How to ensure an effective liaison between the parents’ association and the Francophone School Board?

The second workshop of the day was aimed at providing parents’ associations (APE) with the tools they would need to establish a harmonious and effective relationship with the Francophone School Board (CSF), in order to facilitate the resolution of problems that come up in their daily routines.

Jean Watters, Executive Director of the Francophone School Board, and Marc Gignac, Director of Strategic Develop- ment for the Fédération des parents, presented the participants with the draft outline of a framework for action for resolving problems.

This framework presents the sequence of actions to be followed when the APE encounters a problem. In particular, it makes a distinction between the kinds of questions that relate to governance, and consequently to the Board of Directors of the CSF and the questions that relate to operations, either of the school adminis- trators or of the CSF central office staff.

On the level of governance, for example, we may find a request for a homogeneous school, or for changing a policy (such as the one relating to school transportation), or a change in the ways that staff is allocated in the school. On the operational side, the questions may relate to the routes taken by school transportation services, to service delivery or even to the security and safety of pupils.

The framework for action presented in this workshop will be revised in accor- dance with comments received and the final version will be included in each school’s “parents’ association manual”.

4 Jufo-Parents

Conference’s Workshops

Socio-communal marketing

Currently, the francophone schools of B.C. serve approximately 20% of the potential client base, or in other words approximately 3,500 students. How should one go about recruiting the 12,000 or so pupils who qualify for Francophone education and who live primarily in exogamous households (where one of the parents is not francophone) ?

For francophone schools, recruiting their clientele requires more than a publicity campaign. It is essential to take action on several levels, by not only increasing awareness of the francophone system of education through publicity campaigns, but also by establishing a more personal connection with the potential client base, especially within exogamous families. This personal contact is essential because it aims at changing the perceptions of these families with regard to francophone education by mitigating their concerns and/or their opposition.

This, in brief, is the message that Rodrigue Landry, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Research on Linguistic Minorities, brought to the participants at the workshop on Saturday morning. The main topic at this workshop was socio-communal marketing, a concept mainly used by ecologist groups to encourage people to change their attitudes toward the environment. According to Mr. Landry, this concept could be very suitably applied to the promotion of francophone schools.

To implement this concept, two communication campaigns would have to be carried out. The first campaign would be on a provincial (and national) scale and would aim at making the francophone education system known through advertisement in the various media, such as television, radio, magazines and newspapers. This promotional communication plan involves several stages, in particular the stage that consists of clearly defining the content of the message that one wishes to communicate. As for the second communication campaign, it takes place on the regional and/or local level. It is this program that integrates the socio-communal aspect. It is here that one has to succeed in reaching the potential client base to inform them, with an aim to alleviate their opposition and respond to their concerns. One has to create networks that will allow for this kind of contact to be established. An example given by Mr. Landry is the development of a network of “service centres for young children and families” (CPEF). These centres could, through the programs and services they offer, serve as a pole of attraction for reaching the potential client base for francophone schools. These service centres (CPEF) could also prepare children for starting school by offering francisation programs and also a service for the early detection of learning difficulties.

Mr. Landry mentioned that he had included B.C. in a plan that he has drawn up that consists of carrying out three pilot projects for socio- communal marketing. He only lacks the funding to implement the plan.