Speaker: MEGHAN HOWARD, Steamboat Springs, CO
Tell us about your experiences and stories doing home visits with your students and their families.
MEGHAN HOWARD: Hi, I'm Megan Howard. I am a school social worker at an elementary and middle school here in Colorado and I participated in some home visits this year. my favorite part of the home visits were getting to see the family and the kid in their home environment. And I just, it's really cool to see the kids face light up when their teacher or their counselor walks into their home. I also felt like the home visit program did a really good job at helping the school build a bridge and community with the families. A lot of the families we visited had been hard to connect with, but once they see you in their home, and just like, see how lighthearted it is and it's not about pressuring to them to do things or accept resources or anything like that. It's just getting to know the family and the student. It really helps bridge that connection and helps them build trust with educators. What else? I think? It's really helped us address some issues like attendance or behavior in school. just by, again, kind of creating that open pathway for the families to reach out to when something goes wrong. And so then when you do call them, they already know who you are and that, that's really meaningful. They have a face to a name and kind of know a little bit about you and kind of can trust you and help and it really helps work through problems. it also really was interesting to see some of the home lives that these kids have, where they come to school, well dressed and taken care of and then you see what their conditions are like at home and maybe it's not what you expected. And that empathy building was huge too. it was really fun to connect with families and, keep it lighthearted and laugh with them. And, that was really my favorite part is just connecting with these families.
