How to get "buy-in" for "Talking About Touching"

"Talking About Touching" and the Committee for Children (www.cfchildren.org) has a step by step process as to how to get "buy-in" for their program across a school district, or let's say, an Archdiocese. It's worth reading so you'll be able to understand and recognize the methodical and systematic approach being used to implement this in 95+ percent of all our parishes.

A couple of things to note. Under point #2 they actually recommend that you, "revise or create school policies and procedures that will reinforce and support the program concepts." I guess that was done wholesale by the bishops in 2002 with the creation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Also, if you read the link under point number two, while they mention in the headline "Getting staff and families on board," families and parents are almost completely ignored. In fact, if you look at the entire process they have for getting "buy-in" to a school district (or Archdiocese in our case) parents are rarely mentioned except at the end of the process. They say, "get the PTA/PTO or other parent/community organizations on board to "talk up" the program." That's it. It's not until the program is sold through the adminstrators, and teachers that the parents are finally asked to get involved.

This is all top down driven. No need for parents to apply.

Is it just me or does it seem like the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is following TAT's recommendations step by step.

1) Gearing up - Administrators and Sponsors: get approval from overall authority
2) Getting staff and families on board
3) During the Training
4) After the Training
5) Getting parents, families, and communities on board
6) Facilitating family sessions


1) Gearing up - Administrators and Sponsors:
Successful program implementation begins with strong sponsorship. The sponsor is the person with overall authority and decision-making ability to help ensure the program's success. This person is typically a school principal, assistant principal, district superintendent, agency director, or program coordinator.

2) Getting staff and families on board
Once the administrators have bought into the prevention program and understand thoroughly what will be expected of the staff in order to implement it effectively, there are some steps to take to gain buy-in from those who will be teaching the lessons and using the skills directly with children. Buy-in from staff members and families is critical for the success of implementation and transfer of learning.

• Revise or create school policies and procedures that will reinforce and support the program concepts.
• Pilot the program in one classroom, at one grade level, or in one school (for district-wide implementations) to build staff interest. Ask the teacher and students in the pilot to share what they have learned and the results program use have produced.
• Get the PTA/PTO or other parent/community organizations on board to "talk up" the program. (my comments - Do we have all the DREs on board to talk up TAT yet?)

3) Staff: During the training

• Show how the program complements other behavior-management programs that you may already have in place.

Feel free to follow the rest of the links on the CFC site for steps 4-6. Once again, the parents, recognized as the primary educators by our Archdiocese, are the last to participate in this matter.