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.