School Counselors and Communities: A Mutually Beneficial Relationship

School counselors play a unique and vital role in schools. However, we know that as school counselors, we often must reach beyond the school walls and into our communities to help students achieve success. This may mean working with parents, community agencies or other local service providers. While our communities may have much to offer school counselors in terms of resources and tools for enhancing our programs and helping students succeed, school counselors also can offer their communities benefits.

Each community’s geographical location and population makes it unique in both its makeup and what resources may be available. If you are live in an urban area, you may have a wealth of human service agencies that can provide support to you as a school counselor. However, rural schools may have their own set of unique resources, such as the way smaller communities come together to assist neighbors in need. In my small community, some examples of this include a parent who organized a Facebook group to help other families get school supplies; a local home health agency who assisted a homebound client in getting her kindergartner to school; and the coaches in a summer baseball league who found equipment for kids who needed it. In many cases, it’s about knowing the right people and knowing whom to ask.

To know the right people to ask, you need to know your community. Volunteering, joining your school’s PTO or PTA, participating in school activities and just being visible are great ways to meet parents and community members. Getting to know them will help you be more effective in your work. For instance, if you know that a large number of your parents are working second or third shift, holding events such as parent teacher conferences or FAFSA completion events during the day might result in better attendance.

Although our communities may be resources to us, we can also be resources to our communities. As volunteers, leaders, and active members of our communities, school counselors can be positive role models, provide perspectives on a number of school and child development issues and help inform parents and community members about our roles. The best part about this is the more we are involved in our communities, the more opportunities we have to build relationships with individuals and organizations that will help us help our students succeed.

We will be coming together as a school counselor community in just a few short weeks for our annual conference, November 6-7, 2017. If you haven’t already made plans to attend, please do so by visiting our website. I look forward to seeing you all there and making you all a part of my community, and I hope ISCA can be a part of yours as well.