Ideas to Encourage Natural Connections Among Families

Connecting families with each other can have a long-lasting, beneficial impact. Schools have the opportunity to foster these relationships.

At ReachWell, we have made family-staff partnerships the core of what we facilitate as a company. Research has shown that fostering deep, meaningful relationships between staff and families is a key factor in family and student academic and social outcomes.

These relationships are a piece of a puzzle, albeit an important one, but not the entire picture. Families & Schools Together (FAST) promotes the Family Systems Theory, where facilitating family-to-family relationships is another means to supporting students.

The Benefits of Facilitating Family Connections

By creating relationships within and between families, individual parents and guardians become accountable to each other. They begin to depend upon one another as a base of mutual support. This is particularly important for families who frequently face stressors, which often disrupts a child's daily routine. FAST has seen that by strengthening family relationships, families are better able to cope and support their children.

These family relationships can:

Build cohesion and stability in families’ and students’ lives
Create an accountability structure
Build social capital between families, schools, and the community
Empower parents and guardians with the skills and confidence to nurture their children
Empower students and give a sense of security, improving academic and social outcomes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights protective factors to reduce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), including social networks and communities that support parents. This includes caring adults outside the family who can serve as role models or mentors.

Family and Community Event Best Practices to Facilitate Family Connections

Include small group team building activities or icebreakers that promote families to meet one another.
Host meetings of families from the same neighborhood, or with a common interest. Examples: Immigrants from the same country, grandparents raising grandkids, families of 5th-grade boys.
Reach out to local non-profits and faith-based organizations, and ask for their help in connecting families with each other and the school.
At events where you serve food, invite teachers and families to sit together while having conversation starters at the table.
Teachers or main offices can form communication networks between families in their classrooms.
Introduce families to each other during drop off and pick up times.

Use ReachWell's Features to Facilitate Family Connections

Increase event attendance by adding community functions to the app calendar and uploading event banners.
Increase event attendance by sending reminders through multiple platforms. Through ReachWell, you can send information on the app, through email, text, call, and on your website.
Send a weekly newsletter that includes a student or family spotlight. Families can learn more about each other and find common interests they may not have known about previously.
Send a survey to learn more about each family. This can help you to find and connect families with common interests or who live in the same neighborhoods.
Upload app banners with photos of students and families to create a sense of community.

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When Residents Don’t Trust You: How to Still Keep Them Safe and Informed

By Zuben Bastani • June 17, 2025

Government distrust is at an all-time high. Many residents are wary of sharing their personal information with public agencies, often due to fears of surveillance, spam, or data misuse. This hesitation is especially acute among low-income and unhoused individuals who frequently change phone numbers due to service lapses, making traditional outreach efforts ineffective. Most public communication systems fall short. They rely on platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, which get lost in crowded inboxes. Social media, while pervasive, is designed to harvest data and push ads—not to protect user privacy. Even emergency alert systems often require residents to sign up and share their location, further eroding trust. Text messaging, often called the holy grail of communication, is no longer a guaranteed solution. People guard their phone numbers carefully, especially when interacting with the government. They fear being spammed or having their data sold. So how can agencies inform and protect the public without breaching their trust? A New Approach to Community Communication Using ReachWell's extensive experience and broad customer base, here are some recommendations to consider when engaging your community in a less intrusive yet more effective manner: Offer Communication Choices : Let residents decide how they want to receive information—whether it's through text, email, voice calls, app notifications, or a combination. This respects personal preferences and helps reduce message fatigue. Respect Anonymity : Not everyone wants to share personal contact details. Provide anonymous access to messages via public channels or apps that don’t require identifying information. Support Multilingual Access : Language should never be a barrier to safety or services. Translate messages into the primary languages spoken in your community, and consider text-to-speech options for low-literacy audiences. Allow Topic Subscription : Let people select specific topics or groups they care about. Targeted messages reduce noise and increase engagement. Minimize Data Collection : Collect only the data you truly need. Avoid tracking location or behavior unless absolutely necessary—and be transparent about what is collected and why. Ensure Accessibility : Meet or exceed accessibility standards (such as WCAG 2.2 AA compliance) so all residents, including those with disabilities, can access and understand public messages. These practices foster trust, improve message delivery, and help ensure no one is left out of important conversations—especially in moments of crisis or community need. Expanded Real-World Examples: Trusted by Diverse Communities El Paso County, CO (Colorado Springs area) uses ReachWell to distribute emergency alerts—including shelter-in-place orders and missing persons reports—in over 130 languages. Residents can receive alerts even without providing contact information. The Town of Carbondale, CO keeps its multilingual and low-literate residents informed of community events, social services, and public works projects using WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant messaging and text-to-speech capabilities—ensuring no one is left behind. Tucson, AZ : Child-Parent Centers, a Head Start provider, uses ReachWell to keep 500+ staff updated on safety alerts, training sessions, and HR notices across 130 languages—building internal trust through inclusive communication. Boulder County Housing Authority ensures ongoing connection with residents—even after their contact information changes—by sending updates about emergencies, upcoming maintenance, and resident services using ReachWell’s multilingual and anonymous outreach tools. Conclusion Building trust with residents starts with giving them control. When governments let people choose how they connect, what they receive, and in what language—trust grows. ReachWell is proving that communities can be kept safe and informed without sacrificing privacy or accessibility. When people don’t trust the system, it’s time to change the system. ReachWell is doing just that. BOOK A DEMO TODAY