Some key strategies for
recruitment of new members for your group
*
Realize that few parents join in the first three months after diagnosis;
give families time to respond to the initial shock, but try to reach out and
help them through this period.
*
Remember that parents are often overwhelmed by physical and emotional
stress.
*
Time and energy are at a minimum; give parents a reason to get involved
and provide assistance in terms of transportation and childcare.
*
Minimize travel time and distance from parents' homes to the group
meeting place.
*
Remember that some parents are afraid that group discussion will increase
anxiety and anger.
*
Remember that everyone has their own coping strategies (and ways of
dealing with or denying stress); not every parent will (or should) choose to
come to the group regularly, or at all.
*
Keep the group open, reduce factions and cliquishness, and keep time
spent on group "business" to a minimum (let those who love to do
business do it at separate meetings).
*
Perception of the group as all white, or all middle class, or all women,
or all anything, will turn some people away.
*
Have the medical staff talk in positive terms about the group to parents
of newly diagnosed children.
*
Make some group activities visible with posters and announcements in
clinics and on hospital wards.
*
Provide a wide range of activities, at different times, so that parents
with different needs can all find assistance within the group.
From: Chesler & Chesney, Cancer and self
help: bridging the troubled waters of childhood illness. Madison WI, University
of Wisconsin Press, 1995, ISBN 0-299-14824-6