How to Advocate when Everyone is NOT on Board!
Advocating for your role as a school counselor is vital work. It’s never too early to get started. Check out these strategies to advocate for your position and profession at the beginning of the school year…even if you don’t have support!
3 ways to advocate for your position at the beginning of the year
Teach a Meet the Counselor lesson: A Meet the Counselor lesson clarifies your role and explains how students can access you. Check out my Meet the Counselor Lessons here.
Show up! Don't hide in your office planning. Put yourself out there by shadowing teachers, observing students, and introducing yourself to everyone. Being visible on campus shows that you are an essential part of the school culture and irreplaceable.
Start showing data early: It's never too soon to start sharing student results! Don't have anything to showcase yet? Share the plans you have for your counseling program this year.
For more details on exactly how to use these tools to advocate, listen to episode 53 of School Counseling Simplified.
As you start speaking up for yourself and implementing change you may encounter pushback and resistance. Check out these strategies for handling pushback.
What to do when everyone's not on board
As you implement new systems and advocate for your role you may encounter push back. Try these tips to help others get on board!
Share the purpose and goal behind what you're doing: Parents will be more understanding about their child missing class for counseling if they understand the value of the services you provide.
Use data and research to back you up! Track data and share the results so stakeholders can see the impact you're making. ASCA is also a great resource to find infographics and handouts to communicate the school counselor's roles and responsibilities. This blog post shares some of my favorite data tracking tools.
Find your allies and use them: Collaborate and work closely with the teachers who are on board. They can likely help others come around.
Give grace! Teachers and parents may not be used to having such a proactive counselor. Be patient and give them grace as they are learning your role.
Overall Takeaway: The more communication = the better!
You may experience internal pushback too! In this podcast episode, I share ways to handle pushback from yourself too! Listen here.
Looking for more strategies to increase your impact and get the recognition that you deserve? Download my FREE Stress Free School Counseling Toolkit here.