Parents who are themselves from minority communities can provide a valuable resource for teaching children about cultural diversity. In order for such help to be successful, certain things must happen.
* Extend invitations to all parents. Do not make the invitation something that marks parents from minority communities as 'different'.
* Look beyond the major black or Asian communities. Parents from other European countries or the Americas or Australasia will have something new to say.
* Make the invitation personal. Circular letters are fine as starters, but create time for conversation on possible contributions.
* Start with an open request, asking for their suggestions on what they should do. But also prepare ideas that you can put to them on activities they could lead involving food, dress, music or festivals from their culture, or photographs of the place from which the family originates.
* Discuss in detail with any volunteer what she or he can do. The person may have a clear picture of what to discuss and what to do, but may also have no experience of this kind of interaction with small children.
* Look for indications of strengths (such as outgoing personality) or weaknesses (such as stage fright) in the volunteer and offer appropriate support and encouragement.
* Make the activity the parent- volunteer leads an integral part of the plan for the day or the week, not an add-on.
* Do not leave the parent-volunteer to get on with it, however confident they seem. Be around to offer any help that may be needed while making it clear that the parent is leading the activity.
* Give proper feedback afterwards.
* Try to observe how the parent's own child feels about the role that their parent has adopted and ask yourself whether there are any issues to address.
