Strategies for high retention rates of low-income families in FAST (Families And Schools Together): an evidence-based parenting programme in the USA, UK, Holland and Germany

This article describes strategies of an evidence-based parenting programme, Families and Schools Together (FAST), which has a track record for retaining low-income families. FAST multi-family groups held after school are led by culturally representative teams of parents and professionals. Parents are coached to practise positive parenting, lead fun family activities, including one to one responsive play, and meet in parent groups. Families (n = 403) were recruited into 31 FAST groups: 253 families in the UK; 114 in Germany and 36 in Holland. Attendance was recorded. To graduate a family attended 6 or more of 8 weekly sessions. Results revealed high retention rates; 83% for the UK, 83% for Holland and 89% for Germany. The assumption is that the following strategies contributed to these high retention rates: respect for parents to co-produce the programme; flexibility while being “manualized”; providing positive emotion; “foot in the door” recruitment technique; crossing the social ecology to increase social capital; and systematically reinforcing attendance.