A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care:
Bridge Project

The Bridge Project is a technology and training initiative developed with funding from the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care. Twenty-two Champion Companies and their local corporate partners have committed to invest $100 million in communities where their employees live and work. The Champion Companies include: Aetna, Allstate Insurance Company, American Express, Amoco Corporation, AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron Corporation, Citibank, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Eastman Kodak Company, Exxon Corporation, GE Capital Services, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Lucent Technologies, Mobil Corporation, NYNEX/Bell Atlantic, Price Waterhouse LLP, Texaco, Inc., Texas Instruments, and Xerox Corporation. These companies support the Bridge Project through:

• funding for schools to acquire state-of-the-art voice-mail technology;

• training for school districts on how to use this technology to improve teacher-family communication;

• training for teachers on how to script and record effective messages that will keep parents up-to-date with what is happening in the classroom and with homework assignments; and

• strategies to communicate the project to employees, other parents at the school, and the community-at-large.

• The project uses voice-messaging technology to help connect busy parents and teachers so they can work together to ensure student success. Teachers in Bridge Project schools have a voice mailbox where they can record a daily message for parents regarding school activities, homework assignments, and suggestions to support learning at home. School-wide information about events, lunch menus, PTA/PTO meetings, and sports schedules can also be made available through voice-mail. Parents can access this information via touch-tone telephone at any time.

School-based messaging technology provides the capability for teachers to record messages in more than one language to reach parents who do not speak English. In addition, many schools use two-way voice messaging so parents can leave private messages for their children's teachers. Many systems also provide a "call-out" function that permits the schools to reach parents for emergency notification at home or at work (e.g., school closings because of a snowstorm, buses arriving late from a field trip, etc.), alert parents to their child's absenteeism, and send good news home such as the names of students who have made the honor roll.

The Bridge Project, developed by WFD, Inc. in consultation with Dr. Jerold Bauch at Vanderbilt University, has shown that, when implemented correctly, voice-mail communication systems can have significant results on a school community: 50 percent of parents access the system every day, teacher-parent communication increases approximately 500 percent, and homework completion and attendance improve.

Currently, voice-messaging systems are installed and teachers trained in 129 schools in which 109,000 children are enrolled; 3,400 of these students are children of sponsoring company employees. Approximately one-half of collaborators' employees say they are now more involved in their children's education and that their children are completing more homework as a result of the Bridge Project. More than one-third of collaborators' employees say the project has helped them balance work and family responsibilities and reduce family stress.

Contact:

Leanne C. Barrett
Bridge Project Program Manager WFD, Inc.
930 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
617-278-4140
www.wfd.com

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[IBM Corporation: Wired for Learning]