Your PTA Can Build the Village.

The SimpleJoy | SaralAnand programme needs one thing above all else: adults who show up for children.

Your PTA is already a community of adults who show up for children.

You already have the network. We have the programme. Let's build this together.

Why The PTA Is the Most Important Partner We Have

Every school in the world has a PTA — or something like it. A community of parents who have already decided that they are willing to give time and energy to the children in their school community. That decision — to show up beyond what is required — is exactly the decision the Entrepreneurial Foster Parent programme asks for.

The PTA is also the community most likely to include the parents who need support. The single mother on the school volunteer committee who is managing everything alone. The family new to the country who does not yet know what resources exist. The parent who loves their child completely and has no idea how to do what this programme asks.

The PTA is where the Entrepreneurial Foster Parents come from. It is where the families who need them can be reached. And it is the channel through which the programme becomes part of the fabric of the school community rather than an add-on that a few families know about.

The PTA is the most direct path from the programme to every child in a school.

Four Ways

02

Support Families In Your Community

Every school community has families who need the Entrepreneurial Foster Parent. The PTA is best placed to reach them — without stigma, without labels, simply as a community resource available to every family.

HOW TO REACH THEM:

  • Include the programme in your school newsletter as a community resource
  • Announce it at the next PTA meeting — not as charity, as community
  • Make the registration QR code available at every school event
  • Train two or three PTA members as Community Connectors who can personally introduce the programme to families who might benefit
  • This is not a programme for struggling families. It is a programme for every family that wants their child to have more than they currently have. The single parent is not the only family who benefits from a second adult asking their child a genuine question every week.

Download the PTA Family Outreach Pack →
03

Run the Programme At Your School

PTAs can bring the SimpleJoy | SaralAnand programme directly into the school community — not through the school administration, but through the parent network.

THREE WAYS TO RUN IT:

  • Monthly Parent workshops
  • The 90-minute SimpleJoy | SaralAnand workshop — How to Turn Your Kitchen Table Into an Entrepreneurial Family — delivered by a trained PTA facilitator. Run it once a month at the school. Open to all parents. Free or $10 per family. Workshop materials provided free to PTAs.

  • The Friday Noticing Circle
  • A fifteen-minute Friday gathering — parents and children together, before or after school — where families share what they noticed that week. One adult facilitates. Takes no preparation. Builds community. Materials and facilitation guide available at simplejoyfamily.com/pta.

  • The PTA Entrepeneurial Foster Parent Programme
  • The PTA coordinates the local Entrepreneurial Foster Parent network — recruiting volunteers from the parent community, matching them with children in the school who need them, and hosting monthly check-ins. Full coordination guide available. Programme team provides training.

Download the PTA Programme Guide →
04

Sponsor the Programme in Your Community

PTAs that have access to fundraising capacity can sponsor the programme in their school community and beyond.

WHAT SPONSORSHIP FUNDS:

  • $500 — Idea Notebooks for 50 children in your school community
  • $1,000 — One Entrepreneurial Foster Parent placement for one full year
  • $2,500 — Staff training for one partner institution (foster care, group home)
  • $5,000 — Full programme implementation for one institutional partner

All PTA sponsorship is tax-deductible. Impact report provided annually.

Become a PTA Community Sponsor →

What Each PTA Can Do

Elementary School PTA Grades K–5 • Ages 5–11

This is the highest-impact level. The developmental window (ages 8–12) is here.

Best Roles

Family outreach · Monthly workshop · Friday Noticing Circle

Key Message For Families

The kitchen table conversation starts here. The earlier you begin, the easier it is. This is the programme for right now.

Entrepreneurial Foster Parent Recruitment

Focus on empty-nester parents and grandparents of current students. They know the school, they care about the community, and they have the time.

Programme Suggestion

Run the Friday Noticing Circle at pickup time. Five minutes. Parents, children, one question. Build it into the routine.

Middle School PTA Grades 6–8 • Ages 11–14

This is the highest-impact level. The developmental window (ages 8–12) is here.

Best Roles

Entrepreneurial Foster Parent recruitment · Monthly workshop

Key Message For Families

Your child is forming their relationship with ideas right now. Whether they learn to offer ideas or stop offering them is being decided in these years. This programme is what keeps the instinct alive.

Entrepreneurial Foster Parent Recruitment

High school parents who are experienced with the middle school years. Local business owners. University students in education, psychology, or business programmes.

Programme Suggestion

Partner with the school counselor to identify children who would benefit most from an Entrepreneurial Foster Parent. The counselor refers. The PTA coordinates. The programme provides.

High School PTA Grades 9–12 • Ages 14–18

The finishing years. Young adults on the edge of independence. The programme now speaks directly to the young adult as much as to the parent.

Best Roles

PTA sponsor · Entrepreneurial Foster Parent recruitment· Bridge to the young adult programme

Key Message For Families

Your child is about to leave. What are you giving them to take with them? The entrepreneurial mindset is built here, or not built at all, before they walk out of the door.

Entrepreneurial Foster Parent Recruitment

Parents of college students and young professionals. Alumni parents. Corporate community members.

Programme Suggestion

Run the programme for junior and senior students as a complement to college counseling — not as a business programme, as a life readiness programme. Partner with Book 3: The Entrepreneur You Already Are.

College / University Parent Association Ages 18+

The parents of college students are often the most resourced, most networked, and most motivated volunteers available to the programme.

Best Roles

Community sponsor · Entrepreneurial Foster Parent (for younger children in the community) · Bridge back to their students' schools

Key Message For Families

Your student is now in Book 3 territory — The Entrepreneur You Already Are. What can you do to support that? And what can you do, with your network and your resources, to make sure the next generation of college students arrives with the foundation?

Entrepreneurial Foster Parent Recruitment

College students themselves are ideal Entrepreneurial Foster Parents for 8–12 year olds. The parent association can build the bridge between the university service-learning programme and the SimpleJoy | SaralAnand community. One PTA initiative,two programmes served.

Programme Suggestion

Fund ten Entrepreneurial Foster Parent placements in the community around the university. The placements go to children in the most underserved local schools. The college students deliver them as part of their service-learning requirement. The parent association funds it.

The PTA Starter Pack — Free

Everything your PTA needs to begin. Download free. Use immediately.

01

PTA Introduction Slide Deck (5 slides) — present at your next meeting

02

Family Outreach Email Template — send to your full parent list

03

Volunteer Recruitment Script — for approaching potential Foster Parents

04

Friday Noticing Circle Facilitation Guide — run it this Friday

05

Monthly Workshop Facilitation Guide — run the 90-minute workshop

06

Sponsorship One-Pager — for approaching local businesses

Register Your PTA

We respond to every PTA registration within 48 hours.

The Starter Pack downloads immediately on registration.

Your PTA Already Has What It Takes.

Your PTA is already a community of adults who show up for children.

You already have what it takes. We have the programme.

Nivedita Shanker — co-author, thirty-eight years, the reason the work exists.

Vishnu Shanker & Nivedita Shanker • SimpleJoy | SaralAnand Foundation