Each Child. Every Community.

Assess capacity.

Early Adopter Local Partnership Executive Directors worked with their boards to determine strategic alignment and interest in promoting mindset shifts, changes in policies, and new types of partnerships with families with young children. They looked at resources such as the investment of time and funds, considered the knowledge, skills, and structures required to authentically and intentionally partner with family members who benefit from their investments, and identified a staff member to facilitate the planning process. Some organizations decided to split this work between two people. One partnership hired employees specifically dedicated to this work. They identified a few key partners, to do similar organizational analysis, and together they committed to form new relationships with families to expand knowledge-building, engagement and leadership activities. When assessing for readiness, an organization must look at the resources available and already existing within the community to see what connections can be made with other agencies.

“In order to produce a strong and meaningful early childhood family engagement plan, leadership opportunities for parents must be imbedded in the design. Parents will be seen as partners, shifting the traditional approach to one of a more strength-based, inclusive model.” Krista Turner

“While the core of family engagement work is already present in this community, the time is right for us to move the needle forward and focus much more intentionally on developing a shared community action plan regarding all family services.” Libby Throckmorton

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Develop a process to engage diverse perspectives.

Consider if there is an existing initiative or coalition that this work can be tied into where agency representatives and parents are already meeting. If so, a decision point will be whether to marry the two or create a new initiative where growth in family engagement and leadership can be made. Recruitment of parents and agency representatives is a vital part of this process. When recruiting parents, careful consideration is necessary because the families should be representative of the demographics present within the community. Transparency is also a key factor.

Several Local Partnerships in cohort one recruited recipient parents they previously worked with in their programs. The Smart Start Network builds relationships with the local agencies who serve families, so they recruited family ambassadors from local agencies. In working with family ambassadors, Local Partnerships explicitly defined steps in their decision-making processes, actively worked to reduce ambiguity, and made sure family ambassadors knew their voices are being heard and that the family-serving organizations in the community are working towards meeting their needs.

“This project will enhance our Parent Advisory Committee, developing new leaders, offering new perspectives, and improving facilitation of the group. It offers us all the opportunity to practice principles of effective family engagement and share best practices across agencies” Beth Moore

“Wake County Smart Start intends to rely upon one of the existing community coalitions (e.g. LICC) to provide leadership to develop an action plan” Anna Troutman

Resource:

Coalition member list by sector

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Scan systems conditions to better understand where and how family engagement and leadership is happening across the county.

Engage stakeholders in making sense of system data. Identify needs, services, and gaps for families – what has been working in family engagement and leadership, at the agency, individual, and inter-agency levels. It is essential for family voice to be heard, so it is during this phase that opportunities are created to allow families to share their lived experiences with county and non-profit services, as well as community strengths and needs. Local partnerships surveyed families within their communities to better understand their needs.

• Agency Level – assessment of agencies example: Center for the Study of Social Policy: Parent Engagement and Leadership Assessment Guide and Toolkit 
• Individual Level – assessment of early childhood educators example: Parent & ECE workforce surveys
  New Hanover Family Survey
  Beaufort-Hyde Survey for Strengthening Families
  Parent Engagement and Leadership Assessment Guide and Toolkit
  Professional Development Assessment for Teachers and Child Care Providers
  Professional Development Assessment for Supervisors of Teachers and Child Care Providers
• Inter-agency Level – assessment of partnerships, alignment (policies/practice), and intersections (services/families). See Community Based Program Self Assessment by The Center for the Study of Social Policy

“This work gives us an opportunity to formalize our efforts for discussing what works well and what areas of our community could improve to help families…and to formalize an action plan.” Jewel Gardner

Resourses:

• ECE Family Engagement Assessment and Planning Tool.  This tool we developed and piloted with GA’s Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL)
• Program Sustainability Assessment Tool, from the Center for Public Health Systems Science at Washington University.
• Center-Based Early Care and Education Program Self Assessment Tool, by The Center for the Study of Social Policy

Video Resource Playlist

Determine local coalition goals, inspired by the NC Family Engagement and Leadership Framework.

Members must understand the framework and how it supports and guides the work they are doing. A great deal of effort went into determining the supportive structures in place to encourage family participation. Some initiatives provided on-site childcare, while others added possible costs incurred into their family gift card incentive. The action plans of the Early Adopters were aligned with the seven components to effect systems’ change and inspire others to join in this work. The components are as follows: Leadership and Governance; Policies, Regulations and Standards; Infrastructure and Funding; Continuous Learning and Quality Improvement; Workforce and Professional Development; State, Regional and Community Partnerships; and Family Education and Engagement.

“Three collaboratives are seeking authentic opportunities to engage families in planning processes and to find ways of developing leadership capacity, as well as ensure a constant voice from those who are supported through the collaboratives.” Orange County

“Participating in the PDG grant gives us a way to develop and implement a community action plan focused specifically on a new framework of family engagement. Specifically, two components: Engaging families in the development, refinement, and evaluation of services and using data to access the effectiveness of family engagement process.” Guilford County

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Design systems change solutions and small wins.

Apply a comprehensive set of strategies that will create new patterns and help the coalition to realize its goals. System change outcomes adapted from the ABLe Change Framework include:

• Enhanced Service Components – An analysis of any program-level activity related to the coalition goal | What program operations will support or hinder implementation that advances the coalition goal? What services and programs should be improved in order to achieve the coalition goal?
• Improved Connections – An analysis of the relationships and referral mechanisms between organizations and people related to the coalition goal | What networks will support or hinder implementation of the coalition goal? What relationships need to be established or improved in order to achieve the coalition goal?
• Aligned Regulations – An analysis of the policies, practices, protocols, at state- local- and organizational-levels, related to the coalition goal | What rules and guidelines support or hinder implementation of achieving the coalition goal? What rules and procedures need to stop or start in order to remove barriers to achieve the coalition goal?
• Expanded Resources – An analysis of the financial and human capital related to achieve the coalition goal | How do the current available resources support or hinder implementation of the achieve the coalition goal? What additional resources will help achieve the coalition goal?
• Power and Control Dynamics – An analysis of where and how decisions are made related to the coalition goal | Who has the power to influence the implementation process, monitor quality, and ensure continuous quality improvement? What perspectives are missing from the decision-making process—ensuring those who are responsible for making shifts and those who are intended to benefit from ‘the shift’ are central to decision-making?
• Shifted Mindsets (Values and Norms) – An analysis of people’s beliefs about and readiness for the coalition goal | Are people ready to support to ‘the change strategy’? Who might resist or support the strategy or change? What is needed to foster buy-in, build skills and knowledge capacity, and build readiness?

“The best model in the county for fostering family engagement and leadership is Head Start. We plan to look across agencies to help increase our parent engagement activities.” Yadkin County

“While many of the Get Set Transylvania organizations offer programs that support families, our next evolution is to formalize family engagement and leadership into the collaboration and emerge with a family engagement plan that will focus on parent-centered education and choice around early education services” Transylvania County

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Create Opportunities for Feedback

As family engagement plans are developed, it is important to seek feedback and input into the plan from other individuals and agencies within the community. Many times this will provide the chance for those who are not directly tied to the work to highlight gaps, challenges and opportunities that others might not see. Feedback can also be sought from other agencies who have successful plans in place. Of course, ensuring a feedback loop with coalition members is critical for success, as is inviting feedback from families in the community not participating in the coalition. It is important to seek out diverse perspectives.

This work can only be sustainable when the parties involved in effecting change ensure that over time they are revisiting the framework, assessing community needs as the community grows, and working to see if the action plan in place is still able to address those needs. All parties involved must be dedicated to creating a family-centered and responsive approach. Other funding sources for future programming must also be secured.

“This project integrates with our KidsReadyNC initiative, specifically advancing following goals:

• Engage families in identifying needs, planning and problem solving for children age birth-3 and their families
• Community organizations work with and through families to meet their health, mental health, child care needs, and educational goals
• A community that is inclusive, connected, responsive, and respects families and their cultural individuality”

Randolph County

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