Introduction
Overview
Purpose
Head Start staff play critical roles in promoting and sustaining supportive family partnerships. These partnerships, which are the foundation for Head Start's success, are characterized by mutual respect and trust, acceptance, objectivity, flexibility, personalized attention, and cultural awareness.
Developing a family partnership is an ongoing process which begins at enrollment and continues until the family has made a successful transition from the Head Start program. Family Partnerships: A Continuous Process, takes an in-depth look at this process and provides Head Start staff with the skills and information needed to implement this partnership.
Audience
Target audiences for this guide's training program are:
- Directors, who are making the development of family partnership
agreements an integral part of their Head Start program's mission, goals,
and services.
- Program managers, who are responsible for staff-development activities.
- Head Start staff, who interact regularly with families and want
to enhance their family-partnership skills.
A major goal of Head Start is to support families through staff-family partnerships. To help accomplish that goal, this guide offers training that can help programs meet Head Start Program Performance Standards requiring them to:
- Work with families and support the development of individualized family partnership agreements;
- Work with families to identify their goals, strengths, and supports;
- Follow up with each family to determine whether the kind, quality,
and timeliness of the services received met the family's expectations and
circumstances;
- Abide by the program's standards of conduct; and
- Establish and maintain necessary and required records.
Family Partnerships: A Continuous Process is one in a series of training guides designed to increase the capacity of Head Start staff working directly with families. As a technical guide, the skills and information presented prepare staff to partner with families. It builds on the skills developed in the guide A Design for Family Support. By completing the activities in this guide, participants will achieve the following guide outcomes:
- Partner with individual families and offer them support
based on their strengths, interests, and needs;
- Work with families to develop and implement family partnership
agreements;
- Understand and assess the impact of significant life events
on families;
- Encourage family growth and development by helping families articulate,
define, and achieve realistic, specific, time-limited, and results-oriented
goals;
- Record the family's progress and follow up with the family
on services received; and
- Acknowledge and uphold professional responsibilities.
Module 1: Partnering with Families
A family partnership is an ongoing, collaborative process where information is shared between staff-family partners and integrated continuously into all activities. This module encourages staffs use of professional practices to engage each family in a family partnership agreement process.
Module 2: Exploring Family Growth
This module takes an in-depth look at the family's growth and development. Staff learn to chart the family life cycle, identify strengths, assess the impact of significant life events, and recognize supports. Information gathered during the exploration of family growth lays the foundation for supporting families by focusing on their interests, strengths, goals, and needs-the basis of the family partnership agreement.
Module 3: Making Family Goals a Reality
Each family determines the direction of the family partnership agreement. Goal setting is one type of interaction that can occur during this process. Module 3 provides staff training on helping families identify and achieve their goals. This module focuses on the strategies of "visioning," "creating the family picture," and a "six-step approach" as methods for making family goals a reality.
Module 4: Practicing Professionalism
In this module, staff examine and practice strategies surrounding the professional
issues of confidentiality, roles and boundaries, mandated reporting, and record-keeping.
Each module also includes key concepts summarizing the activities' main ideas. The module's background information provides a context for trainers on the core concepts covered in the module. Follow-up activities entitled Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice are located at the end of each module. These activities help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress.
Two training options are provided in this guide so that management teams can respond to the different learning styles of staff Some local Head Start programs may want to provide the guide's activities in the workshop format; others may want to use the coaching format; and still others may want to use a combination of both. These two training strategies are described in the guide's Definition of Icons section.
The Continuing Professional Development section lists activities that Head Start programs may find useful for reinforcing and expanding staff skills in partnering with families.
A Resources section, located at the end of the guide, describes books,
journals, newsletters, and organizations that offer in-depth information on
the topics covered in this guide.
Trainer or Coach Selection
Management staff should carefully select the person or persons who will provide the training and/or coaching activities.
- Trainers and coaches need to be experienced in providing services to families and delivering training sessions. Candidates should be trained in family-centered work and should promote a family-strengths model.
- Candidates may be found in colleges and universities that offer programs in social work, family support, family preservation, and family counseling. Or, they may be located in community agencies such as other Head Start programs, family-resource centers, family-support programs, and parent- education programs.
Before conducting the activities in this guide, prepare for the training event by completing the following:
- Note that this guide, Family Partnerships: A Continuous Process,
builds on the guide A Design for Family Support.
- Understand that the family partnership agreement process outlined
in the guide can be used to support other activities, such as successful
transitions, promoting self-sufficiency, preventing family crisis, etc.
Look in the series Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community
for more information on these topics.
- Plan on completing all the module activities, in either the coaching
or workshop format, to achieve the module's outcomes. While each activity
is written to stand alone, most activities are sequential and build on previous
material.
- Evaluate the activities and handouts to determine their appropriateness
for training participants. Activities are written for staff who regularly
interact with families. However, some activities may not suit the individual
training needs of all staff members.
- Use the time frames identified for each activity in the At
A Glance only as a guide. Time will vary depending on the group
size and experience level, the needs of the group, the trainer's skill,
and the flow of the discussion.
- Review with participants the program's policy for maintaining
group and family confidentiality prior to delivering all training sessions.
| Coaching
|
 |
A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback The activities are written for a coach to work closely with one to three participants. |
| Workshop
|
 |
A facilitated
group training strategy that fosters the development of
skills through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers. |
| Next Steps:
Ideas to Extend Practice |
 |
Activities assigned by the trainer or coach immediately following the completion of the module to help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress toward achieving the expected outcomes of the module. |
| Continuing
Professional Development |
 |
Follow-up
activities supporting continued staff development in the skills addressed
in this training guide, including: (1) Opportunities tailored to the participant to enhance the skills developed in the training; and (2) Strategies to help the participant identify new skills, along with knowledge needed to expand and/or complement these skills, through opportunities in such areas as higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs. |
At A Glance
| Modules | Activity | Time | Materials |
| Module 1: Partnering with Families | Activity 1-1: Family Partnership Agreements (W) | 120 minutes | Handout 1 and Handout 2, Newsprint, Markers, Tape |
| Activity 1-2: Revisit! Review! Revise! (W) | 60 minutes | Handout 3, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Activity 1-3: Strategies for Working as Family Partners (W) | 45 minutes | Handout 4, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Activity 1-4: Working as Family Partners (C) | 60 minutes
(Two 30-minute sessions) |
Handout 2 and Handout 5, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Module 2: Exploring Family Growth |
Activity 2-1: Family Growth (W) | 90 minutes | Handout 1, Handout 2, and Handout 3, Newsprint, Markers, Tape |
| Activity 2-2: Family Responsibilities (W) | 90 minutes | Handout 4, Handout 5, and Handout 6, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Activity 2-3: Examining Family Growth (C) | 120 minutes (Two 60-minute sessions) | Handout 1, Handout 4, Handout 5, Handout 6, Handout 7, Handout 8, and Handout 9, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Module 3:
Making Family Goals a Reality |
Activity 3-1: Identifying Family Goals (W) | 120 minutes | Handout 1, Newsprint, Markers, Tape |
| Activity 3-2: Achieving the Family's Goals (W) | 120minutes | Handout 2, Handout 3, Handout 4, Handout 5, and Handout 6, Name Tags, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Activity 3-3: Creating the Future
(C) |
90 minutes (Two 45 minute sessions) | Handout 1, Handout 3, and Handout 5, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Module 4:
Practicing Professionalism |
Activity 4-1: Developing Professionalism (W) | 90 minutes | Handout 1 and Handout 2, Program Policy and Procedures (Confidentiality, child Abuse and Neglect, Record Keeping, and Standards of Conduct), 9 Sheets of Labeled Newsprint, Newsprint, Markers, Tape |
| Activity 4-2: Record Keeping (W) | 90 minutes | Handout 3, Handout 4, Handout 5 and Handout 6, Newsprint, Markers, Tape | |
| Activity 4-3: Professionalism (C) | 60 minutes | Handout 1 and Handout
7, Program Policy and Procedures (Confidentiality, Child Abuse and Neglect, Record- Keeping, and Standards of Conduct), Newsprint, Markers, Tape |
|
| Activity 4-4: The Family Storybook (C) | 45 minutes | Handout 8, Newsprint, Markers, Tape |