Module 1 

Partnering with Families

The network of caring relationships provides an ever expanding circle of support for both child and family.
-Head Start Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers

Outcomes

As a result of completing this module, participants will be able to:

Key Concepts
Key concepts of Module I that serve as a knowledge base for the skills needed to work collaboratively with families include:

Background Information

The term family partnership characterizes the ongoing, evolving, and integrated relationship between staff and family in the Head Start community. Building a family partnership is an interactive process that starts when a parent says, "I want to enroll my child," and continues until the family has made a successful transition from the Head Start program.

Family Partnerships

Partnering with families is not a new philosophy. In 1965, Head Start was designed to encourage and support family involvement at all program levels. This commitment to involving families has been consistent throughout Head Start's history.

Family partnerships are trusting, respectful, and supportive relationships. Staff foster these unique relationships by reaching out to families and showing them that they are valued and important. It takes time to build a trusting relationship in which the family feels comfortable confiding in staff and sharing its hopes for the future, as well as its worries. As trust is established, the family begins to accept the staff person as a resource, advocate, and source of support.

The Family Partnership Agreement Process

As part of the ongoing family partnership, staff must offer parents opportunities to develop and implement family partnership agreements. The family partnership agreement is an individualized, strengths-based, family- driven process-one in which staff provide support to families in response to their interests, goals, strengths, and needs.

The family partnership agreement process recognizes that there is no "cookie cutter approach" to working with families. Instead, staff initiate the process and provide partnership opportunities for families by asking, in effect, "How can Head Start support you?" These agreements are not necessarily formal documents, step-by-step activities, or interactions that must occur with all Head Start families.

While each family determines the direction of the family partnership agreement, the process can include the following types of interactions:

Head Start families vary with regard to their interests or readiness for staff involvement in family partnership agreements. Some families are already clear about their goals and are not likely to need or see a reason for the involvement of Head Start staff in their plans. Other families, for a variety of reasons, may not yet be ready to develop agreements with Head Start staff. In these situations, staff should extend invitations to the family to join them in partnership, but be prepared to wait patiently for the family to accept. For families who have plans already developed with other professionals, staff should work to support the implementation of these plans. Finally, there are Head Start families who are ready to pursue family partnership agreements with the support of staff.  No matter where families fall in their readiness, it is important for staff never to lose sight of the right of families to decide when and how they want Head Start involved in their lives.

Revisit! Review! Revise!

Just as families grow and develop over time, so must the partnership; it is not a one-time event. Instead, the partnership changes, requiring more or less contact, depending on the desires and needs of the family. Staff should Revisit! Review! Revise! to:

Working as Family partners

The family partnership agreement process is flexible. Whatever the family partnership agreement might be, it can be achieved by establishing strategies, responsibilities, and timetables. In addition, programs and staff must practice professionalism throughout the process by maintaining family confidentiality, defining roles, establishing and maintaining boundaries with families, following mandatory reporting policies, and keeping a documentation of interactions.

Contact between staff and family may be both formal and informal and can include regularly scheduled visits or brief conversations as the parents are involved in program activities. This is different from "traditional" family interviews because the family is always the senior partner. Family members are regarded as experts about their family, while staff and other participants serve as resources for supporting the family. Approaches for working collaboratively with families include:

Staff use many different approaches to work with families; the decision to use one over another is based on the interests, challenges, or wishes of the family. Because one approach may not always work, even with the same family, it is important to know, and be able to skillfully use, a variety of approaches. Often staff rely on the formal approaches when working with families. However, informal approaches are equally valuable.

Preparation Note: More information on essential partnership-building skills, such as: exploring family strengths, building rapport, refraining, partnership talk, and joining with a family, can be found in the guide A Design for Family Support. 

Next Steps:
Ideas to Extended Practice

Follow-up strategies to reinforce the concepts and skills taught in Module 1 are presented below. After completing Module 1, review the strategies with staff and help them choose at least one "Next Step" activity to work on individually or as part of a team.

· Enhancing Family Partnership Skills

Encourage staff to critique their own strengths in working collaboratively with families. Using handout 5, have staff assess their strengths. Then, ask staff to design a plan for skill improvement. With staff, revisit and revise the plan at three-month intervals. Make sure to reinforce their efforts. Suggest resources for staff to read or contact from the Resources section of this guide. Support staff as they continually reassess and refine their skills.

· Looking at Program Policies and Procedures

Have staff identify program policies and procedures that hinder the development of effective family partnerships. Encourage staff to suggest program changes to facilitate family partnerships. Ensure that suggested policies are responsive to family diversity and the principles of family support by instructing staff to have the Head Start community review the proposed changes. Have staff share their findings and suggestions with the Head Start Program's Policy Council and all Head Start staff.

· Applying Informal Strategies to Encourage Family Partnerships

Have staff monitor their efforts to reach out to families and provide opportunities for families to partner with them. Ask staff to keep a daily log of their "casual" interactions with families, documenting what they say or do each day to show support and build rapport. Review the log with staff every two weeks and discuss the outcomes of their interactions with families. With staff, identify what they might do next to encourage partnerships with the families.

HANDOUTS ACTIVITIES
Handout 1 Activity 1
Handout 2Activity 2
Handout 3 Activity 3
Handout 4 Activity 4
Handout 5