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Mailman School
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Columbia University
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Linking family support and early childhood programs: Issues, experiences, opportunities Mary Larner Child care and early education programs of all types can incorporate the principles of family support and serve as ‘hubs' of services for families and of new program relationships with parents. This report describes how the goals, services, and funding of family support make all types of early childhood programs suitable for encompassing family support principles: equality and respect in relationships between family and staff; empowering families to be resources for themselves and others; being culturally appropriate, community-based, and voluntary; and building parenting skills. The author documents how early childhood programs have included and helped parents. She highlights the work of Head Start and other child care programs, and describes early intervention and two-generation programs that provide services like home visiting, parent education classes, family literacy, parent-child interaction, and family service centers: for example the Syracuse Family Development Program in Syracuse, New York; Yale Child Welfare Project in New Haven, Connecticut; Project CARE in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Brookline Early Education Project in Brookline, Massachusetts; Avance in San Antonio, Texas; Step-up in Chicago, Illinois; Parent Services Project at 20 sites in California; New Chance teenage parent demonstration; Even Start programs; and Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) demonstration. To successfully combine family support and child care, early childhood programs should provide equally for the needs of the children and adults, give family members opportunities to work together, and employ family supportive principles in all program components, especially when referring families to services. The author recognizes that finances, a history of focusing only on children, and recent efforts to secure professional recognition will prevent most young children's programs from becoming the comprehensive models described in the report, but she is optimistic that family support principles can be implemented by using the model programs as guides. Typical early child care programs can foster parent participation, train staff to relate to parents, hire staff who identify with the families and their culture, and set up ways to solve conflicts.
Family Resource Coalition
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Disclaimer Free To Grow is a national program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with direction and technical assistance provided by the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. |