Brief
Low-income families face significant challenges navigating both low-wage employment or education and training programs and also finding good-quality child care. Programs that intentionally combine services for parents and children can help families move toward economic security and create conditions that promote child and family well-being. Although these programs in general are not new (see Background), policymakers and program leaders are now experimenting with innovative approaches to combining services. Yet, most currently operating programs, sometimes called “two-generation” or “dual…
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Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to promote preschoolers' school readiness by supporting parents in providing instruction in the home. The program model is designed for parents who lack confidence in their ability to prepare their children for school, including parents with past negative school experiences or limited financial resources. The HIPPY program model offers weekly activities for 30 weeks of the year, alternating between home visits and group meetings (two one-on-one home visits per month and two group meetings per month). HIPPY sites are encouraged…
Brief
This brief introduces the Family and Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality (FPTRQ) measures for early care and education stakeholders. The brief introduces the constructs and elements included in the measures, the measures' reliability, how the measures might be used, and how to use them. If you plan to use the measures, reviewing the full Family and Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality Measures: User’s Manual is recommended. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
This research-to-practice brief is intended to help policymakers, program managers, and practitioners learn how the newly released Family and Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality (FPTRQ) measures can be used to complement or supplement two approaches, Strengthening Families™ and the Head Start Parent, Family and Community Engagement (PFCE) frameworks, and their related self-assessments, that have been frequently used by Early Care and Education (ECE) stakeholders to support their work with families and to assess their programs, providers and teachers in these efforts. (Author abstract)
This guidebook describes the steps and best practices for successfully selecting and implementing a parenting intervention. The purpose is to provide program, state, and child care network leaders an easy-to-use tool for implementing a parenting intervention. The guidebook may be used as a companion to the Compendium of Parenting Interventions recently developed by the Health and Human Services Interagency Parenting Group and the Head Start National Center on Family and Community Engagement for use across various community-based settings. The guidebook is organized according to four stages of…
This methodological report focuses on the development of qualitative instruments designed to better understand family engagement in Head Start and Early Head Start. The report draws on pilot data collected during the 2012-2013 program year and provides information about the performance of the piloted interview protocols, revisions made to instruments based on their performance, and the best methods for gathering qualitative information about family engagement experiences from families and staff in future studies. The report also includes an instrument package with the revised set of interview…
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Training Materials Father engagement is an integral part of family engagement. This Guide provides information about serving expectant fathers and fathers of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as other men who play a significant role in the lives of young children. It is designed for all Head Start staff, starting with program leaders and managers who shape program policy. It is also designed for direct service staff who interact with fathers, including teachers, family service workers, home visitors, health staff, and transportation providers. It is also useful for parent leaders. (Author abstract…
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This website contains information about the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation project, a large-scale, random-assignment evaluation of Early Head Start. The project was designed to carry out the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers for a strong research and evaluation component to support continuous improvement within the Early Head Start program and to meet the 1994 reauthorization requirement for a national evaluation of the new infant-toddler program. The project was funded in two waves. The Congressionally-mandated Birth to…
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This PowerPoint presentation provides information on the benefits of healthy marriages and father involvement for children and explains the goals of the federal Healthy Marriage initiative. It cites statistics that indicate 45% of children raised by divorced mothers and 69% raised by never-married mothers live in or near poverty. It discusses culturally competent strategies for providing services to couples, the challenges faced by fatherless children, and the common vision of the Healthy Marriages and Responsible Fatherhood initiatives. Slides then highlight the corporate strategy of the…
This framework is a road map for progress in achieving the kinds of outcomes that lead to positive and enduring change for children and families. It is a research-based approach to program change that shows how an agency can work together as a whole--across systems and service areas--to promote parent and family engagement and children's learning development. (Author abstract)
