The Office of Head Start National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (NCPFCE) identifies, develops, and disseminates evidence-based best practices associated with the strengthening of families and communities in order to support the positive growth and development of young children. NCPFCE is committed to working in partnership with the Head Start community, the Regional and State T/TA network, the other National Centers and the Office of Head Start to uplift and refresh current practices and co-create new approaches that actively and intentionally engage parents, families, communities, and programs in the development and learning of young children.
To access the PFCE Framework and all the latest resources developed by the National Center, click here.
Our Goals
NCPFCE will implement a professional development and communications approach that will lead to the adoption of research-based and research-informed practices for promoting systemic, integrated, and comprehensive parent, family and community engagement in HS/EHS programs. Building upon the knowledge and experience of the field, NCPFCE will model for the early childhood and school-age community strategies for embedding parent, family, and community engagement from birth to career/ constructive citizenship.
Parent, Family, and Community Engagement
Our review of research and our collective experience with Head Start and other education and human service initiatives confirm that effective parent, family, and community engagement is:
• Systemic— anchored in leadership priorities, program management, continuous improvement systems, and staff development;
• Integrated— effective PFCE activities are carried out throughout the entire organization;
• Comprehensive— the full range of strengths, interests and needs of the adults and children in a family are considered, and staff support families by connecting them with services and resources to achieve their goals; and
• Outcomes-based and data-driven— enabling, parents, teachers, program directors, family service providers, and community partners to find new solutions to new challenges.
Guiding Principles of NCPFCE
The following principles will guide the way NCPFCE shapes its work and communicates with the field:
• Listen and learn from parents, families, programs, T/TA providers, and communities to ensure materials and tools bring about innovation in practice at the local level;
• Celebrate and uplift that which HS/EHS has been doing for decades to involve parents and extend that work with the integration of research-based and research-informed practices that promote systemic, integrated, and sustained approaches to embedding parent, family, and community engagement in all that programs do and represent;
• Use a holistic approach that communicates respect, acknowledges the rich diversity of all and resilience for great accomplishment, even in the face of adversity;
• Foster a climate that supports a love of learning and accomplishment through partnerships that actively acknowledge and respect families as capable and parents as competent partners in their children’s development.
Key Activities of NCPFCE
Recently, the Office of Head Start (OHS) and NCPFCE developed the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework (PFCE Framework), a research-based approach to supporting systemic, integrated, and comprehensive PFCE across an entire HS/EHS organization. NCPFCE will create tools that support positive family and child outcomes, that are culturally and linguistically relevant and that strengthen and solidify parents’ role in the early years, by empowering them for ongoing advocacy for quality education as their children advance through public education. Other key activities include:
• Assess the needs and current resources available through individual and group conversations with parents and programs, site visits, and literature review; • Develop guides and related tools to enhance capacity for systemic parent, family, and community engagement;
• Engage in planning and resource development with the other National Centers;
• Identify and support the development of a Community of Practice model of systemic and integrated parent, family, and community engagement;
• Conduct on-going training at state, regional and national events;
• Provide support and expertise to Regional and State T/TA staff and consultants; • Convene an Advisory Board to provide guidance to the National Center.
NCPFCE is led by Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children’s Hospital Boston, with the support of its partners from the Harvard Family Research Project, Save the Children, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National PTA.
For further information, visit us on ECLKC http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/family or contact Kim Alleyne, Director ncpfce@childrens.harvard.edu
