Are you curious about the skills that are necessary to ensure excellent family engagement? Head Start has created a list of skills or competencies that lead to strong relationships with families. There are a number of different competencies broken down into the following categories:
- POSITIVE, GOAL-ORIENTED RELATIONSHIPS
- Engages in mutually respectful goal-oriented partnerships with families to promote parent-child relationships and family wellbeing.
- SELF AWARE AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE RELATIONSHIPS
- Respects and responds appropriately to the culture, language, values, and family structures of each family served.
- FAMILY WELL-BEING AND FAMILIES AS LEARNERS
- Supports families’ safety, health, financial stability, life goals, and aspirations.
- PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILIES AS LIFELONG EDUCATORS
- Enhances the parent-child relationship, and supports parents’ role as the first and lifelong educators of their children.
- FAMILY CONNECTIONS TO PEERS AND COMMUNITY
- Facilitates networks and group activities that support families’ strengths, interests, and needs
- FAMILY ACCESS TO COMMUNITY RESOURCES
- Supports families in using community resources that enhance family well-being and children’s learning and development.
- COORDINATED, INTEGRATED, AND COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES
- Acts as a member of a comprehensive services team so that family service activities are coordinated and integrated throughout the program
- DATA DRIVEN SERVICES AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
- Collects and analyzes information to find new solutions to challenges as part of ongoing monitoring in order to continuously improve services.
- FOUNDATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
- Actively participates in opportunities for continuous professional development.
If you are interested in exploring the competencies or completing the self-assessment, you can access the entire document here.
For the main article on Planning for Family Engagement, CLICK HERE.
For the article on Why Focus on Family Engagement, CLICK HERE.
For the article on Goals of Family Engagement Initiatives, CLICK HERE.
For the article on Director’s Corner Family Engagement Competencies for Supervisors, CLICK HERE.
