Lakes & Prairies Head Start chosen to go to Harvard!

Going to Harvard!

Well, for a few days anyway.   Lakes and Prairies Head Start staff are excited to be part of a Professional Learning Community on Parent, Family and Community Engagement.  Pam Bernstein, Head Start Program Director, Kristin Phillips, Early Childhood and Special Services Manager, and Shanna Grefsrud, Transportation/Parent Involvement Manager, will travel to Boston, MA  in late March to work with other Head Start Staff at the  Harvard Family Research Center. 



The Lakes and Prairies Head Start program is one of 8 Head Start programs nation-wide to be chosen to join others who are dedicated to “improving family outcomes through a systemic approach to parent, family, and community engagement."

                                         
A letter from the National Center on Parent , Family, and Community Engagement (PCFE) described the PCFE Framework released in September 2011, as “systemic, integrated, and comprehensive."  The Framework seeks to help Head Start programs transform their family engagement practices in order to increase the likelihood of achieving 7 family outcomes:

·         Family well-being

       ·         Positive parent-child relationships

Pam Bernstein

·         Families as lifelong educators of their child

·         Families as adult learners

·         Family engagement in transitions

·         Family connections to peers and communities

Kristin Phillips

·         Families as advocates and leaders

                                                                                                                            

As members of the Professional Learning Community, Lakes and Prairies  Head Start staff will attend two in-person meetings at Harvard, use web-based and teleconferencing tools for problem-solving, develop a toolkit, and develop, test, and disseminate tools and materials  for Head Start programs around the nation.

Shanna Grefsrud

So Head Start staff will be learning right along with the children they serve.  We will also lean on our School Readiness Action Team—a group of parents committed to sharing their ideas and energy to help all children and parents get ready for kindergarten.  The gears will be turning as we travel, team with others, test-out tools and strategies, and transform our Parent Engagement work on a national level.