Family Engagement

Explore the role that Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships play in effective parent, family, and community engagement. This guide offers definitions, tools, and guides for reflective practice and supervision.

The Office of Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework is a road map for progress. It is a research-based approach to program change designed to help Head Start programs achieve outcomes that lead to positive and enduring change for children and families. 

We all know how important families are in the lives of their children. When staff have strong relationships with families, they can help to promote positive learning outcomes and healthy child development. It also makes it easier to have conversations involving uncomfortable feelings or challenging topics. In this section, explore tools that are proven to work well when building relationships with families.

An attitude is a way of thinking or feeling about someone or something that is often reflected in a person's behavior. Our attitudes create a frame of mind that shapes how we behave in our personal and professional life. 

When you engage with a family, you help strengthen the partnership with them. There are six Relationships-Based Practices that can help promote family engagement. These practices are intended to guide what staff say and do with families to support open communication and promote better understanding. Reflecting on how we apply Relationship-Based Practices can improve our efforts to strengthen relationships with families.

Explore the strengths-based attitudes and relationship-based practices that can help you develop and sustain Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships with families. You can use these strategies to strengthen your partnerships and help build the basis for effective family engagement. Meaningful partnerships and sustained family engagement lead to better outcomes for children and families.

One key to building relationships is taking the time to reflect on our work with families. When we look at what’s working and what’s not, we can make changes that strengthen our relationships with families. Individual and shared reflective practice helps us work more effectively with families and contribute to better outcomes for children and families.

Taking the time to reflect—to stop and think about what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen next—is essential to creating and maintaining Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships. In this section, we will explore reflective practice strategies to support our work to build relationships with families.

Reflection is an important part of our own continuous improvement process to understand why and how we make the choices we do. Taking the time to look at yourself and your work gives you the opportunity to acknowledge strengths and challenges, and to improve your skills.

Just as Head Start staff strive to engage parents and families in healthy, trusting, and respectful relationships, it is important that staff have the same kind of relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Supervision is not only about staff accountability. It also involves the commitment to nurture and guide staff so that they have the tools to engage children and families successfully.