FACILITATED BY CHERYL ANDERSON, RECEQCCI PD & TRAINING COORDINATOR

SEPTEMBER 2014

Family Engagement

What does family engagement mean to you?

What does it look like?

Engagement goes beyond involvement.

Your thoughts on this statement?

How do you know when families are fully engaged?

How can we help families to experience a sense of

belonging?

Families are engaged when they are motivated and empowered to identify their strengths, needs and resources. When motivated, they move from just attending to offering ideas, contributing time and energy and take a more active role in making positive change.

What are the motivators and barriers?

Things to Remember!

Every family has its own story!Takes time to move from cautious interest to full

engagementParents have strengths and experience which

can benefit our programsParents will want to be engaged in different waysParent’s interest and involvement may fluctuateParents have feelings too!We are role models for how staff may treat

parents

What contributes to engagement?

Relationships!

“Fostering good relationships with children and families is the single most important

priority for educators in early years programs.”

How Does Learning Happen?Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years

Relationships

Families to familiesFamilies to staffFamilies to program (environment, display &

documentation)Program to home (connections)Program to community (connections)

Why do we do what we do?

Look beyond what you have always done!Look to deepening relationships (look at what

it takes to build a true relationship)Look at your processes not just your product

(how do we share our lives with each other vs. what activities do we have?)

Relationship Building

Choose a relationship:Family to familyFamily to staff

Family to programProgram to home

As a community of practice explore the following:What does this relationship need?How can I provide these elements?

What ideas do I have to build this relationship?

Supporting Family Centred-care

To support family centred-care, we need to consider changes on the program level:

Adequate staffing so that teachers can have daily communication with families at drop-off and pick-up time

Time for staff to complete documentationTime for staff to share their ideas and

theories about family engagementCreativity, flexibility and a positive attitude!

Think and Act Positively!