Head Start REACH: Strengthening Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Approaches with Families

The Head Start REACH project examined the ERSEA approaches that Head Start programs use to engage Head Start-eligible families experiencing adversities. Adversities is a broad term that refers to a wide range of circumstances or events that pose a threat to a child's or caregiver's physical or psychological well-being. Common examples of adversities include (but are not limited to) poverty, homelessness, foster care or child welfare system involvement, and substance use.

Mathematica and Brazelton Touchpoints Center conducted this project under contract with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project focused on understanding the characteristics of families facing adversities, including those served by Head Start and those eligible but not enrolled. It highlighted community, program, and policy factors that could shape programs' recruitment, selection, enrollment, and retention approaches and engagement of families with the program.

The project involved a literature synthesis to assess the knowledge base on how Head Start programs recruit, select, enroll, and retain families experiencing adversities; the development of a conceptual framework; a secondary analysis of existing data sets leading to interactive national maps of Head Start program locations; and a qualitative case study of Head Start programs, staff, community partners, and parents. Together, these components informed the design of a large-scale, mixed-methods study that generated evidence and insights to directly inform how programs connect and engage with families experiencing adversities. Findings from the study emphasized the importance of forming partnerships with community agencies to better reach and support these families.