Reaching and Engaging Families with Adversities in Head Start: A Conceptual Framework to Support Practices
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Associated Project
Head Start REACH: Strengthening Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Approaches with Families
Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Clients
Key Findings
- The conceptual framework is organized into four sets of ERSEA strategies: (1) foundational ERSEA leadership and operations, (2) eligibility and recruitment, (3) selection and enrollment, and (4) attendance/retention. The framework also acknowledges two sets of overarching contextual factors: (1) family factors and (2) community, state, and national factors.
- Areas of future research on ERSEA strategies may include ERSEA practices for families experiencing specific adversities (for example, substance use) and populations (for example, Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs) or promising ERSEA practices and the effectiveness of these practices.
This brief describes the Head Start REACH project’s conceptual framework, which identifies factors that likely shape eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance/retention (ERSEA) for families experiencing adversities. It describes ERSEA strategies that may be promising to engage families with a spectrum of needs, adversities, and strengths including examples and practices to illustrate ways programs have approached these strategies.
The brief is intended to serve as a resource for staff working on ERSEA and includes reflection questions to help program staff and practitioners reflect on their program’s ERSEA-related needs and practices. It may also be useful to researchers interested in examining ERSEA-related topics and policymakers considering federal or regional ERSEA-related policies.
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