Unveiling the Updated Head Start PFCE Framework

Head Start Family, Parent, and Community Engagement Framework

2nd Edition

Brandi Black Thacker: Are you here to talk about the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework, can I get a yes in the chat, please? If you are, bonus, that's what we're here to talk about too. So we're happy to have you and we cannot tell -- Oh, hello, everybody. Somebody said no, that's good to know upfront. Just saying. So, you, you know, can allocate your very valuable time in other spaces, although we could convince you to stay. We'd love to keep you. Well, you know, the good southerner in me really wants to make sure that you don't have stranger danger. So I'd like to create some stage for some of my most favorite folks, and if you've ever met them, they're going to be your favorite folks too, to say hello and talk to you about their roles within the context of the Center and then hearing just a little bit about their roles within the context of the Office of Head Start. Let us start with Dr. Joshua Sparrow.

Joshua Sparrow: Hi, everybody. Good afternoon. I'm Joshua Sparrow. I am a co-principal investigator for the Office of Head Start and Office of Childcare National Center for Parent, Family, and Community Engagement bringing you this webinar. And I'm also Director of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Brandi: Joshua, so glad you're with us today. Thank you so much for being here. And we also would like you guys to say hello to Dr. Jhumur Saeed.

Jhumur Saeed: Good afternoon. This is Jhumur Saeed. I'm with the Center, I work as a Resource Development Specialist. And I've been engaged -- Honored to be engaged with updating and revising the Head Start PFCE Framework. Welcome.

Brandi: Thank you, Jhumur. For those of you that I might have had the honor to meet somewhere around and about, you might already recognize me from my accent. But just in case you don't, my name is Brandi Black Thacker, and I'm the Director of T/TA and Collaboration for the National Center. And to say that we are excited to be with you today is such an understatement. But a lot of that excitement also lives in the fact that we have two incredible dignitaries on the line with us today from the Office of Head Start. And I'm going to turn it over to our Federal Project Officer Kiersten Beigel to do those honors.

Kiersten Beigel: Thanks, Brandi. Welcome, Head Start. We're so glad that you could join us. My name is Kiersten Beigel. I work here at the office. I'm the lead for Family Engagement, and I work with the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement. And I'm thrilled that we get to have this conversation with you this afternoon. I also have my good friend, our deputy director at the Office of the Head Start is sitting here with me. And she is going to take a few minutes to welcome you as well and to give her remarks, couple of remarks.  Welcome, Ann.

Ann Linehan: Well, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy I was invited. And I just want to say this is like a party, you know? Brandi kind of set this whole stage, and I feel like we're ready to open up the presents, the presents that we've been ploughing all afternoon. But I do want to say, before I get into some more scripted remarks, this is the whole aspect of Head Start and Early Head Start that sets us apart from any other early childhood program or system in the world. And I would say it sets us apart from any education program right up to college. I mean, I just --   This is the part that makes -- It just makes everything, it's the glue, it makes everything else come together.

You know, I often wondered over the past like year or two, all I've been talking about is school readiness, you know, "School readiness, school readiness!" But throughout school readiness is this engagement of parents and community. So I just think we are incredibly blessed to be participants in this Head Start and Early Head Start community and the fact that my good colleagues went at it again to revise and update the Framework in order to support the work that you guys do every day in the field is just a tribute to the dedication and the commitment and the mission that we all embrace, and that's what I think gets us up every morning and doesn't allow us to sleep at night. That said, you know, I can remember, we now say today, family engagement is everybody's business. But I want you to know, I was a part of the '90s, the early '90s, and I can remember, we had... It was the first Parent Involvement National Conference. And at that time, we dubbed the saying, "Parent involvement is everybody's business." So now we've just upgraded it to family engagement. And I think that is certainly much, much more inclusive and much more hip for these days. But again, and we're talking about -- Because everyone plays a role in engaging, our families, our parents, our community, and I have to say, when we say everybody, I want to say from the bus driver to the board chair, it encompasses everybody who comes into contact with our families, everyone has a role and responsibility.

 And it's not just our family service staff who do amazing things, but they need the support of everyone else to buy into how important this is. And I also remember back, you know, I could say 36 years, but I'm only going to say to 2009 when we invited parents and researchers and program staff and they came together and identified the common goals and outcomes of our work with families in Head Start. I think what's so terrific is, from that meeting in 2009, it resulted in seven outcomes that became part of the PFCE Framework. These are the same outcomes you'll see in this version of the Framework, whether you're working at a program in Alaska or Texas, on a tribal reservation, a suburban setting, a prairie or in a city, we are all partnering with families towards the same aims, supporting family well-being, and I just love that, parent relationships with their children, parent leadership in learning, family transition, parent relationships with each other, and of course, family's role as their child's lifelong educator and teacher. All of these goals contribute to supporting children's learning and development in school readiness. I could read that little paragraph, you know, 10 times over.

As you're going to learn in this webinar, the PFCE Framework has been revised some, namely it's been updated to align with, we say the newest Head Start Program Performance Standards because now we're coming up on the second anniversary of their issuance, believe it or not, this coming September. There are also some expanded definitions and some additional research information that's been added. Kiersten and the National Center team will walk you through some of the changes over the next hour. But before you get into it, I just want to take time to thank you for the work you do, for the way that each of you in your program help Head Start continue to be a national leader in early childhood education and in family engagement. I think, in many ways, so many programs across the country, including states, look to us for what is right to do in family engagement. And as always, a big thanks to the parents who are our greatest partners in educating young children. So I'm just privileged to be on the side today, listening to my brilliant colleagues imparting information to our brilliant participants on the other end. So thanks for inviting me, Kiersten.

Kiersten: Thank you, Ann Linehan. Appreciate it, I know you do.

Brandi: It is an honor to have you here with us, Miss Ann, and thank you for the historical context in your wise words of bringing everything to fruition together in service of not only how we work with our families but certainly our ever present goal, our shared goal of school readiness. So it's truly, truly an honor to have you here with us today, and we're excited, so we have a lot to do, guys. I want to show you a couple of quick things. In the next 45 to 47 minutes, we want to do a few things with you. We want to talk about and build on previous conversations and knowledge that you have and that we've talked about together in many spaces and places before on the Head Start PFCE Framework. As Miss Ann alluded, we are going to get into what's new, what didn't change 'cause there's a lot of that that we want to make sure to emphasize and anchor because many of you built your systems around this Framework, so we want to make sure to highlight those spaces for you.

We're going to get into those differences and similarities in the revised Framework, and then -- I think you guys are really going to like this part, too. We're going to think about together some cross-cutting strategies, and this would be a new thing for you to peep at and to consider for the integration and the implementation of the Framework in your setting, in your programs based on what you know that you would like to do in terms of confirmation of good things that are already happening and/or enhancements that you might be looking to integrate based on your good work. Before we move from this slide, what I'd really like to do is draw your attention, now let me just warn you, if you touch this space on your left, there is a box in the center left of your screen that says web link, what you're going to see there is a link to our ECLKC space, depending on your geography, some of us say ECLKC, some say E-click, or EC-lick, but you all know it and love it as our hotspot for all things in Head Start and Early Head Start.

You will have the opportunity, if you click on, for instance, that top thing that says PFCE Interactive Framework, you can click that, it's going to open up or activate the little button that says Browse To. If you click that now, it will take you way from this screen, so just fair warning. And then, as you all have been waiting for, we also have the document of the new PFCE Framework right over there for you in the web link section so that you'll have it, you can go get it, you can download it, and you can hold it and love it and caress it just like we've been doing over these last weeks. So you can check those out as you're inclined and excited to do so. But don't go away quite yet because we want you to answer some questions on another poll that we have ready. We want to hear from you a little bit about what is your personal familiarity with the PFCE Framework. Now if you've ever been on the road with us and you've heard us talk about this Framework, you have heard me say, "I know it, I love it, I live it, I have it memorized." That's the first option. And several of you are indicating that right now. The next option is I have a general understanding, but I don't reference it regularly. Third one down, as you can see, I'm familiar, but I can do a better job to absorb its contents.

And my person favorite, what is a PFCE? Many of you that I may have had the chance to be around for more than 30 seconds may know that I have a five-year-old son and we used to tease. When I was carrying him around in utero that when he was born and he could sing the alphabet, he would say, "A, B, C, D, P, F, C, E." so Parent, Family, Community Engagement really is all about the family, right, and the community. All right, we want you to integrate a couple more just -- I'll give you a couple more seconds here to cast your vote, and then we'll broadcast the results. The other thing as you guys are finishing your clicking here on our poll is I wanted to also mention that if you visit the ECLKC regularly, you may have found in the menu bars at the top that there are Topics pages. You can also get to our new Framework from that Topic page under the category Family Engagement.

So if you would like to do it that way too, that's another option. Okay, Miss Nina, let's broadcast the results. All right, the poll is closed. Check this out. We have such a great mix of folks who have really been integrating the Framework, who know it well, who have it memorized, who actually use it and embed it, about 25 percent of our colleagues on the line, about 30 percent, 32 percent of our colleagues have a general understanding but may not have to reference it regularly, and we have some shifting going on here. About 36 percent of them say, "I'm familiar with it, but I'd like to or need to absorb its contents a little more readily." And a few of us say, "What is the PFCE?" So hopefully, you know, my attempt at bringing in the PFCE to, you know, family-type interactions is helpful. This is wonderful. All right. Well, as we transition, thank you, guys, for playing along with us in the poll and letting us know sort of where you come to the conversation because we'll try to use that to cater our conversation for the next little bit. I'd like to turn it back over to Kiersten so she can give us some context about why did we do the revision in the first place.

Kiersten: Alrighty, well. It's a great question, and seeing that poll helps me to wonder, I guess, how many folks have been around long enough to have known the first Framework, now that we're moving into the second one. I'm thinking back to when I first started working for the Office of Head Start, it was in 2008, I think, right after the latest reauthorization. Looking at what we had then in the way of training and technical assistance, resources that we were able to offer at the national level was, I think we had some training guides. And, Brandi, you might know some of the resources that were out there but there wasn't very much. And we knew that people thought about the work around family partnerships in many, many different ways. For those of you who have been around a while, we had our 13.04.40 and our 13.04.41 Family Partnership Standards, and we had a couple things we could use to implement those. But, you know, programs were really working on these things by and large in your own community, and we thought, gosh, with the incredible array of things that Head Start programs do to partner with families, whether it's policy counsel or classroom volunteering or supporting parenting or making referrals for families who are looking for different kinds of resources and things.

You know, there's such a huge variety of activities, we felt like we didn't have a common language to really define what we were all working on collectively kind of in the way that Ann had referenced. So we set about to try to look at our Performance Standards at the time, synthesize the research, hear from parents and stakeholders can help us define those outcomes and agree upon what it is that we actually are working on and to develop a bit of a roadmap in the way of this Framework to help us think about how we can coordinate our activities and strategies and efforts in all the different parts of our comprehensive Head Start and Early Head Start programs to work towards family outcomes and support children's learning and development, so we revised -- We developed the Framework for that reason, and we're revising it for a couple of reasons. One is, of course, that there's been a lot of new research since 2011 when we put out the version 1. And so we also got lots of questions over the years about the research, people really wanting to better understand what family engagement means in different kinds of contexts. And so we wanted to bring a lot of that research to this new Framework. You'll see lots of different kinds of references embedded at your fingertips that give you a sense of some important things that have been learned in the science about this work.

We also felt like we needed to update it for the standards, and that's kind of the most obvious reasons. While we used the training and technical assistance in the Head Start Framework, Parent, Family, Community Engagement Framework, to inform implementation of the previous standards, we felt like we had to use the new standards in 2016 to kind of codify these outcomes that we all have been working on in this roadmap called the Framework. So now you'll see references in the standard to the Framework, we wanted to update that. I do think we also needed to update the Framework a little bit because, you know, of how Ann was referring to us as leaders in this work. And, you know, if you googled the Head Start Framework, Parent, Family, Engagement Framework today, and you'll get millions of hits on this now. I mean, people incorporate it into journal articles and research and community newsletter and state planning, thinking about what Head Start Frameworks say, what should we be doing at the state level. So we feel, you know, responsibility to bring the best information in all of your best practice, knowledge, and experience with the work to bear for the field.

So those are some of the main reasons... Speaking of the mainest reason, if you will, I know it's not really a word, but I'm trying to forward the PowerPoint here. I'm a little stuck. Somebody want to -- Great. So this is just an example of where you see the current, The Framework outcomes which again haven't changed in the current Performance Standards in the family partnership section, and we indeed saw a lot of you in chat talking about the way you reference the outcomes in some of your planning, your family assessment work, your family goal-setting, and that kind of thing. There are a lot resources and TA that is provided in our training and technical assistance system to help you with the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework. When we get to look at some pictures of the Framework, it's a little bit easier to think about but just to know and be reminded that really this is an organizational approach, so we're very much fully looking at what we can be doing at the organizational level and our system, which we refer to in the program foundation and what we can be doing in our individual relationships and practices which we refer to as our services and how we can help some of those work together to reinforce what we do and really make the best kind of change and support for our families.

But that's what the Framework kind of is in a nutshell, and we'll break it down a little bit more, but you should know that since 2011 and ongoing, we have been developing resources to help programs use the Framework to, you know, Frameworks are really just a theory and a set of ideas based on research, but ultimately, we need ways to figure out how to implement them, and I know that's the kind of thing you all have been thinking about, struggling with, having success with over these years. And so, you know, just keep in mind that, you know, while this particular webinar is really about some of these revisions to the Framework, there are all kinds of resources on the ECLKC for you to help you with father engagement or your relationship building practices with families or parenting curricula or how are enrolling families who are experiencing homelessness and on and on 'cause we know this work is not a one-size-fits-all, again, that's why we have a roadmap and our outcomes. From there, I think you'll be good if we could turn it over to the Center and to Josh, and I just want to thank you all in the National Center team has done these revisions. By the way, they take a couple years.

So we don't -- We're not going to be doing it anytime soon, again. And I want to thank them for all of their work and their expertise that they bring to helping synthesize what is a very kind of complicated set of work. Right? Our work together brings in so many different fields, it isn't just early childhood education and social work and human services and psychology and family support and community organizing, there's so many areas of learning that we bring together, and so I thank the Center for that, for really the diligent care and the passion. Josh?

Joshua: Thank you, Kiersten. Thank you for that really helpful orientation and for all of your wisdom and guidance and support in getting to this point. Brandi, was saying earlier that we're all loving on this version of the Framework, and although, we're relieved to hear we won't be revising it anytime soon, and so all of you can really dig into it. We also did this update based on what we learned from many of you and many others and we would love to keep on hearing from you about what we can learn through your work with it so that we can better at what we do. I want to thank... In addition to Kiersten, I want to thank Brandi and Jhumur and also many folks who are behind the scenes making this webinar happen. I also want to thank Ann Linehan. I was thinking about after 9/11, Fred Rogers said to the children, "Look for the helpers." And I must say, Ann is one of the people I think of whenever I need to be looking for the helpers. And I also want to thank all of you, many of you have contributed to what you're going to see in this Framework, and for the work that you all do.

So one of the things that we learned from many of you was that you wanted greater clarity about what it was we were trying to say. And so we're trying to get closer to that with this definition of family engagement as an interactive process through which program staff and families, family members, and their children build positive and goal-oriented relationships. So family engagement does not live on the family side or on the Head Start staff side, it is what happens amongst us all, and children are at the center of it because we all come together on behalf of children, we're all inspired and mobilized by them. And in our working with many of you over the years, one of our really fabulous content developers presenters came to this very simple way of talking about family engagement. Family engagement means doing with, not doing to or for families. And in the text that provides more explanation, which I hope you all download and take a good look at, what we've learned in this text as well as the many resources we've developed to support your work, which are also available on ECLKC, that when we write a sentence, we all are on the same side of the action verb. It's not staff, you know, on the acting side and the family on the acted upon side, the "we" is all of us, all of us on the webinar today, families and children working together towards the outcomes that we seek that we've tried to outline in the Framework in the left two columns that we'll get to shortly. So other definitions that we realized from listening to you, we needed to provide greater clarity for systemic, integrated, comprehensive. What does that really mean? Those are kind of big complicated words.

So we've got more explanation in the text that you can download. And by systemic, we basically mean each one of us, no matter what we do, needs to work towards being able to see where we are in our program, in our system, in our community that supports child and family thriving and flourishing, where we are in the system, where we stand, and we also need to go and see where everybody else is in the system. And integrated really means once we see the system and we think about our work in the system, how do we get together with the others in the system that we see and are able to understand their roles as well.

What do we need to do? What actions do we need to take in order to get together what we're doing with what they're doing? And so it's trying to make much more concrete what we mean when, as Ann said, Parent, Family, and Community Engagement is everyone's business. Well, in order for us to be able to do our business together, we have to see the system and we have to bring together what we all do and then comprehensive is really about a holistic approach to ourselves, to children, and families. The idea is we've got to look at all of the factors affecting the system that we're all in so we can move together towards the outcomes that we seek. Comprehensive means looking at the whole child, the whole family, and all of us as a whole because this work is about our personhood, it's about showing up as the people that we are. So we, again, have used these terms in the resources that we've developed to support your understanding and use of the Framework. And many of them are really intended to address the how-to, how to do family engagement. And we hope you'll take a look on the ECLKC Family Engagement topic page and let us know what you think.

Brandi: Josh, thank you for all the context around the language and the definition, that there's one of many things that we learned is that language is powerful. And so many of you have picked up on this in the chat and you're saying things like, "Yes, it absolutely is doing things within the side of families as opposed to doing it to or for." As we think about that involvement the engagement sort of continuum, the one thing that I know you guys are excited, I see all of your emails, and we're so happy to have those, and we are going to post everything on the ECLKC for you. You'll have the materials related to this new Framework and each of the pieces as you have these great ideas about, "Oh, I really want to share this with our colleagues, we really want to offer this for our families," we've got you covered. And you'll be hearing about that a little more as we go into some of the dialogue for the next 30 minutes. I can't believe we already are halfway finished, there's so many good things to share. In that vein, I want to showcase for you a little bit of, as we promised, the new objectives, what is new and what is consistently locked in based on what you told us. Now the thing that we want to offer here first and foremost is we heard you and we've learned from you in so many ways that you have given us such gifts in our thinking about how this Framework works, how you've integrated it into own work, and how we've enhanced it based on what each of you have taught us, so we want to say that right upfront. And the thing I'd like to do quickly is just say there are only about four big changes, and so you got to have your pencils ready. And for those of you that are techno fancy, maybe you have your, you know, device so you can type notes, but this is the place to get that together because we want to talk about the four major spots that you're going to want to have in your back pocket as you get familiar with this revision and as you get excited to share it with others.

But first, you might have noticed, you guys know how we like to do this. We begin with the end in mind. And so if you focus your attention on the purple column that says child outcomes, you're going to see some additional language. Now what I want to do on this slide is just show you where the four changes live, and then we're going to go through each of those changes in a little bit of detail. So let me just give you a tiny tour and then come back. Okay? So the first one is the child outcomes column, the second, if we're thinking about how we go backward with this Framework, starting with the purple column, back to the blue, you'll notice there's not a change in the blue, stay tuned for more about that. Now we have a new element in the Program Impact Areas column, that's the pink one. You'll also see a shift of a word in the yellow column, the Program Foundations are what we really consider as the systems column. And then, last but not least, I have to tell you guys my favorite enhancement, did you notice it? Did you see it? Did you recognize that we now have a double arrow? I'm looking for the chat. I want to see the confirmation. This is one of my favorite pieces, and we'll talk about it as we go into detail. So Josh and I are really going to partner on this piece, so I can tell you a little bit about  -- Actually, Josh will tell you a little about what shifted here, and I'm going to make some connections based on what you taught us over time and how folks are already thinking about this. So, Josh, the purple column, we have a lot more language. Tell us about that.

Joshua: The purple column, yes, is the column for the Child Outcomes. And in the first version of the Framework, the Child Outcome was Children School Readiness, and what we've done here again is build on the holistic approach that I mentioned earlier. So we try to convey the other outcomes that support each other and support school readiness, so children are safe, healthy and well, learning and developing, engaged in positive relationships with family members, caregivers, and other children, ready for school, successful in school and life. So you can see how each one of these outcomes supports the other and really depends on the other including but not limited to school readiness. So this is a more holistic approach to child outcomes, and it's part of why the way that we work together in our programs and systems also have to be holistic.

Brandi: Well, Josh, thank you for that context. And I say that my Head Start family is already finding themselves -- And, you guys, look at this. Do you see what we did? We took the ELOF. Now I know we have education experts on the line, the Early Learning Outcomes Framework, another one of our great icons in this community, and we connected it, guys, right to the child outcomes. So the language that you see, that's expanded, that you already recognize, comes from another huge piece of the work that you already know and integrate. The other piece of this that we know is that when children are supported by their families, everybody grows. You guys know that's how we think about this Framework, we really see it as a theory of change, and to have incredible and strong child outcomes that we celebrate every single year based on the work you guys do, we have to have growth and progress within the staff or families. So the other thing I see of you are mentioning that -- You know, this is dependent on the size of your screen and if you have it fully expanded, some of the languages are a little hard to read. If you look at the web link over on the left-hand side of your screen, you have two options to go see our brand new Framework, and it will take you away from this screen, just another fair warning, but you can look at the interactive Framework and you can also look at the Framework document that actually describes all of this for you, so you'll have that at your disposal as well. So the child outcomes expansion was huge for us, and we really wanted to make sure that you saw the integration, the intentionality, and the thank you that we need to offer to you because you taught us that that would be really helpful. The thing that I want to say as we transition to my favorite column, the Family Outcomes column, is that... All right, if you don't hear anything else on this whole webinar, hear this, are you ready? Is everybody ready? This column did not change in letter, in font, in spacing, in hyphens, the blue column is intact, and you guys know why that is. The blue column... Drum roll, please. Was integrated, and also Ann said it, the newish Performance Standards. So, you guys, many of you have built systems around these, many of you are driving towards these, the programmatic efforts that you described around your program planning, the five-year project period, are integrated toward one or a couple of these outcomes based on what you know in your program about and with your families in your communities. So it was important --   I'll see you guys -- I know it was anxiety producing for a lot of us because we know what kind of hard work you've done around the blue column, and we just want to say it's intact, didn't change. The other piece... Well, let me pause there for just a second. Josh, did you want to add anything there about the blue column?

Joshua: Yeah, I just wanted to add that we've also left them intact because we know that people have really been moving towards developing ways of measuring progress in these areas. And one of the resources that we've developed in the past and will continue to work on are compilations of measurements for progress in this area of family outcomes. And the other thing I wanted to draw your attention to was the family well-being outcome which is the same as Brandi said, just to say that there was a lot packed into that, and it's in the text, it was in the original version. But just to try to make sure we're all clear that what we packed into family wellbeing is that families are safe, healthy, have opportunities for educational advancement and academic mobility, and have access to physical and mental health services, housing and food assistance, and other family support services. So a lot packed in, again, it's a holistic approach to families and to children and to all of us.

Brandi: All right, Josh, I'm so glad I remembered my good southern graces to pause and make sure you got to include your wisdom there, that's so important. As we go backwards to the Framework, the next piece around the pink column as I mentioned with the four shifts and changes. You may notice that we have an extra element in the pink column or the program impact areas. Now you guys know how we think about this. We think about the yellow column as our systems piece, the pink column as our high-quality services, and it's our job, in programs, through those systems and services, to set up the opportunities for families and children to grow. So we know, based on this Framework and the theory of change that it represents that if we have hope in our systems and services, then, you know, the family and the child piece has to come up with this, so this is critical. And one of the things that I wanted to mention to you guys. You know from before that we call each of the pieces in the yellow and the pink columns elements. And what we have in the pink column is a brand new one called... Do you guys see it? Access and continuity. It's the very last one. Now there are a lot of things here in terms of reasoning behind why this came to be, but it really has a deep root in our ERSEA bits, our enrollment, the recruitment, and all of the pieces around bringing families and children into our space as they're ready so that the access is open and that we make ourselves available to and beside families as they're ready. So there's a connection to the ERSEA part of our work, but there is also a really deep overlap into how we do what we do with community and our partners and the organizations that serve beside us and the importance of that. So the access and continuity piece is brand new. And I want to pause here for Josh to give additional context.

Joshua: Yeah, again I want to draw your attention to the text that you can find at ECLKC because we've tried again to provide greater clarity with specific definitions for each of the program elements, that is, for each of the program impact areas and the program foundations because there's more to say than what will fit in this visual, and we hope that that will be of use to you. The other point that I want to make about the program impact areas and the program foundations is that the way that our system works is by putting these elements together. So of course, it's overwhelming to think about how all eight of them inform and guide and reinforce and strengthen each other, but you can pick one or two in column yellow and column pink and look at how you get them coordinated so they help work in the same direction. It's easier perhaps to start with the program foundations, leadership, professional development, continuous learning to then think about how do both have to work together in order to move forward in improvements in, for example, program environment or access and continuity. And that is sort of a preview to the strategies that you'll be hearing just a bit about toward the end of our webinar today. The other thing I want to mention with regard to these two columns, foundations and impact areas, is that this is an important place where positive and goal-oriented relationships live and also where equity, inclusiveness, cultural and linguistic responsiveness live. So the other reason for breaking out and identifying program foundations and program impact areas is to look at each one to look at are we walking the walk here and what do we need to do in, one, for example, in leadership or in quality improvement or in any of the others in order to keep on improving the quality of our relationships and our efforts towards equity, inclusiveness, cultural, and linguistic responsiveness. At the same time, those two arrows are the things that help all of these program elements come together to get to the family and child outcomes that we all strive for.

 Brandi: Oh, thanks, Josh. Always insightful. Well, as we transition to the yellow column, you guys may have already recognized that here, within the frame of what we consider our system's column, we added a word. Did you guys find it? If you know the old Framework, what you'll notice is that in the continuous piece, that third element, we added learning and quality. And that's of course what we call continuous quality improvement is a time-tested decade old part of how we function and what's critical to us as we consider how we can be our best beside families, so that's not new. But one of the things that we wanted to say is we are all teaching and we are all learning, and for us, that reciprocity is critical in not only the way we work with our families, but with each other, with community, and how that we do what we do in all of those spaces and places through the parallel process and what that looks like then with our families and community as not only as they're with us but perhaps as they transition out of, you know, all programming. But I'll pause there too, Josh, and let you weigh-in here in the yellow column.

 Joshua: I'd just add that as we've walked you through quickly the program impact areas and program foundations, and there is more detail in the text, this is essential to what Kiersten was referring to at the very beginning when she said that this Framework takes an organizational approach. And the idea is to help you look at your organizations, where you stand in them so that you can participate in bringing the whole organization together to work towards the family outcomes and child outcomes that we seek and that the Head Start Performance Standards are guiding us towards.

 Brandi: All right, Joshua, I know that that leads us --   Can I get a virtual drum roll, everybody? Da-da-da-da-da. I don't if you heard that, but here it is, the double arrows. Not that the changes before this one aren't exciting as this one but many of you --   Oh, thanks, God. Look, I see you. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Part of what you told us as we've been out here thinking together with you about the Framework and its integration and, as a side note, implementation, which we'll touch here in a second. If you always found equity, inclusiveness, culture, and language in the Framework in the place that you found it was in the single arrow because it's critical to honor families in all the ways, spaces, and constellations that they come to us but specifically in the ways that you see here represented on this double arrow. And a big part of all of our work together is really making meaning out of how and where families come to us. So we wanted to take the opportunity when we knew we were going to get the chance to do this revision, it can make it represented in a concrete way. And I'm along with you --   Like I already kind of admitted to you guys, this is like my favorite edit, and I just think it's critical in how we do what we do and what it looks like as we set forth our own programmatic missions and visions not only as the program but as professionals and as individuals. So I just want to leave that there as Josh brings his wisdom to the arrows as well.

 Joshua: Oh, I just want to add, first of all, that although we felt that this lived inside of everywhere in the Framework, one of the contributions in listening to many of you and many others was that we really had to pull it out and make it over. We struggled a lot to figure out where and how to represent it. The arrow is meant to indicate that it is both a goal and a means to the goal. And finally, to really highlight that, the differences that we all bring and that those who are the beneficiaries of our work bring are what make us better together. And I won't bother you with the details about all the different color schemes and twisted and curled and circles that we tried out before getting to our double arrow.

 Brandi: Well, you know, Josh, Kiersten did admit that it took just a couple of years to make sure that not only did we get all of the visual representation correct but certainly the language of as many of you saying here in chat and how it absolutely represents each of the communities that we have the honor to serve, and certainly, first and foremost, your voices. We hope you find yourself in it and we hope that you see yourself really deeply. And one of the things that we want to do is certainly give, first of all, you guys the chance to see those four changes again in summary, expanded language in the purple column, no changes to the blue column, access and continuity in pink, a little learning in the yellow column, and my favorite, the double arrow that includes equity, inclusiveness, cultural, and linguistic responsiveness.

So that's your overview, hope you had your pen ready. And now what we'd like to do is really think, with Jhumur, about a set of resources that are going to accompany, I think you guys are going to like this, the Framework that we really as strategies 'cause here's the thing. Many of you, and I'm going to be transparent for a second, tell us when this first came out almost seven years ago. Can you guys believe it's been seven years? And, Brandi, but how do we use it? What does it really mean? How do we Head Start upon it? What does it look like in the way of actual implementation for me in my program with and beside my colleagues and families? So one of the things that we have come up with for you to consider is where Jhumur is going to take us next.

 Jhumur: Thanks, Brandi. And as I have been -- You know, everybody has been presenting, I have had the pleasure of reading all the sharing that's occurring in the chat and some wonderful words or phrases that our program staff really hold dear and it appears to motivate them, that's what they are sharing with each other. And so I picked up on a couple of them, one being compassionate partners. Ellen had shared that. And thank you for sharing. The mutual respect that exists between program staff and families and all of us, the respect that we have for the work that goes on in programs and the learning that we've had. I know Brandi mentioned it and so has Josh said over now seven, eight years, all the information, the work that you do, that you have shared with us has really guided us in making these changes, in everything, and in our reflection is really instrumental in what we have in front of you today. And in the original Framework document, we had a set of strategies.

And when I say the original Framework document, we do have, I want to mention, the revised Framework document available on ECLKC and many of these slides and the information on these slides are very much a part of that document which you can download. And very key to this are the strategies, and truly, these strategies have emerged from your work, from your feedback, your input in what I see as making it real because each of us know that, as members of a family, members of diverse families, whether the diversity is part of the culture that we have, the languages, all of that, it's really critical and central to all the work that we do, the children and the families, and what they bring to us, what they teach us, the plethora of information, the funds of knowledge that they possess is how our work is enhanced. And so these strategies that we have, we are presenting in front of you, as I mentioned, are part of the current document. And what Brandi alluded to is there are more resources, more new resources, more updated resources coming that will provide you with more detailed information, detailed strategies on implementing the Framework, on really supporting you work. What we have here are strategies that emerge from the review process, so as we listen to you as the T/TA team went out there and presented the Framework, programs shared of what was working for them in the field. And based on that, as we gathered these strategies, what we found were there were certain strategies that really were applicable to all the outcomes or four to five of the outcomes or another phrase would be they cut across the outcomes, and it was very much keeping in line with what we have discussed so far is about the systemic, the integrated, and comprehensive nature of the work, the PFCE work and the PFCE Framework.

And so as I mentioned as we sort of sifted and looked at these strategies, there were some that we found cut across and in the table that you see for each of the elements --   So for each of the elements, we presented you with these strategies. And so some of these, you may be familiar with, some of them may be aha moments for you, but what we know is many of the activities that you have in your program, the work that you do is very much part of these strategies. Now, Brandi, I know you have done so much tremendous work with your T/TA team in connecting with programs. Are there some specific strategies or perhaps a story that you want to share that really showcases what the PFCE Framework in action looks like for programs?

Brandi: Well, you know, Jhumur, one of the things that we have learned over time is that programs, you know, build and create ideas that we could have never predicted. We rebuilt these resources with a whole lot of input from folks around the country. And one of the things that we've heard already in ways that programs might use these cross-cutting strategies is to... And, Jhumur, I'll say this here for not only what we have here for the yellow column, we also have pink column represented here with some cross cutting strategies. I'm going to leave it on this slide for just a second. But you could actually take these statements --   And look at this top one. Program staff reflects on daily practice and experience to enhance self-awareness and build relationships with families. Well, we've had programs sound off already as, "You know what, Brandi, we're going to flip that statement into a question and truly ask ourselves, 'Have we done that already?' If we have, what are the places that we can stand on in celebration and confirmation and strength, like the strength of that? And then where are the places that we might find some space to grow and enhance? How we do what we do as it relates program environment with and beside our families?"

And many of you have mentioned, in the email, things about the families that you're able to serve, like families from the LGBTQ+ communities, your Fatherhood initiatives, we had a lot of discussion today about families who might be experiencing homelessness, we've really taken stock, in a meaningful way, of are we doing what we say we're doing and let's just check and double check and how do know and how do we make sure that we are serving with the intent that, you know, it's before all of us. So that's one strategy based on what you see here is taking these statements, actually flipping them into questions, and really doing it almost like your own little programmatic assessment. And when you bring more than one role into this discussion, it's even richer. All right, Jhumur, I wanted to say quickly as we transition, for those of you that come to our webinars, as you may know that we actually stick around for at least 15 minutes after the top of the hour to have discussion, to have reflection, to answer questions if you guys have them, so I just wanted to say that. I know your time is super valuable and very busy. But in case there's something that you want to think about with us, we will be hanging out here for a little while so that we can think about those things with you guys.

And then if you have questions that we don't have answers to, we know how and where to find you because you're going to be doing out a certificate, right, we'll start right here at the end, so that you get your certificate, and certainly, you can find all of these good things on the ECLKC once they're posted. So having said all of that, I want to pause for a second. And just thank each of you that have been here with us this afternoon, first and foremost, spending a whole hour plus with us. It's always an honor for us to be beside you. Certainly, the whole NCPFCE team, Josh and Jhumur, and the presenters that we've had here offering some ideas today, and also our leaders at the Office of Head Start, both Kiersten and Ann.

We're so tickled that you spent time with us today and helped us set the context for this important and critical work.