Encouraging Family and Community Involvement

If you are employed in a state that uses a registry to track professional development hours, you will be able to provide your registry ID (Stars, MOPID, Registry or other ECE ID#) after you have completed the quiz for the course. If you pass the quiz we will report your course completion to the state registry using the registry ID that you provide.

Strengthen partnerships with families, community organizations, and colleagues to create a supportive network that benefits children and early learning programs. Designed for early childhood professionals, this online, self-paced course explores effective family engagement, meaningful community partnerships, and positive workplace collaboration. Through practical strategies and real-world examples, participants will learn how to build trusting relationships, connect families with valuable resources, and foster a culture of encouragement and teamwork. Course length – 2.0 hours.

The course answers the following questions:

• Why is it important to encourage the children’s family members?

• What are some ways I can help encourage the children’s family members?

• How can family members help in the classroom?

• Why is it important to connect with resources in the community?

• How can I help families through my connections in the community?

• Why is it important to encourage and support my co-workers?

• What are some great ways to give support and encouragement to my co-workers?

Participants who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Identify at least five strategies for building positive partnerships with families and explain their importance with 80% accuracy on the course assessment.

• Describe at least three ways community resources can support children, families, and early childhood programs, and explain how to connect families with appropriate services.

• Demonstrate effective strategies for encouraging collaboration and professional support among colleagues by successfully completing a workplace scenario-based activity with 80% accuracy.

Completing this course counts towards the Kentucky All Stars Standard of Quality: “Program/Site administrator and 75% of staff complete professional learning activities related to strengthening family engagement.” The course also contains many ideas towards fulfilling other standards of quality in the family and community engagement section.