C1 - A Massachusetts Roadmap for Family Engagement through a Racial Equity Lens

Please click the Play Video button to watch the video prior to joining the Q&A.

Full Description: In 2018, the Massachusetts Departments of Public Health (DPH), Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) and Early Education & Care (EEC) began a process to define and align Family Engagement across the three agencies with technical assistance through the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and support and guidance from the National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), and the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium. We were guided from the start by an ever growing coalition that now numbers over 500 members including but not limited to families, youth, home visitors, health professionals, educators, faith-based organizations and other community partners as well as multiple state agencies whose input and real life experience shaped the work. The goal was to build a road map for health, human services and education to effectively engage with families. The result is Strengthening Partnerships: A Framework for Prenatal through Young Adulthood Family Engagement in Massachusetts.
In this session we will describe the development of a broad coalition of partners that came together to create an intentional, strengths based and equitable system of family and community engagement which incorporates the Maternal & Child Health Bureau (MCHB) goal of “the intentional practice of working with families for the ultimate goal of positive outcomes in all areas through the life course,” as well the DESE Fundamentals, Head Start Parent, Family, School and Community Engagement Partnership and the work of Dr. Karen Mapp in the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for School-Family Partnerships. Foundational to the work has been a strong and intentional focus on racial equity and racial justice.
Participants will learn about sections of the Framework including Guiding Principles, Key Elements and Capacity Building for practitioners all informed by families and a commitment to equity. We will share how the Framework came to be endorsed by 11 Massachusetts state agencies, strategies to achieve the Elements and what tools, training and resources have been developed and disseminated to implement the Framework. We will also share learning that grew out of the confluence of Family Engagement, Covid-19 and Racial Justice that added an innovative lens to the work, brought in many new partners and a wealth of knowledge and information that enriches the work and highlights pathways to expand and improve state agency and community commitment to family engagement and racial equity at every level.

Abbreviated Description: This workshop will relate how multiple Massachusetts state agencies in partnership with families, practitioners and the community built a Roadmap for Family Engagement that aligns definitions, key elements and strategies for implementation. A coalition of over 500 state, local and community members, led by families collaborated to develop a Framework that could be implemented across the health, education and human services sectors and incorporated a strong and intentional focus on health and racial equity.