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Overview of the Family Services Role in Head Start Programs

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Outreach and Recruitment

You may have heard the acronym ERSEA used in Head Start programs. It’s short for eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance. The process of outreach and recruitment ensures that members of the community are aware of your program and how it can serve local families and children. You are likely to play an important role in this process. Your current and past relationships with families and community members are key to connecting and sharing information with eligible families.

Two women talking while sitting outdoors.

Recruitment happens throughout the year. It is informed by the needs of the community. At least once every five years, your program conducts a comprehensive community assessment. This assessment helps to identify relevant information about the community: who lives there, what languages they speak, and what needs they have for early childhood care and education. The community assessment is the basis for making decisions about outreach and recruitment.

For effective outreach and recruitment efforts, identify and work to remove the barriers that may make joining a Head Start program challenging for some families. Families that are eligible for Head Start programs may experience the multiple stressors associated with living in poverty, such as lack of access to health care, more frequent illnesses, financial insecurity, and unsafe neighborhoods. These factors may create barriers for some families to access the services they need.

Collaborate with your manager and colleagues to make sure your program’s outreach and recruitment plan focuses on families most in need of Head Start services. Use your community assessment and program data to refine and target your efforts. Your knowledge and observations about families and your community also play an important role in the outreach and recruitment process.

The Head Start Act and the Performance Standards establish eligibility criteria based on children’s ages, family income, public benefits received, disabilities or developmental delays, homelessness, and foster care status. Programs actively seek to locate and recruit all eligible families and children in their service area. Learn the Head Start definitions of eligibility terms such as “Income” and “Housing costs” so that you can help families understand how they might be eligible. You can find more related information in the Housing Cost Adjustment Calculator FAQs and the Detailed Summary of Updates to the Performance Standards.

If it doesn’t already, your program should partner with agencies and programs that serve families who may be eligible for Head Start services. Program staff, managers, and community partners then can work together to implement a plan to reach all eligible children and their families.

Strategies

Recruiting requires Head Start programs to reach out to families with eligible children. Family services professionals are essential to programs in these efforts as they work in coordination with managers and other program staff.

In this process, it is important to create outreach and recruitment messages that are positive and strengths-based, while reflecting the principles of family engagement. Make sure that messages affirm parents as their child’s first and primary teacher. Offer materials that are culturally and linguistically responsive.

Think about developing outreach strategies for all families in the community. For example, if your program serves American Indian or Alaska Native communities or families in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start communities, consider outreach and recruitment strategies that involve mobile chat applications and gathering spaces, such as places of worship or community centers. Also consider connecting with elders, community leaders, and clergy for warm hand-offs or introductions. Outreach strategies that are thoughtfully tailored to specific communities will improve access to Head Start services for all families who could benefit.

The Performance Standards also outline the following requirements:

Try to anticipate some of the challenges and barriers that families may face, such as lack of reliable transportation, limits on phone data usage, or housing instability. Use the Head Start Cares About Your Whole Family video and implementation guide as tools to recruit new families.

Review the Family-centered Considerations for ERSEA resource to help you and your colleagues make sure that your ERSEA practices best meet the needs and strengths of the families and communities your program serves.

Tips

  • Find out which services are important to the families your program is trying to reach.
  • Go to where families of young children are. Examples include schools, shopping centers, health clinics, libraries, community centers, houses of worship, laundromats, barber shops, and beauty salons.
  • Share and post program recruitment materials printed in the languages spoken in the community. Speak with families in their home languages about their questions and concerns.
  • Partner with enrolled families to share information with their networks.
  • Work with community partners to recruit and enroll families. Consider opportunities for joint recruitment and enrollment. Examples include public benefit programs such as:
    • Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
    • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
    • Housing assistance
  • Additional community partners include:
    • Local child welfare agencies
    • Programs that serve families experiencing homelessness
    • Domestic violence prevention and response programs and coalitions.
  • Partner with local trusted leaders and parent-led networks. Some examples include community elders, parent organizers, faith-based leaders, health clinic staff, pediatricians, or dentists.
  • Reach out to families through social media and text messaging, in alignment with your program’s policies. Consider placing local ads or posting recruitment messages on free online forums.
  • Set up a table at local community and cultural events.

Reflection Questions

Reflect on each question. Write your responses using the downloadable worksheet.

  • What is it about outreach and recruitment that interests or excites you?
  • How can your manager support you in outreach and recruitment activities?
  • How can you ensure cultural and linguistic responsiveness during outreach and recruitment efforts?
  • What new community partnerships could you explore to improve your program’s outreach and recruitment efforts?

Key Takeaways

  • Your current and past relationships with families and community members are key to opening the doors to share information and connect with eligible families. Recruitment happens throughout the year and is informed by community need. Therefore, recruitment efforts may vary when being responsive to the unique needs of families in your area.
  • Family services professionals are essential to program outreach and recruitment in coordination with managers and other program staff. It is important to create outreach and recruitment messages that are positive and strengths-based while reflecting the principles of family engagement.
  • Partner with local trusted community leaders and parent-led networks in your outreach and recruitment efforts. Go to where families of young children are. That includes schools, shopping centers, health clinics, libraries, community centers, houses of worship, laundromats, barber shops, and beauty salons.

Action Starters

On your reflection worksheet, identify two to three key takeaways that you want to implement in your daily work.

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