As the early childhood workforce gathers virtually this month for the National Home Visiting Summit, we’ll be nearing a full year of living under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s so much to discuss, from the impact of the pandemic on our workforce and communities of color to the significant challenges the pandemic has revealed within our support systems for all families, particularly for those living in under-resourced communities.
As we continue our work to strengthen the home visiting workforce in the wake of the pandemic, we focus specifically on the many systemic factors and community conditions that affect staff retention, and ultimately, rates of family engagement in home visiting services.
Join me at the National Home Visiting Summit, along with facilitators Reyna Dominguez and Ariel Chaidez, as we explore local and national strategies to address these factors in a session, “Vocation-Vision-Voice: Strategies in Professional Development.” Using a case study of an Early Head Start Home-based program in Santa Clara, California serving a Latino community with fully bilingual staff, we’ll explore how supervisory leadership invested in ongoing professional development of staff promotes long term program engagement for both staff and families.
Coming out of the session, participants will be empowered with strategies and actions that can affect change in systemic and supervisory program conditions that promote workforce retention. Whether you can attend this session or not, I hope you’ll take time to consider the impact professional development can have to turn a job into a vocation through the skilled and invested interest of a supervisor attuned to the voice and vision of home visitors. Learn more about the research and methodology behind Start Early’s professional development portfolio.
