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Our DEIB Journey: Translating Start Early PD Into Spanish

Two of Start Early’s most popular Essentials of Home Visiting webinars are now available in Spanish. Early Childhood Practice Consultant Dr. Liliam Perez shares why Start Early is making its professional development tools accessible to a greater number of professionals.

Dr. Liliam Perez July 26, 2021
  • Equity
  • Professional Development
  • Blog

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

Nelson Mandela
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As part of Start Early’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB), we strive to nurture and embrace racial, cultural and linguistically diverse teaching and learning environments. We know these diverse and inclusive environments unify our field and ensure equitable access to high-quality early childhood experiences. We are embarking on a journey to translate our professional development and research into languages other than English, starting with Spanish. Our goal is to be more inclusive of early childhood educators, parents and leaders that represent the populations we serve and who strive in their own role to support those who need us the most, our youngest children.

Over the past many years, my bilingual colleagues and I translated documents and resources into other languages (including Spanish), to meet the linguistic needs of the participants we support and serve. Nevertheless, the translations themselves, the process and the extra workload were not sustainable and needed to improve. Having multiple experiences with schools, centers and organizations throughout the early childhood field, we know these challenges are not limited to Start Early.

We launched a project to increase the accessibility of our training materials to better serve adult learners and support their professional development. The purpose of our project was to develop a process to translate trainings, materials and resources to increase Start Early’s ability and capacity to serve linguistically diverse customers. In addition, we designed a process to ensure the quality of the translations and the sustainability of the process itself. We kicked off the project with Start Early’s Essentials of Home Visiting – accredited online courses and webinars to support home visiting in any model.

Reach out to our team to get started on your professional development journey today!

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We are excited to debut Spanish language translations of two of our most popular webinars within the Essentials of Home Visiting course catalog: “Exploremos los Valores y Las Creencias sobre la Crianza de los Niños y las Niñas” (Exploring Values and Beliefs Around Parenting) and “Estar Presentes para las Familias” (Being Present with Families). The live webinars will be available through our online learning platform on January 12 and February 2, respectively.

Moving forward, we will continue to adapt our professional development portfolio for additional languages and cultures to better represent the populations we serve, in the hopes of closing the opportunity gap. Our mission is to ensure every child can achieve their full potential not only in school, but also in life.

About the Author

Dr. Liliam Perez Headshot

Dr. Liliam Perez

Early Childhood Practice Consultant

Dr. Perez is an early childhood practice consultant for Start Early’s The Essential Fellowship, providing training, peer collaboration and transfer to practice consultation to educational leaders.

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