Strengthening Families Through Early Care & Education

Welcome to Strengthening Families Washington

The Strengthening Families initiative was created to provide parents, child care professionals and others who work with children with resources, support and strategies that allow each to ensure that children receive the best possible start in life.

The Strengthening Families Washington initiative is based on national research and evidence that recognizes the important role child care providers play in building protective factors in families with young children. Protective factors help parents use resources, support and strategies that allow them to parent more effectively, even under stress.

Research shows that quality child care can enhance:

• Parental resilience
• Social connections
• Knowledge of parenting and child development
• Concrete support in times of need
• Social and emotional competence of children

We hope you will enjoy exploring this site and learning about ways in which we can all work together to make the early years a better learning experience for us all.

NEWS

Early Childhood Mental Health Institute Provides Materials from Recent Training

Community teams participated in a 3-day Institute, September 23-25, 2008, to focus on strategies to provide local mental health consultation for young children. The Institute included research and practice-based training, technical assistance, peer sharing and time for teams to develop next steps to take in their community to advance mental health consultation to early learning organizations and providers.

These valuable materials are now available on the Strengthening Families Washington website: Early Childhood Mental Health Training Materials

Department of Early Learning issues results of parent needs assessment

The Department of Early Learning (DEL) issued the results of a statewide survey that offers an unprecedented look at what Washington parents want and need when making early learning decisions for their families. The survey of more than 900 Washington parents of children ages birth through 5 is among the most comprehensive surveys of its kind conducted in the nation.

View DEL's press release and the 2008 Parent Needs Assessment report documents here:

Department of Early Learning Parent Needs Assessment

Small Changes, Big Results

Strengthening Families Washington report now available

Spring 2006 - Fall 2008

The Strengthening Families approach promotes small, affordable, sustainable changes that have been widely supported by parents, child care and early learning providers and policy makers.

This report summarizes the 18-month journey of 10 early care and education pilot sites as they worked to engage parents, build social networks and promote parent leadership to help create a culture of mutual support and weave a strong web of protective factors around the children and families in their care.