Earlier this month, Childhood Prosperity Lab had the opportunity to present at the 2024 Childhood Conversations: Together We Will Conference. The Childhood Conversations Conference started in 2007 as a strategy to give parents access to the same information and content that educators, child advocates, and social service providers receive. The first conference served 84 parents and some professionals. Now, the conference reaches between 200 and 250 parents and professionals from across Connecticut.
The theme of this year’s conference was Finding Your Calm in Turbulent Times: Tending to Self, Family, and Community. The conference included 15 workshops, a keynote from Scott Noyes, who has been professionally working in support of children and families for over 40 years, and a handful of networking opportunities. We anchored our presentation in what we hope was a thought-provoking question: How might we better support children and families by integrating strength-based approaches into our work?
Our interactive workshop provided participants with a foundational understanding of the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework and concrete examples of how participants can begin to integrate strength-based approaches into their work by making small yet significant changes. While participation in our workshop ranged from Birth to Three service providers to home visitation staff to early learning program directors, they were all committed to deepening their understanding of the five protective factors in the framework:
• Parental resilience
• Social connections
• Knowledge of parenting and child development
• Concrete support in times of need
• Social and emotional competence of children
Despite the variation in roles and expertise, all participants that completed the participant feedback survey (16 of 23 participants) indicated they: understand the importance of the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework; understand the importance of culture in strengthening families; and can make small and significant changes to strengthen families in their role.
When asked to share one thing participants are taking away from our workshop, they noted:
• “Ask parents and other caregivers about their support system.”
• “The importance of tone, bringing a positive, curious approach, and asking more questions.”
• “Focus on what’s strong, not wrong.”
• “To be more mindful and strength-based in my provision of care with children and their families.”
• “Proactively ask parents how they are doing and if they need anything.”
• “Get curious, judge less quickly, and consider each protective factor.”
• “Focus on small but significant changes.”
While we only had 75 minutes together, it was inspiring to see how deeply the content resonated with participants and how enthusiastically they identified small, significant changes they could make in their everyday work to focus on individual/family strengths instead of deficits. For us, introducing the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework isn’t just about what people learn, but exploring how they can transform their own practice and begin shifting their workplace culture to be strength-based; community and family-driven; and systems-oriented.
After the conference, we spent some time reflecting on our session and the original intent of the conference: to give parents access to the same information and content that educators, child advocates, and social service providers receive. The conference in and of itself is a strategy to strengthen each of the five protective factors by engaging participants (providers and residents alike) in content related to each of the protective factors: strength-based approaches to working with children and families; the power of promoting positive childhood experiences; and small yet significant changes we can make in our everyday interactions.
If you want to learn more about the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework and how Childhood Prosperity Lab can support your efforts to be strength-based, please email Annika Anderson at Childhoodprosperitylab [at] connecticutchildrens.org (Childhoodprosperitylab[at]connecticutchildrens[dot]org).