Family goal setting is essential to the work of Head Start programs. It relies on the information that program staff gather through assessments and ongoing communication, such as the families’ strengths, passions, and challenges. As relationships are built and strong partnerships formed, Head Start staff help families set goals and work together to make progress toward those goals.
Successful goal setting is done in seven steps in the context of the Family Partnership Process. Explore these resources to learn more about goal setting with families.
What you do and say matters! Explore and practice everyday strategies to develop Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships with a family.
Teachers know and understand the broad range of content areas and the developmental expectations (i.e., social and emotional, cognitive, expressive and receptive language, motor, adaptive, and English language development) appropriate for young children as outlined by the Head Start Early Learning Framework. Teachers consider what they want children to know, understand, and be able to do using the five essential domains.
A strong relationship between families and Head Start staff is essential to promoting healthy child development and positive learning outcomes. Strong relationships are rooted in trust and comfort, which you can build by being genuine, sincere, curious about them and their goals, and supporting them as they work toward those goals.
The goals of the Head Start training are to develop skills and practices for developing strong relationships with families in order to help families identify and set goals.
Learn about these five strategies to partner with families going through a challenging situation.