A new Confluence podcast episode features the director of the Homewood Early Learning Hub & Family Center in a discussion on topics relating to National Family Engagement Month.
Toni Beasley, the Hub’s director, took part in the episode on the Pennsylvania Key website - Episode 14: Family Engagement and Leadership in Action: Building Stronger Support Systems Through Family Voices - and discussed the Hub’s work with families in the community.
Host Netta Radzinski - who is the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning’s (OCDEL) special assistant of external engagement - asked the podcast’s five guests, including Beasley, about what family engagement means to them and how they partner with families in their communities.
Beasley said the Hub encourages the families it serves to be leaders in both the household and community.
“Some families think they don’t have a voice or their voice doesn’t matter,” said Beasley, who noted that she was once a single mother. “What I wanted for my own child, I also want for other families - to know that you are your child’s first leader and you have a voice.”
Beasley said the Hub forms partnerships with families through a number of ways, including its Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), a group of caregivers, relative providers, and community members who meet to discuss improvements for the Hub and community.
“We create a forum for them to have a voice,” Beasley said. “They are in the community and we are in the background pushing them to be leaders.”
Beasley said that she has learned from families at the Hub to be an active listener, and that the Hub aims to create a safe space for them, no matter their situation.
“Families don’t want to stay stuck,” she said. “They want to evolve and thrive. They want a solution, but just need a little extra push or guidance. We want to be that rope to help pull them out of that rut.”
To learn more, listen to the Confluence podcast episode.