In these tumultuous times, the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is in the news almost every day. One of the best ways to raise tolerant, accepting and empathetic children ready to thrive in life is to start early, incorporating inclusion and anti-bias into early childhood education curriculum for infants, toddlers and their families.
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Danielle Jordan, a school director of Educare Chicago, recently shared the early childhood school’s DEI best practices, starting with the fundamentals.
Teachers at Educare Chicago incorporate songs, storytelling and books into the curriculum. Some of her favorites include:
This approach to developing a child’s sense of confidence in their personal and social identities (e.g., gender, ethnic and religious) aligns with the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) anti-bias education. As a result, children feel grounded in who they are without a need to be superior to anyone else. The approach also emphasizes a teacher’s capacity to help a child recognize how they are simultaneously different and similar to others, which helps children foster an ability to comfortably and empathetically engage with people from all backgrounds.
We encourage students to share what is distinct about their families, how they celebrate special occasions and what is important to them.
Danielle Jordan, School Director, Educare Chicago
In a recent activity, children recently made posters showcasing their cultural heritage, as well as their similarities and differences. “The students were able to share and be proud of what makes them unique… your hair may be in ponytails, while my hair is in locks. The simple rule is we would like to treat people fairly and acknowledge that we are different but we’re also the same and need to show each other respect,” Jordan continues.
This focus on respect and appreciation for inclusion is particularly important during this time of racial unrest. “The way that we address the societal environment is by talking about community, family, culture and heritage,” says Jordan.
To help talk about these topics, staff at Educare Chicago have incorporated Sesame Street’s “We’re Different, We’re the Same” segment into their curriculum, as well as the book “Sometimes People March” by Tessa Allen.
We are doing exactly what our name says… We are starting early and building foundations that I hope will give the students what they need to go on.
Danielle Jordan, School Director, Educare Chicago
Educare Chicago teachers also help students learn how to process big emotions such as sadness and anger, while emphasizing that people express feelings in a variety of ways to encourage an appreciation for personality differences. The school’s Wellness Specialists also connect with parents to let them know where their children are from a socioemotional perspective and offer guidance for development.
Intensive family engagement is a core tenet of the school’s approach, meaning the school’s inclusive curriculum also extends to children’s first teachers: their parents and caregivers. Staff provide parents with book recommendations, including those outlined above to help encourage at-home discussions about DEI. There are also parent support groups and a Parent Committee to help parents to build strong relationships with staff and one another.
Jordan has already seen the impact of their work. Recently, students celebrated a very shy classmate for stepping outside his comfort zone to give a presentation to the entire school about his pet snake.
Learn more about how to address race and identity with children by reading our National Racial Day of Healing blog post.
Advances in brain research show that children are born learning and that their first three years of life in particular are important indicators for the success they can have later in school and in life. Early experiences that are language-rich and nurturing promote healthy brain development. So finding a quality early learning setting is essential for parents who work and seek child care.
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Checklist To Prepare for a New Child Care Setting
Once you’ve found a quality setting—from a center-based program to home child care to a relative’s house—here’s some advice from our expert Teresa Bennett a family support specialist at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, on how you can prepare your child for their first day of daycare:
- Visit the Child Care Center
To help your child get to know the new environment, visit the child care center with your child before the first day. You and your child can meet the caregiver. Take photos of the route to the center, the center entrance and the room where your child will spend the day. You can assemble the photos as a book, which you can use to talk to your child at home about what their day will be like and where they will go. - Talk to Your Child
To help prepare your infant or toddler to go to out-of-home care, explain using language and concepts they will understand about where they’ll be going and what they’ll be doing. Talk about how they will meet new children and participate in fun activities. Always mention that you’ll be back at the end of the day to take them home. - Build a Relationship With the Caregiver
Your young child may not be able to talk, but they can observe your actions. They’ll form their opinion of the caregiver based on your reactions. Make time each day to talk to the caregiver and begin building a strong relationship. Caregivers at quality early learning programs see parents as partners and will want to develop a strong relationship with you, your child’s first and most important teacher. - Share Information About Your Child
Talk to the caregiver about your child’s cues, likes, dislikes and temperament. How do they like to be fed, soothed and put to sleep? Your tips will help the caregiver know how to best care for your child without having to guess which methods to try. You can also explain what developmental skills you’d like your child to learn. Ask for daily updates about your child’s progress from the caregiver. - Create a Morning Routine
Routines help children feel in control of their surroundings, which eases anxiety. Create a morning routine so your infant or toddler knows what to expect before going to the child care center. Find out if the center provides breakfast so you know whether or not your child needs to eat at home. - Develop a Goodbye Ritual
Create a goodbye ritual so that your infant or toddler starts to feel comfortable with their caregiver when you leave. Your ritual could be a hug, a high five or interacting together with a toy before you leave. Whatever activity you choose, make sure you take time to talk to your child about what’s happening and don’t rush the process. Once your child becomes used to the goodbye ritual, they’ll be better able to regulate their emotions so that they can calm themself more easily when you go. Learn more about separation anxiety. - Bring a Transitional Object
Your child may feel more at ease in a new environment with an object that reminds them of home. This could be a photo of your family that’s laminated or a stuffed animal that your child enjoys. The child can hold the object during the day as a reminder that this new environment is temporary and that you will come back to take them home. - Ask What You Can Do at Home
To extend your child’s learning, ask the caregiver what school readiness skills the children will be working on during the day and what related activities you can do at home. The reverse is also true: share information about what activities you are doing at home that your child is interested in and ask if the teacher can do something similar in class. - Complete Any Medical Requirements
Find out from the school or center what doctor or dentist appointments must be completed or scheduled before the first day. - Bring a Change of Clothes
It’s a good idea to bring a change of clothes for your infant or toddler in case they encounter any water, finger paint, etc. Also, ask the center if you need to bring diapers or formula for your child. - Share Your Contact Information
Let the caregiver know if it’s best to reach you by phone or email and share that contact information.
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You and your child may feel excited—or apprehensive—about the first day of preschool. This is a big transition for children, especially those going to school for the first time. Children will learn many social and emotional and academic skills in preschool that will help them throughout their school careers, so it’s important to help children feel comfortable in the classroom.
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Checklist To Navigate the Transition to Preschool
To help your child get the most out of the preschool experience, we asked a Start Early expert for some advice for parents handling this transition. Annaliese Newmeyer a teacher at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, shared her tips to help you and your child prepare for preschool.
Before the first day:
- Drive or walk by your child’s new school. Seeing their school ahead of time will help familiarize them with their new space. You can show them where things are like the main door and the playlot. This will help your child feel more comfortable with the space and how things will look on their first day.
- Meet with the teacher. Meeting your child’s teacher ahead of their first day is very helpful for both you and your little learner. At this meeting, you can help your child learn their new teacher’s name and give your child a chance to become comfortable with them. You can also take this time to ask the teacher what your child will be learning and what skills they expect children to have on day one. Then, you can set some realistic and developmentally-appropriate goals for your child. For example, do you work on your child’s reading? Together you can set goals that can help your child develop early literacy skills, like being able to recognize their name and the letters in their name.
- Celebrate this milestone. This can be the beginning of a tradition to say goodbye to Summer and hello to the school year! Maybe you and your child go get an ice cream sundae or go to a baseball game or stay up late and watch movies and eat snacks together.
On the first day:
- Be prepared. Bring a bookbag with a change of clothes, a favorite blanket or stuffed animal for nap time, and even a picture of your family. Having something that reminds your child of home with help them feel more at ease in their new environment.
- Make sure your child eats a good breakfast and gets some rest. Your child’s school might give them breakfast, but it might be later, and you don’t want them to be too hungry!
- Expect the first day to be easy but it might get hard the second day or the second week when reality sets in that they must return to school every single weekday.
- Explain to your child that this will be a hard transition for you too! You will miss them, and they will have to meet new people and have new experiences but each day will get easier.
- Make sure you say goodbye, do not sneak away. Have the same goodbye every day; we call this a goodbye ritual. It can be a hug, a special handshake or a dance! This ritual will help your child learn what to expect when you come to class and will help ease their anxiety when you leave.
Ongoing:
- Ask questions! Ask your child’s teacher how each day is going and what you can do to help make it better. And be sure to ask your child how their day was. At first, they might just say nothing, but as you ask them every day, their answers will become more and more descriptive.
- Volunteer in the classroom if you can. Get to know the other kids and parents. This is your new community, your new village and you are there to support each other!
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School clothes? ✔ New backpack? ✔ School supplies? ✔ Explaining to your child what the transition to school will be like… no? Starting preschool and kindergarten can be an exciting yet stressful time for children. New school, new teachers, new classmates—everything is different. It’s important to give your child a frame of reference to help ease the transition into preschool and kindergarten. Reading books with your child about going to school is a great way to give them an idea of what to expect on that first day.
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Making the transition into preschool and kindergarten is a big step and a big change in a young child’s life. Explaining what it might be like is critical in helping them feel secure. Reading books on the subject at storytime gives parents the opportunity to enhance their child’s understanding by providing illustrated examples of what their new school will be like and helping make learning fun.
Back-to-School Books for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners
Here’s a list of books recommended by the experienced staff and teachers of Educare Chicago. From books on how children around the world get to school, to first-day jitters, to classics that have stood the test of time, you are bound to find one, or more, that will be a wonderful tool to explain this milestone to your child. So get out there and start reading!
- Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
It’s Llama Llama’s first day of preschool! And Llama Llama’s mama makes sure he’s ready. They meet the teachers. See the other children. Look at all the books and games. But then it’s time for Mama to leave. And suddenly Llama Llama isn’t so excited anymore. - My Preschool by Anne Rockwell
Join a happy little boy during a day at preschool, from cheerful hellos in circle time, to painting colorful pictures and playing at the water table before snack time. The best part of saying goodbye at the end of the day is that the little boy knows he will come back tomorrow. - Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
It’s the first day of kindergarten and Miss Bindergarten is hard at work getting the classroom ready for her 26 new students. Miss Bindergarten puts the finishing touches on the room just in time, and the students arrive. Now the fun can begin! - Kindergarten Kids by Ellen Senisi
This cheerful photo essay shows 21 kids in a kindergarten class on a typical day. Girls and boys play with everything from computers to blocks; they learn the alphabet and how to follow rules; they dress up, say the pledge of allegiance, listen to stories, and make music and art together. Sometimes they even have a bad day. - Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
Join the kids as they prepare for kindergarten, packing school supplies, posing for pictures, and the hardest part of all—saying goodbye to mom and dad. But maybe it won’t be so hard once they discover just how much fun kindergarten really is. - Kindergarten ABC by Jacqueline Rogers
Each and every day celebrates a letter of the alphabet with a fun-filled classroom scene. - Who Will Go to School Today? by Karl Ruhmann
Sam decides to send his toy monkey Timbo to kindergarten in his place, but after telling Timbo about his school friends and what his day is really like, he realizes he wants to go himself. - Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London
Froggy’s mother knows that everyone is nervous on the first day of school. Froggy’s exuberant antics, complete with sound effects, will delight his many fans and reassure them that school can be fun. - Otto Goes to School by Todd Par
Otto goes to school for the first time, where he makes new friends and learns how to wag his tail without knocking things over. - This is the Way We Go to School: A Book about Children Around the World by Edith Baer
With fun-filled rhymes and colorful illustrations, children will discover just how much fun getting to school can be. - Going to School by Sally Hewitt
Children learn what it is like to go to school in other countries. - Seven Little Mice Go to School by Haruo Yamashita
It’s time for seven little mice to start school! And it’s up to Mother Mouse to get them there. - Chicken Chickens Go to School by Valeri Gorbachev
It’s the first day of school for the little chickens and they are a little scared. How a wise teacher helps the chickens overcome their fears and win some wonderful new friends is a heartwarming story that will reassure youngsters experiencing their own first-day jitters.
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Can you believe it’s almost time for your child’s first day of kindergarten? This can be exciting and overwhelming for many parents and children. To help you prepare, we asked a Start Early expert for advice for parents. Lisa LaRue a teacher at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, shared her tips to help you and your child have a successful school year.
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Checklist To Navigate the Transition to Kindergarten
The start of kindergarten can be exciting, stressful, intimidating and scary at the same time. As a parent, you can help ease some of your child’s worries and fears by having conversations around their feelings. By learning as much as you can about the kindergarten experience, you’ll be able to better explain the transition to your child and they’ll understand how fun kindergarten will be!
- Meet the Teacher Before the First Day of School
If you can, schedule a time for you and your child to meet their kindergarten teacher before the first day of school. This will give your child the chance to become comfortable with the teacher. You can also let the teacher know about your child’s preferences, temperament, strengths and weaknesses. For example, if your child had trouble with transitions in preschool, explain how you and the preschool teacher helped them overcome that challenge. The kindergarten teacher will appreciate your tips! You can also talk about your aspirations for your child and what you hope your child will learn in the upcoming year. Ask how you can be involved in the classroom. Be sure to share your contact information and let the teacher know the best way to reach you. - Set a Consistent Routine Before School Starts
A consistent morning and evening routine will help your child feel prepared for the first day of kindergarten. Young children benefit from routines because when they know what will happen next they are less prone to find changes stressful. Set a bedtime to help your child get a good night’s rest. In the morning, leave enough time for getting dressed, eating breakfast and packing backpacks. Start your routine a few weeks before kindergarten so you know how long it will take to get ready. Be sure to have a goodbye ritual like a high five, blowing a kiss or giving a hug to help your little one understand that it is time for you to leave, this will help them feel less anxious knowing that you are going to return later. - Do a Dry Run
A few days before the first day of school, do a dry run of your morning routine, including going to school. You can walk or drive to school, or walk to the bus stop with your child. Show your child the door they will walk in on the first day of school. Ask the school what the pick-up and drop-off policies are. Some schools allow parents to come into the classroom to drop their children off, and others have a different meeting point. Not only will you find out exactly how long your morning routine takes, you’ll also give your child a better sense of what the day will look like to prevent first-day-of-school anxiety. While you are in the classroom, you can discuss with your child what is the same and what is different about this classroom and their old preschool classroom. Do they have the same areas? Are there desks? What is not there? You can also ask the teacher if your child can bring in a family picture or something special to add to their cubby to feel more comfortable. You can also watch YouTube videos of kindergarten classrooms together and even role play different school scenarios at home if your child has more questions or wants to see more examples. - Find Out What Skills the Teacher Expects Children to Have on Day One
Kindergarten teachers may expect children to be able to handle their emotions, articulate their needs, listen to directions, raise their hand before talking, write their name, and recognize shapes and colors on the first day of school. Find out what the expectations are in advance and ask for tips on how to prepare your child for any skills they are still working on. If your child has mastered those skills, ask the teacher what will be done to challenge your child in the classroom. - Read to Your Child
Check out our list of recommended books below for kindergarten students. Start reading books before school starts during storytime so that your child has a better idea of what going to school will be like. - Be an Advocate
If your child needs any special services, talk to the administration and the classroom teachers in advance to find out who provides them. Ask if the services are provided inside or outside the kindergarten classroom. If your child has an individualized education plan from preschool, find out how that plan transfers over to kindergarten. - Network With Other Parents
Talking with other parents is a great way to build a support system to help you through all the challenges of parenthood. Ask the school what supports are available for parents and what opportunities are provided for parents to meet, such as parent groups, school councils, or other committees that you can join. - Prepare for Breakfast and Lunch
Find out if your school provides breakfast and/or lunch and plan accordingly. Your child may be used to eating at certain times at home or at an early childhood center, so explain how mealtimes may be changing. If your child will be buying lunch, get a menu from the school. Find out how food preferences are honored. For instance, some schools ask for a doctor’s note for food allergies. - Decrease Naptime
Some schools may offer a resting period, but many don’t. So it’s a good idea to wean children off naps before the first day of kindergarten. - Make Afterschool Plans
If your child will be in after school care, make those arrangements as soon as possible. Find out what afterschool care options your school offers and how much it costs. Make sure your child knows what the plans are and that you pick up your child on time or early so they don’t get anxious waiting for you. Create a backup plan with other parents, who you can rely on to pick up your child if you are running late.
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Separation anxiety and the behaviors that manifest from it are specific to each child. Educators must honor the differences in each child and the culture of the school or center where they work when partnering with parents to help a child cope with separation anxiety. While the strategy will vary for each child, the goal remains the same: helping them feel safe and secure in the new environment so that they can learn.
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are informed by what Start Early experts and Educare Chicago teachers have found to be successful ways of mitigating separation anxiety in the classroom. While there are many opinions on this broad topic, one recurrent theme is the importance of establishing a routine.
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Helping children to create routines within their daily life is one of the best ways to teach confidence, self-discipline and cooperation—skills that later lead to the development of strong coping mechanisms. Such skills enable children to more easily navigate unexpected changes and adjust to unfamiliar environments.
- Visit the School or Center. Children act out stresses from separation anxiety in a number of different ways. One way to reduce separation anxiety is to introduce them, in advance, to the school or child care center they will attend. If the school or center allows for pre-school year visits, take advantage to get your child acclimated. It’s also helpful to establish the route that you will use to get to the classroom each day and to repeat it a couple of times with whatever mode of transportation you will use. If you can walk to the center, walk the route several times so that that the child becomes familiar with it. Even with infants, repeating this route while they are in their stroller can help them to become familiar with scenery that will eventually signal that they are on their way to a safe place.
- Establish a Goodbye Ritual. Goodbye rituals in the classroom at the start of the day play an important role in making a child feel safe, and will lessen the opportunity for nervousness and panic to arise when the parent leaves for the day. When you bring your child to school or child care center, give yourself enough time to pick out a book to read with your child, or sit down with them while they draw a picture. Once it is time to leave, talk to the child in an energetic tone about what’s in store for that day. Emphasize that you will be back to pick them up in the afternoon, and will be excited to hear about the day at school.
- Say Goodbye. Never leave without saying goodbye. Sneaking away only heightens your child’s worry that they cannot trust you or trust in your return.
- Bring a Token From Home. Send your child to school with something that connects them to home and family, such as a photograph or a favorite toy. Having this reminder close-at-hand can help to calm children down if they become upset or experience a moment of panic during the day.
- Volunteer in the Classroom When You Can. Spending time in your child’s classroom as a volunteer has many advantages. You can learn more about your child’s teachers and the learning styles they apply in the classroom and develop a more meaningful relationship with them. A child who sees their parent interacting in their classroom with their peers will feel safe and welcome in that setting. Children are much more likely to feel secure in an environment where they know their parents are safe and welcomed, too.
- Practice Calming Exercises With Your Child. If children have a particularly difficult time adjusting to their new environment in the first weeks of the year, there are several calming exercises that you can practice with them. This is a great way to teach children how to take control of their own emotions and calm down so that they are ready and prepared to take on the day.
Resources to Help Your Child
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Start Early believes that the early years of a child’s development are critical to their ability to thrive in life, and that all children have the right to environments that support their healthy development. The impacts of climate change undermine the development and physical safety of young children and threaten the relationships and environments that shape their earliest years. If those who care for young children are key partners in designing for the future, we can mitigate these effects, while simultaneously strengthening and investing in our early childhood systems and communities.
THE CHALLENGE
As climate change progresses, frequent extreme heat, weather events and humanitarian emergencies will create the kind of toxic stress that impedes family wellness and children’s growth, development, learning and physical and mental health.
For infants, young children and pregnant people, their physical characteristics and particular circumstances make them more susceptible to the health effects of climate change, including illness and disease, injury and premature death and threats to mental health (according to the Centers for Disease Control). That vulnerability is also more severe for groups that have historically been under-served and those who are more vulnerable to heat and severe weather, including frontline and fenceline communities, BIPOC communities, refugees, people with lower incomes, people living with disabilities, and those at the intersections of these groups.
The changing climate will create new demands on both mental health resilience in the face of adverse childhood experiences brought on or worsened by extreme weather and physical infrastructure resilience in the neighborhoods, homes, centers and health care settings where children are cared for.
These challenges – and the need to respond to them – place additional burden on already-overworked and under-resourced caregivers and early childhood systems.
THE OPPORTUNITY
As the impacts of climate change expand and worsen, we must look to the strengths and protective factors offered by our early childhood system to support young children and their families in the context of a changing climate. Start Early is a champion for quality early learning and care, focused on closing the opportunity gap for our youngest learners. It is increasingly clear that we must expand our idea of what it means to care for young children to address the new and increased mental and physical health challenges that many of them are experiencing or will experience in the years ahead.
The challenge of climate change is daunting, but well-resourced, accessible early childhood systems are key in helping young children and their caregivers prepare and adapt.
Early childhood providers, health care providers, home visitors, doulas and others who support families are often the first stop and most trusted resource for young parents seeking information and help. Parents and providers also have valuable expertise on what young children need and how our support systems can help (or hinder) their development. These partnerships and insights will be critical to supporting the safety and resiliency of young children in the years ahead as programs and systems plan for the future.
In order to center the needs of young children and their families in climate adaptation and resiliency planning, Start Early President Diana Rauner is co-chairing the Early Years Climate Action Task Force, a group of cross-sector partners co-convened by Capita and This is Planet Ed (the Aspen Institute). The Task Force is in the process of developing the first-ever U.S. Early Years Climate Action Plan, which will include recommendations for how the country can help young children, birth-to-age 8, flourish in the face of climate change. Be the first to know when we share the final plan this fall.
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As a parent, you want to ensure that your child is being compassionate and empathetic towards the people around them. However, according to research, children in preschool and kindergarten are still developing the cognitive skills to understand empathy.
In order for children to grasp the concept of “empathy”, they must first be able to recognize their own emotions. Understanding what we are feeling and why will give children the tools they need to talk about deeper concepts of feeling and emotion as they grow.
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Here are 4 simple activity ideas to help teach your child about emotions:
- Build the Word Bank
A simple way to start building your child’s word bank around feelings is to start with two very common words young children are familiar with: “good” and “bad.” Children are used to using one of these words to explain emotions, actions or even a friend’s personality, “My friend Matt was a bad boy at school today.” Every time your child uses “good” or “bad” in a place where they could use a different, more descriptive word, offer a few suggestions for what they may actually be describing. “When you said Matt was a “bad” boy at school, why was that? Do you think he was sad, or maybe angry?” Coax them to explain the situation and help them identify the word they were looking for. As your child begins to absorb new emotion words, they will be better equipped to explain to you how they feel, and also to sense those same feelings in others. - Connect Actions to Feelings
To begin the process of learning how to explain feelings, it’s helpful for little ones to connect that actions cause us to have these feelings. In the teaching moment video below, children in an Educare classroom are getting ready for a school play. The teacher is helping them identify that because they are about to go on stage, they may be feeling “nervous.” She is getting them used to the idea that actions cause feelings, which we all have. This will help them adjust using their words to describe a situation like “when X happens, I feel Y.” - Act on Feelings
Give your child an easy-to-understand action they can do when they feel a specific emotion. This will give them an age-appropriate outlet to address their feelings, and get them used to the thought of dealing with an emotion. Having this outlet they can regularly use to act on their emotions will pave the way for dealing with more complicated feelings and situations as they get older. For example, in the previous video, the teacher offers children who are nervous about the upcoming play an outlet for their emotions. She asks each child to walk to the center of the circle where a large pot is sitting. One by one each child comes to the pot and shakes off their “nervous feelings” into the pot, where the nerves will stay for good. This is a way for the youngsters to see that everyone feels emotions like they do, and that there is a way to deal with them. - Use Specific, Open-Ended Questions
Start getting your child accustomed to talking about their emotions by asking about an exact moment. If your little one had just been in a play, instead of asking “did you like the play?” ask them how they felt before/during/after a specific moment, “Describe how you felt as you were about to say your lines?” or “What were you thinking after you got off of stage?” For a child who can name their emotions well, begin bringing up questions that help them to identify what other people (friends, teachers, etc.) may have felt during that time so they can begin to pay attention to other people and their feelings. The more they learn about being attentive to their own emotions and others, the more they will be able to understand that emotions are a daily part of life.
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Home visiting is about finding strengths in human connection, building trusting relationships – and all the messy stuff in between.
After a remarkable three decades of shaping the home visiting landscape, Quen Zorrah – Lead Facilitator and Co-Developer of NEAR@Home – is retiring.
Start Early Washington shares our collective love, respect and appreciation for Quen Zorrah and her lifetime of work supporting human connection and relationship building between children and their caregivers. Her expertise in supporting families has shaped how programs work with families to promote strong relationships.
Raising the Bar
Prior to her time with Start Early Washington, Quen was a public health nurse and one of the first nurses in the nation to provide home visiting services to families through Nurse-Family Partnership. Her work has integrated infant mental health and Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, and Resilience (NEAR) science into home visiting through teaching, coaching and reflective supervision. As the Lead Facilitator and Co-Developer of NEAR@Home, Quen has developed trauma-informed practices for building resilience and uniquely positions home visitors to safely and effectively talk with families during a critical period of development – the earliest years of a child’s life.
“I was fortunate enough to work with Quen for 20 years, as a teacher, supervisor, consultant, co-author and an esteemed colleague. I’ve never known anyone who got what reflective listening was, or who was freer of professional pretense, than Quen. She is so unpretentious that it would be easy to underestimate her real genius for this work.” — Dr. Marian Birch, DMH, Psychologist
The Journey
Like many staff on Start Early Washington’s home visiting team, Quen’s firsthand experiences as a mother led her to pursue a lifelong career devoted to children and their families.
At the age of 19, Quen distinctly remembers the first day she met a home visitor. “My child was only two days old when a woman from King County Public Health knocked on my door. She was so humble and respectful, but as persistent as a boot wedged in my doorway! Somehow, she knew how much I needed to hear words of compassion.” Seemingly, Quen’s home visitor intuitively knew that Quen was in need of positive reinforcement and support as a young, first-time parent.
Quen admired the compassion and hopefulness home visitors brought to her life, but she was still apprehensive at the thought of home visiting with her second child. “I wasn’t as put together and I was worried about what they would think of me, my mess and my reality.” Unsurprisingly, her home visitors lauded her efforts and bolstered her confidence, helping her tackle the many challenges of parenting. With each visit, Quen’s self-talk started to shift substantially, “College is achievable!” “My voice matters!” “I can do this!”
Quen’s home visitors changed the course of her life. “Not only my life but my kids’ lives as well. We take for granted the power of finding strengths and being human with each other.” After witnessing the power of home visiting support, Quen was determined to make a difference to others just as her home visitors did for her; she was determined to be a catalyst for change.
Quen completed her GED and carried her remarkable determination and fortitude as a young parent with her to nursing school at Seattle Central Community College. Upon graduation, Quen worked as a nurse for renowned medical centers and rural based community hospitals in remote mountain towns, before joining Nurse-Family Partnership, where she flourished for the next 20 years, supporting families with young children, pregnant women, grandparents, foster parents and fathers as primary caregivers.
Quen’s passion and perseverance to provide comfort, compassion and support led her to the creation of the highly successful, nationally acclaimed NEAR@Home toolkit, a tool providing home visitors with information and skills to talk about trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) during home visits, while building trust and hope.
“Quen reminds me that I do not always have to fix things; my presence alone can bring value to any given situation.” — Amy Houser, Consultant
Finding Balancing
Home visitors often face their own challenges with trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These lived experiences bring motivation and strengths to the field of home visiting, but they also add another level of strain. The exposure to challenges and trauma of others can contribute to burnout and poor mental and physical well-being. Quen notes gardening as her antidote to secondary traumatic stress or “compassion fatigue” inherent to those supporting families directly.
Quen appreciates the balance that gardening brings to the intensity of her work. Influenced by her great-grandmother, Quen cherishes time outside to slowly walk around her garden and admire each of her plants. “Gardening is a wonderful balance to all seriousness. It’s creative and offers exercise and most importantly, if I mess something up in my garden, I just compost it. But of course, it’s not that simple with humans. With plants, the worst that will happen is a compost pile.”
“Quen’s thoughtfulness, reflectiveness, kind, calm and peaceful way of being, is something I strive to incorporate into my work and personal life.” — Amanda Costello, Director of National Home Visiting, Start Early
Home visiting stories of success and triumph were also a grounding element for Quen. She recalled all the knowledge accumulated over the years: “That’s what kept me going for so long. When working long hours or flustered with bureaucracy, budgets and funding, I’d think about the stories we accumulated. My hope for home visitors is that they will share stories for inspiration and as a guide to move past challenges together.”
A Career to Remember
“Quen has shown me how to focus on people and building relationships before focusing on the work.” — Valisa Smith, Executive Director, Start Early Washington
While Quen may no longer be part of the thick of home visiting life, her profound impact has left a lasting legacy, disrupting the way we interact with each other by offering tools that will transform how we build and foster relationships for generations to come.
I’m hoping some of our systems are at a pivot point and we reach a balance where we can value community voice, recognizing that parents know exactly what they need, as much as we value data.
— Quen Zorrah
Start Early Washington is proud to be part of Quen Zorrah’s story. Her ability to reach parents and children at an intrinsic human level is immeasurable. We are honored to continue to share NEAR@Home with the world – a toolkit designed to allow users to rediscover hope and strive toward healing, fostering strong and healthy relationships.
We thank Quen for her incredible contribution to the field, honor her on all she has accomplished in her professional and personal life, and congratulate her on retirement and her future endeavors.
Brenda Smith has taught at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, for 13 years. In that time, she’s seen first-hand how providing for the needs of families can uplift not only her students, but the communities in which they live.
Every Child Deserves a Quality Education
Support Start Early and help us continue to build and offer quality programs, like Educare, to children and families living in under-resourced communities.
“We had one child whose mom was actually homeless… We treated them with so much care and love that when she came in, she would just stay the whole day,” Brenda says.
The student’s mom spent most of the day in the Educare Chicago Family Center, a space that gives parents access to a computer lab, family resource library and conference rooms. At the Educare Chicago Family Center, program staff made a point to connect with the mother and began building a meaningful, trusting relationship.
“She always came in when she brought him,” says Brenda. “She made sure he came to school… when she wasn’t coming, she would call us. We felt like she had really made us a part of her family.”
I’ve been in this field for a long time, and I have never been at a center that cared as much and had the same amount of compassion for its parents and families as Educare Chicago.
Brenda Smith, Educare Chicago teacher
The team at Educare Chicago worked to identify the family’s needs and address them as much as possible. Start Early’s quality early childhood programs often help families access community services that they might otherwise not be aware of or are otherwise unable to use because of systemic barriers.
“We made sure that she was able to get him here,” Brenda explains. “We provided her with carfare. We gave her gift cards to get things that she might’ve needed, that she wouldn’t have been able to receive if she wasn’t here.”
Mental health consultants and family support specialists on staff also worked with the student’s mom, connecting her to a wide range of supportive services.
“We had wonderful mental health consultants that took care of her, mentally and emotionally, in ways that us, the teachers, couldn’t,” adds Brenda.
After her son graduated from the program, the mother continued to occasionally visit Educare Chicago’s campus and provide the team with updates on her life.
“She has her own apartment now, and she has a job now,” says Brenda. “We provide our parents with so much information and so much family support.”
Donate by 12/31: Every Child Deserves a Quality Education
For over 40 years, Start Early has provided doula, home visiting, and Head Start programs while advocating for policies and adequate funding to make quality early education programs, like Educare Chicago, accessible to communities across the nation. Support Start Early today and help us continue to build and offer quality programs to children and families living in under-resourced communities.
Partnering with parents and connecting them with services and resources to help understand their children’s developmental needs is a core component of Educare Chicago’s approach to ensure students grow up healthy, supported by their families and ready to learn.
“We have a program that links parents up with other organizations,” Brenda says. “These organizations help them if they want to go to school, if they have loans that are overwhelming them, if they need a car, if they need somewhere to live, if they need furniture… They provide that kind of help for our parents.”
The focus on providing for parents and families at Educare Chicago is indicative of the support that well-resourced early childhood learning programs can provide. Brenda, who worked at several daycare centers prior to her work with Educare Chicago, says that this approach makes a significant difference in the educational and social outcomes of its students.
“I’ve been in this field for a long time, and I have never been at a center that cared as much and had the same amount of compassion for its parents and families as Educare Chicago,” she says.
