Family Partnership
About
Family partnership is foundational to Pediatrics Supporting Parents (PSP) and is deeply embedded at both the community and governance levels. At the five Proof Point Communities (PPC), families serve as paid leaders and co-creators, working alongside pediatric teams and community partners to set priorities, strengthen early relational health, reimagine the well-child visit, and test the initiative’s 14 common practices.
At the governance level, families are embedded as co-leaders in formal decision-making, ensuring their lived experience informs policy, strategy, and long-term systems change. Through shared ownership, transparent communication, and sustained support, this integrated partnership model strengthens accountability and keeps child- and family-centered values at the forefront of local and national efforts.
View the video highlighting family partnership to learn more.
The Journey
Over the past seven years, PSP has engaged nearly 40 family leaders as integral partners in designing, implementing, and evaluating systems-change efforts to improve early childhood social and emotional development. Their lived expertise has shaped common practices, care delivery, and policies across PPCs and governance structures, ensuring the work remains grounded in the realities and cultural perspectives of families. By embedding family leaders in planning, advisory activities, and collaborative learning, PSP has built a model where families serve not just as participants but as co-architects of systemic change.
Family Leader Development
Family leader development is central to sustaining meaningful engagement across the PPCs. Family Voices paired systems‑level capacity building with direct, year‑round support for leaders, providing monthly meetings for peer learning, technical assistance, and governance preparation, alongside individualized support for budgeting, invoicing, and navigating organizational processes. A comprehensive training series covering the following topics helped family leaders advance their leadership trajectory and sustain ongoing roles in early childhood and family engagement:
- Creating Your Own Story to craft narratives for connection and advocacy
- Branding Yourself as a Family Leader & Advocate with tools to define strengths and build online presence
- Creating a Career Path and Building Your Resume to translate experiences into compelling resumes
- Assess Your Leadership Skills and Skills and Capabilities Inventory to reflect on competencies and growth
- Navigating the Family Engagement Profession for practical field guidance
- Family Leader Capacity-Building Checklist and Practice Plan for ongoing reflection, professionalism, and self-care
- Ongoing Mentorship for Your Career Path to build durable mentorship relationships
Together, these structures: cohort support, one-on-one assistance, and a sequenced training curriculum ensure family leaders are informed, compensated, and prepared to sustain their impact well beyond the initiative.
To learn more about these offerings, please visit the Family Voices website.
Family Leadership Facilitated Attuned Interactions (FAN)
PSP is continuing to strengthen the capacity of family leaders through the development of the Family Leadership FAN in partnership with Erikson Institute. PSP Family Leaders, Family Voices, and ZERO TO THREE are collaborating with the Erikson Institute team, led by Linda Gilkerson, PhD, LCSW, to adapt the FAN for family leaders. Additional information will be shared here when the project concludes in early summer 2026.
Power Sharing
Power sharing is a core element of meaningful co‑creation for PSP because it ensures that families—especially those historically marginalized within healthcare—serve as true partners in shaping decisions, policies, and practices. This power sharing is embedded in the Governance Body, bringing families into strategic oversight, priority-setting, and policy approval with shared ownership of outcomes. Co-creation within PPCs reinforces this commitment through relational, community-driven processes grounded in mutual respect and collaborative decision-making, enabling families not only to participate, but to lead in ways that strengthen early relational health and reduce health disparities.
Family Partnership Strategies
Transparency
Power Sharing
Equitable Compensation
Capacity Building
Coaching and Support
Key Learnings and Impacts
Trust deepens, mutual respect grows, and traditional hierarchies shift when clinicians and families recognize one another as experts—ultimately benefiting babies and children.
When families co-create as equal partners alongside clinicians and administrators, communication strategies, clinic policies, and service design evolve in meaningful and practical ways.
Preparing and supporting family leaders is foundational to success. Meaningful participation requires training, guidance, and equitable compensation so families can confidently engage as peers alongside funders and clinicians, contributing their lived experience and expertise.
Resources
The FESAT helps organizations assess their readiness to meaningfully partner with families, guiding reflection on leadership commitment, structures, and culture to identify current readiness and outline clear next steps for building sustainable family engagement.
LEARN MORE
This training and complementary policy guide and engagement template equip participants with the knowledge and strategies to advocate for meaningful, sustainable family engagement, exploring the benefits of strong partnerships, communicating their value, and building stakeholder support. These tools provide a clear framework that integrates family perspectives, needs, and circumstances to build structured, sustainable policies that reflect true partnership.
This template guides teams in developing role/job descriptions to recruit family leaders for groups, projects, or initiatives. A strong role description fosters shared purpose and belonging while helping family leaders understand expectations, and this template outlines key elements.
Contact
To connect with Family Voices, email Allysa Ware at anware@familyvoices.org
To connect with the Pediatrics Supporting Parents team, email Kimberly Bradley at [email protected].
