Leadership Connections

ALERT: It is approaching that time when we will be issuing a Call for Applications for the 2024 PAR Collaboration Awards. Please watch your emails for the announcement coming in June. These awards are for two or more Fellows collaborating on a project to advance the wellbeing of young children and their families in support of the goals of ZERO TO THREE.  It’s good to start thinking about possible collaborations with other Fellows if you have an idea for a project.  Also check out the accomplishments of our 2022 Awardees and the project summary for an additional 2023 PAR Award in this newsletter!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 2022 Policy, Advocacy, Research (PAR) COLLABORATION AWARDEES:

Although the awards are small, its remarkable how collaborating Fellows have used them to seed and grow their ideas and collaborations into larger initiatives. This is evident in the final report summaries of the four 2022 PAR Collaboration Awarded projects. In no specific order, the first two are featured here, with the other two to follow in the next newsletter.

Project 1: Development of a Reflective Use of Self Tool for Practitioners, Supervisors, and Programs

Collaborating Fellows: Deborah Bremond (‘01-‘03), Donna Weston (’86-’88), Barbara Ivins (85-’86)

Awarded $2,500

This project involved developing a self-assessment tool designed to support practitioners (in the context of their agencies/organizations) across disciplines to assess their learning levels and self-reported learning needs for applied understanding of Use of Self (UoS) in daily work.  Review of extant literature showed that the Use of Self-concept is addressed across the professions that include work with young children, their families, and the providers who support them. Use-of-Self is discussed in terms of “therapist as instrument of treatment,” as a form of mindful attention that depends on self-awareness of race, equity and social location, active monitoring of internal and external experiences, self-reflection, and as a set of skills that requires both practitioner growth and organizational/agency supports. However, there is not a unifying framework that links the thinking about Use of Self across disciplines despite the central importance the construct holds.

Our collaboration involved reviewing this diverse literature, creating an integrative framework for the construct, defining core processes in Use of Self, drafting definitions, drafting Use of Self knowledge statements, and developing a Learning Levels rating scale that operationalizes our conceptualization of Use of Self.

Our goal has been to develop a self-assessment tool that will assist individual practitioners and their supervisors to identify their goals for professional growth in Use of Self and to promote workforce development for the infant/family arena. Use of Self, along with the existing self-assessment tool for developmental concepts (The Learning Curve), will support and organize practitioner growth in their capacities to work effectively with families.

We produced a draft Use of Self (UoS) Assessment Tool that was first reviewed by colleagues with expertise in Use of Self.  Their feedback helped us to refine and clarify statements used in the assessment tool. Currently the revised Use of Self Assessment is being piloted with several groups of practitioners that represent the early childhood workforce.  This pilot draft includes a feedback section of questions designed to support further refinement. The seed funding provided by the PAR Award helped us in the development process of this project. We have met the goal of the project which was to develop the Use of Self Assessment tool based on review of existing literature and invite colleagues to review it. 

Beyond the award: We are now in the second pilot phase of the project. Moving forward, we will complete another revision of the tool based on data from this current pilot phase. We are considering further development steps including considering funding possibilities for the remaining work developing data to complete psychometric analysis of the tool. These are the components that need additional funding: recruitment for field-testing, data analysis, subscale structure, draft user manual, data summaries, written manuscript, develop strategies for dissemination of the tool, including making it available through our website (www.imhlearningcurve.org)

Project 2: Cultivating an Inclusion Focused Infant Mental Health Community in the Global Children & Nature Movement

Collaborating Fellows: Sheri Hill (’07-’09), Jane West (’07-’09)

Awarded $2,500

The 2022 PARC Award led Jane and Sheri to exciting new collaborations and ways of thinking. The funds supported our poster presentation at the Children and Nature Network’s International Inside Out Conference in Atlanta in June 2022. Networking there led to exciting weekly discussions around the role of infant mental health & early childhood systems/services in global sustainable development work.

Beyond the award: Our participation at the conference led to putting together a very well attended, fully live Issue Intensive for ZERO TO THREE’s Virtual Event: Nature Babies: From Children to Communities to Climate moderated by Sheri. The session sought to bring both global and local perspectives on environmental impacts on young children and families and to discover tools for engaging with the early childhood community in nature and strategies for addressing climate change.

Speakers included people we met through our participation in the Children and Nature Conference or that Jane knew from her global grantmaking work: Adrián Cerezo, Ph.D., M.E.Sc., Visiting Researcher and CHILD project Fellow at the Yale Child Study Center, and Senior Advisor on Early Childhood Development and Climate Change to the Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), UNICEF Pacific, and the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN); Charmaine Godley, the Inaugural Green Schoolyards Health and Nature Fellow (in Metro Atlanta, GA) for the Children and Nature Network www.childrenandnature.org whose goal is to ensure all children have equitable access to outdoor spaces where they can learn, play, and grow; and Jessica Carrillo Alatorre executive director of Hike It Baby(HiB) (www.hikeitbaby.com ). Adrian made a clear case for why/how doing early childhood work right was globally essential if we truly want to obtain the sustainable future envisioned by the United Nations https://sdgs.un.org/.  Discussion focused on advancing equitable engagement with/access to nature as an opportunity for healing, relationship support, joy and delight across communities.

Since the issue intensive, Jane has had the chance to speak several times with ZERO TO THREE’s Senior Policy Director Miriam Calderon (including consults with Adrian Cerezo). As a result, Jane’s fund is giving a small grant to support a deeper exploration at ZTT of the impact of climate change on young children’s lives and the policies ZTT might want to consider.