Recap: Parents as Civic Leaders

The first Early Childhood Coffee and Conversation of the season was held online on September 19 with the theme Parents as Civic Leaders: Reimagining Family Engagement in Today’s Climate.  

A welcome from TBF’s Senior Program Officer, Child Well-Being Danubia Camargos Silva and opening remarks from Boston Opportunity Agenda Executive Director Ayesha Cammaerts set the stage for the morning’s conversation. Family engagement in child care supports children’s development, of course, but—especially given current challenges imposed by the dramatically shifting sands of federal policy and funding—it is also an act of civic leadership. And in that, it can be an essential step toward advocacy and systemic change. 

With this construct in mind, the panel of leaders, advocates, and experts from across the child-care sector discussed how families can shape civic engagement, policy, and the future of our Commonwealth when they help transform child-serving systems. To open the conversation, Camargos Silva invited the panelists, Families First Executive Director Sue Covitz, independent consultant and family engagement specialist Magda Rodriguez, and Family Nurturing Center Executive Director Emma Tobin, to share their personal stories as parents, educators, or organizers.  

The topic expanded from there, repeatedly circling back to trust, inclusion, and the ongoing importance of data to measuring progress. Covitz emphasized the need to “center parents as driving decision making.” Rodriguez said, “Families already lead. Our role is to honor and support them. They are the architects and we need to trust and fund what they say is important.” In speaking of budgeting, Tobin noted, “Service providers use data to plan their programs and determine budgets,” and Rodriguez concurred suggesting strategic planning refreshed every few years would help determine the scope of data collection.