SERVE is currently field-testing a Trainer's Guide to complement our previously produced publication, Continuity in Early Childhood: A Framework for Home, School, and Community Linkages (also called the Framework). The Trainer's Guide will allow independent sites to use the information in the Framework to benefit their own programs. The following is an excerpt from the Trainer's Guide

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• Become familiar with the content and structure of the Framework
• Be able to utilize the Framework to build partnerships, plan for continuity, and promote change
• Gain a deeper understanding of continuity
• Develop and strengthen collaborative skills

Target Audience for Training

• Head Start Collaborative Partnerships
• Members of partnerships for children—state and local (i.e. Smart Start Partnerships)
• Interagency councils
• Teams representing the home, school, and community
• Individuals (parents, Head Start staff, school staff, community representatives, policymakers, etc.) who wish to serve as leaders of a Home/School/Community Partnership

The most effective outcome occurs when members of a partnership attend this training as a team. Parents should be encouraged to participate in the training because they are the primary decision makers concerning their children’s care and education.


Marketing the Framework Training

The Framework has a wide variety of uses and audiences. The complete training, of all four sessions, is excellent for newly formed partnerships and for groups of people interested in forming partnerships. It will also help partnerships strengthen their collaboration. For strong partnerships already working collaboratively, portions of the Trainer’s Guide can help them understand the uses of the Framework and how to best address the Elements of continuity.

Included in the Trainer’s Guide are sample brochures to advertise the training. The trainer’s information can be included on the back page. Sample brochures for Head Start Collaborative Partnerships and Smart Start Partnerships are also included. These can be modified to fit your needs.


Key Concepts of the Framework

The Framework distinguishes between transition and continuity in its discussion of how communities can support young children and their families. These terms are defined as follows:

Transition: Children’s experience of change and adjustments to new routines or settings

Continuity: The connections (between agencies, programs, services, etc.) that support children’s experience of stability and change, the known and unknown

The goal of continuity is to make transitions

• Appropriately challenging
  
• Smooth, less-abrupt experiences

Partnerships involving the home, school, and community are suggested in the Framework as an effective way to build and strengthen the connections needed for continuity. The Framework is designed to be a planning and assessment tool for partnerships. It facilitates partners’ discussions and understanding of continuity by identifying the eight Elements of continuity, effective practices, and practices in need of change.

The Framework is designed to encourage a comprehensive understanding of transition and continuity. Although the Elements may partially overlap one another, each one defines a distinct aspect of continuity. As shown in Figure 1, all eight Elements together form a complete picture of how collaborative efforts of home, school, and community partners can ensure continuity for young children and their families. In practice, partnerships will use the Framework to fit their circumstances. Home, school, and community partners may decide to begin by focusing on one or two Elements. Focusing on only one of the Elements, for example, Appropriate Care and Education, may ease the transition from preschool to school. However, the new setting may still present children with difficult adjustments. For transitions to go as smoothly as possible, attention must be paid to all eight Elements of continuity. Only then will a community’s efforts to link services help young children and their families experience change in a stable and nurturing way.

The Framework provides objective information from which partners can compare and contrast their current practices. This resource helps level the playing field among newcomers and veterans. It enables all partners to participate in discussions about the community’s strengths and weaknesses for continuity. A broad range of stakeholders, including non-traditional stakeholders, should have a voice in assessing current practices. The community then can move forward, knowing that continuity during early childhood is a common goal of families and providers of care and education, health, and social services.


Organization of the Training

Figure 1 presents the organizational plan of the Trainer’s Guide. It allows the trainer to understand the reasoning behind the grouping of the Elements for the training.

The training is designed to move participants through the quadrants clockwise, beginning with “Understanding Continuity.” Checking Progress is placed in the center circle to show its ongoing role. The training is divided into four half-day sessions, which include 1. Understanding Continuity 2. Developing a Continuity Team 3. Planning for Continuity 4. Formalizing Continuity The complete training can be offered as two full days of training, or four half-day sessions, scheduled at intervals that are most convenient for participants. This training will work well at partnership retreats. Alternatively, the first session, “Understanding Continuity,” can be used as a stand-alone session.

Trainer’s Guide Layout

For each of the four training sessions, the Trainer’s Guide includes

• A training frame that can be modified into a session agenda
  
• Script for use with the activities, handouts, and transparencies
  
• Camera-ready pages for handouts
  
• Color transparencies

The Training Frame

The Training Frame for each session is formatted in a four-column table. On each page of the Training Frame, columns are labeled with the headings: What and How, Materials, Continuity Framework Reference, and Time Guide. Below is each heading and a description of what can be found in that column.


What and How

• Goals
• Key concepts to share with the participants
• Directions for mini-lectures and activities
• Variation for activities (large/small groups)
• Optional activities
• Resources

Materials

• Handouts
• Transparencies
• Appropriate time to use chart paper and markers
• Optional materials

Continuity Framework Reference

• Element
• Rationale
• Indicators
• Page numbers from the Framework

Time Guide

The time guide refers to the time allotted for each segment of the training. In parenthesis, there is a sample time guide if the training is conducted across two full days. The time guide used is for a group of approximately 10-30 people. Time guides can easily be adapted for any number of participants.

The Script

The Trainer’s Guide offers script suggestions as a guide and are not intended to be prescriptive. The first session, Understanding Continuity, is heavily scripted to ensure consistency among trainers regarding the key concepts of the Continuity Framework. The other three sessions are less scripted and rely on the trainers’ experience and facilitation skills to discuss the concepts with participants.

The Handouts

Handouts are numbered by session. The beginning letter of H in the bottom-right corner identifies this page as a handout. Next to the H will be a number. This identifies which session the handout is used for (1, 2, 3, 4). After that number will be a decimal point and another number. The number after the decimal point tells where in the session this handout is used.

The Transparencies

Transparencies are numbered by session. The numbering system is the same as the handouts except that the number will begin with a T, for transparency. For example, the third transparency for session two would be labeled T-2.3.