Promoting PCEs with parents experiencing homelessness
Amanda Mills, a Strengthening Families framework specialist at Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (IDAEYC), recalls a moment when the impact of positive childhood experiences (PCEs), the central focus of the HOPE framework, really clicked for her. She was running a workshop through the Boise Rescue Mission for parents experiencing homelessness. And she was struggling with the question: How do you have a conversation about PCEs in this context?
What came out of the conversation was the acknowledgement that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and PCEs often co-exist, and just because the former is happening, doesn’t mean the latter shouldn’t be strived for.
She said that the parents were able to say, “‘We can provide these positive experiences [for our children] at the same time, knowing that there’s the potential for those to really have more of an outcome if we focus on those [PCEs] rather than these struggles that we’re facing.”
Simple everyday actions can promote PCEs
IdahoAEYC is a statewide nonprofit that provides free education and training to support children and families. Mills trains parents, caregivers, and early childhood professionals, and she helps connect parents, like the ones from Boise Rescue Mission, to resources. One resource is Ready for Kindergarten parent workshops, where parents learn about “play with a purpose” and how just being down on the floor reading with your children for 20 minutes can be a positive childhood experience.
“You may be living in a shelter [but] that doesn’t keep you from spending 20 minutes every afternoon sitting down and reading with your child. And that those nurturing experiences can be really powerful,” said Mills.
She says it’s important to emphasize “that emotional growth that happens [in] those relationships, and that it doesn’t just have to be in a perfect world, that it can be wherever we are.”
Embedding the HOPE framework in our organization processes
When Mills began working at IDAEYC, the HOPE framework was already a part of the conversation at the organizational level. Soon, she was trained as a certified HOPE Facilitator and then became a HOPE Champion. Then, IDAEYC decided to pursue the HOPE-Informed Organizational Certification.
“A lot of HOPE is already embedded into our practices. It was just a matter of really looking intentionally at our strategic priorities and then training staff,” said Mills. “It’s kind of naturally part of how we talk, but being really intentional around that internal culture and reviewing our policies just to ensure that they really were HOPE-Informed.”
Through collaborations with stakeholders ranging from library professionals to people in the medical field, IDAEYC is able to bring the conversation about the HOPE framework to a diverse audience.
Mills says that positive childhood experiences aren’t just about intervention — they’re a form of prevention.
“Focusing on these positive childhood experiences for young children and families really is prevention for some of these bigger issues that we’re facing on a national level, and more specifically, here in Idaho,” she said. “So when we think about things like mental health crisis and suicide rates of teens going up…we can do this work starting young before it ever gets to these bigger issues.”
Merging PCEs into workforce development
One of IDAEYC’s goals for the future is to merge positive childhood experiences with workforce development and incorporate the practices of the HOPE framework into family friendly workplace policies or initiatives. This would involve discussing policy ideas with businesses such as flexible working schedules, hybrid work, or even having a childcare facility at the company.
“High quality workplace policies only happen when you’re supporting your workforce, which we know in many, many cases, is working families, oftentimes working families of young children. It’s that idea of when we support the children, we support the family, we support the community,” said Mills.
Mills added that if “we’re supporting these families in the work, we know that parents are less stressed, so they’re going to be more responsive to their children. They’re going to be more emotionally available. So, you know, from the business aspect, you have a better workforce…If we do a good job doing all of this, maybe this younger generation comes up with less adversity, less mental health crisis.”
