Exploring Innovative Early Programs: Elevating Family Voices in Policy Decisions
Our first blog in the “Exploring Innovative Early Programs” series focuses on the Parent Cabinet, a pioneering effort designed to ensure parents have a direct voice in shaping the policies that impact their children’s future.
In service of its mission to “partner with families of young children to advance equitable early childhood policies,” the Connecticut Department of Early Childhood (OEC) established a statutory statewide advisory committee known as the Connecticut Early Childhood Parent Cabinet. This diverse, parent-led committee meets regularly to elevate the needs of families and advise the agency on how to improve programs and policies concerning young children and their families. It is the first such body in the United States.
Since 2023, the OEC and its Parent Cabinet members have worked closely with Third Sector to strengthen its governance structure, develop recommendations for sustainable internal and external communications practices, and improve data tracking systems. Last year, Third Sector continued our support, strengthening the subcommittee structure and providing further clarity on Parent Cabinet member roles and responsibilities to ensure meaningful member engagement and feedback loops between member representatives, the OEC, and other stakeholders.
While engaging with the agency on this meaningful work to create family-driven programs and strategies, we’ve learned a lot about true stakeholder engagement at the state level. In this blog, we provide five recommendations for state agencies seeking to launch a Cabinet or similar body in their state or community.
2024 CT Parent Cabinet Appreciation Luncheon
- Build Agency-Wide Commitment to (and Integration of) Parent Voice—Integrating parent voice and leadership into every department is critical to ensure parents’ expertise and experiences shape all priorities. Doing so not only strengthens the agency’s efforts but also sends a powerful message to parents: their voices truly matter. Without broad agency-wide support, such efforts are likely to remain limited and disconnected from the core of the department.
In Connecticut, Governor Lamont established the Blue-Ribbon Panel on Child Care, which includes 23 members with reserved seats for Parent Cabinet representatives. As panel members, parents play an integral role in shaping strategy and providing feedback, and were regularly updated on the panel’s work during regular monthly Parent Cabinet meetings. Looking ahead, Third Sector will collaborate with the OEC in 2025 to create a plan for integrating the Parent Cabinet into agency programs and decisionmaking processes, solidifying the agency’s commitment to meaningful parent engagement.
2. Lean on Existing Community Relationships—For agencies considering the creation of a cabinet or similar body, it’s essential to build on existing community relationships to gain buy-in, foster trust, and bolster outreach efforts. This approach is especially important in communities where there may be historically strained relationships with the government. Additionally, identifying new relationships or partnerships that an agency wishes to develop—whether in geographically distant communities, areas where departments are looking to expand programming, or with organizations serving historically marginalized populations—will allow for intentional new engagement with constituents.
During the development of the Parent Cabinet, the OEC leveraged its relationships with community leaders to form a design team made up of individuals from across the state. This team ultimately determined the structure and goals of the Parent Cabinet. Parent Cabinet members serve as key liaisons between the agency and the broader community, sharing relevant resources and updates on behalf of the community and the agency.
3. Meet People Where They Are—In addition to leveraging existing relationships, successful community engagement requires meeting people where they are—in their communities, in their languages, and through their unique experiences. When conducting outreach for a Cabinet, consider the spaces parents frequent and how agency staff or partners can show up to share information about your programs and engagement opportunities. As outreach materials are developed, prioritize language accessibility. Equally important is valuing the lived experiences and time of parents. Do parents receive stipends or other forms of compensation for participation and sharing their expertise/experiences?
The OEC compensates Parent Cabinet members with stipends for their time at community meetings and events. It ensures all materials are translated and available in Spanish and other widely spoken languages. This approach ensures the agency stays connected to the community and demonstrates appreciation for the time and contributions of Parent Cabinet members.
4. Ensure the Composition of Members Is Representative of Broader Community Demographics—A broad range of experiences and perspectives will allow for a richer and more comprehensive understanding of community challenges and opportunities for change. This will also foster more inclusive decisionmaking, leading to strategies and policies that are more equitable and explicitly address the unique concerns of the most marginalized communities.
The OEC Parent Cabinet is diverse and representative of the state’s demographics. Members represent various racial and ethnic demographics. Sixty (60)% are parents of children ages birth to 5 who use OEC supports, 40% are parents with children older than 5, and parents represent all six regions of the state.
5. Define the Role—Finally, as you design your parent cabinet or advisory committee, you’ll need to consider different levels of participation and how you will define the role of parents. Engagement can range, for example, from:
- “Informing”: providing basic information to members about policies, strategies or programs to
- “Advising”: creating space for members to provide feedback on key policies, strategies, or programs to
- “Decisionmaking”: sharing decisionmaking power and creating space for parents to lead initiatives and programs.
To successfully sustain a cabinet or similar body, engagement must go beyond informing, and members will need to understand their role and clear opportunities to influence your agency.
The Parent Cabinet provides opportunities for parents to engage across a range of engagement levels and ultimately creates opportunities for parents to advise on and influence decisions. Parents understand their role and are given the space to iterate on how they would like to define their roles and responsibilities so that it is not limited to the desires of the agency but instead driven by the vision that the parents have for themselves of what parent engagement and leadership looks like in CT.
As the OEC welcomes its second cohort of Parent Cabinet members this year, the agency is focused on further deepening the cabinet’s impact and fully integrating parents and families into its work. Parent engagement is an ongoing process, and any agency aiming for meaningful involvement must remain flexible and genuinely open to sharing leadership and power with parents. To learn more about Third Sector’s approach and how it may apply to your context, please reach out to Kesha Lee (klee@thirdsectorcap.org) or Dre Szegedy-Maszak (dszegedymaszak@thirdsectorcap.org).
