The Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program

By Joanne Knapp-Philo

The Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program, a public-private partnership funded by the Conrad Hilton Foundation and the Head Start Bureau, is in the third year of a five-year grant. Its mission is to provide training and ongoing follow-up to Waves 1-4 Early Head Start (EHS) and Migrant Head Start (MHS) programs to support their development of high-quality, collaborative, inclusive services for infants and toddlers with significant disabilities. An augmentation to the Head Start Training and Technical Assistance system, the Hilton/EHS Training Program works closely with the Quality Improvement Centers for Disabilities Services (DSQICs).

The core of the Hilton/EHS Training Program is an intensive five-day workshop called the SpecialQuest. In 1999, more than 1200 EHS/MHS staff, family members, and Part C partners joined 21 federal staff and 38 representatives of the Quality Improvement Centers in these sessions. Every Wave 1-4 EHS and MHS program had the opportunity to participate in the SpecialQuests; 258 programs have chosen to commit themselves to the intensive, four-year training and follow-up process.

For the SpecialQuest, participating programs each send a 5-member team consisting of:

• A parent of an infant or toddler with a disability enrolled in the EHS/MHS program;
  
• An EHS/MHS administrator;
  
• The staff person responsible for disabilities services;
  
• Another staff person who can help "share the training"; and
  
• A representative of a local Early Intervention (Part C) program with which the Head Start program collaborates to serve infants and
toddlers with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) and their families.

Ten SpecialQuests are held annually, two in each of the five hubs. American Indian and Migrant Head Start programs (Regions XI and XII) participate in their geographic areas.

Ongoing collaboration with the DSQICs strives to ensure that participants receive "seamless" technical assistance on issues of including infants and toddlers with significant disabilities and their families in EHS/MHS programs. Many DSQIC staff attend SpecialQuests to provide support and continuity and to lend their expertise about local issues.

SpecialQuest trainers have expertise and experience as parents of children with disabilities and/or as staff in Early Intervention (EI) and Head Start programs. The thirty nationally recognized trainers present state-of-the-art information and help teams to convert current research on inclusion of infants and toddlers with disabilities into day-to-day practice in their programs. Each team has a Learning Coach who works with them during the training and provides on-site follow-up and technical assistance for up to three days between each SpecialQuest session. Teams develop goals for themselves and their programs based on their preferences, needs, and the best practices presented at SpecialQuest. These goals are the focus of the follow-up support provided by 140 Learning Coaches throughout the nation.

During 1999, team members developed 1081 goals in the areas of:

• Including infants and toddlers with disabilities, such as establishing a pilot project to link EHS/HS to ICC (Part C Interagency Coordinating Council) and the community as a whole for the specific purpose of identifying children with significant disabilities and, where appropriate, placing them in EHS/HS programs (home-based and center-based natural environments).
  
• Enhancing family leadership, such as increasing the involve ment of fathers in EHS and EI by completing the self-assessment of service delivery, completing a needs assessment of fathers in the programs, and organizing a "Bring Your Dad to School" Day.
  
• Building and maintaining collaboration between EHS/MHS and Part C, such as collaborating effectively to ensure a coordinated plan for families that is shared by EHS, Part C, Family Support Services, and which will reflect the requirements of each individual program by February 2000.
  
• Working together as a team, such as establishing a conflict resolution plan for the center, for interagency relationships, for the Policy Committee, and for the SpecialQuest team.
  
• Sustaining an organizational culture of continuous improvement, such as training staff to gain a greater awareness of resources in the community for children age birth–3 with disabilities, thus creating consistency in education throughout the system.

Every participant and guest who attends SpecialQuest receives training materials for use during the training and upon return to their programs. The Hilton/EHS Training Program developed five videos for use in 1999, in addition to the one developed in 1998. "Share the Training" materials, which include videos and other training materials in English and Spanish, will be distributed to participating EHS/MHS programs. As of October 1999, SpecialQuest participants, Learning Coaches, and trainers shared SpecialQuest content and materials with over 9,000 people.

The philosophy of continuous improvement is woven throughout all Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program activities. An internal evaluation collects input that serves as the basis for future program decisions and will ultimately measure impact. In addition, participating teams are encouraged to become part of a learning organization by practicing skills in planning, acting, reflecting, and evaluating while they are at SpecialQuest and when they return to their programs.

For more information on the Hilton/Early Head Start Training Program, contact Joanne Knapp-Philo, the Hub 5 Regional Hilton/EHS Coordinator, at T: 805-383-9302 or visit the Web site at http://www.sonoma.edu/cihs/Hilton_EHS/.

 

Participant comments on their experiences:

• We got practical strategies that we can implement in our programs, and the focus on collaboration was very useful for us in this stage of our program.
  
• Parent perspective brings it home – to the heart.
  
• The team approach is an excellent idea that helps to reinforce to staff the need to include everyone (ECI, EHS, parents, etc.) in carrying out services.
  
• I have truly enjoyed meeting and talking with parents who have children with disabilities and working together as a team. It has made a tremendous difference in how I view working with children with disabilities.
  
• The SpecialQuest helped me find my voice and direction as a parent of a child with a disability.

 

Director of the Hilton/EHS Training Program:
Dr. Linda Brekken, California Institute on Human Services, Sonoma State University

Regional Coordinators:
Hub 1: Theresa Bologna
Hub 2: Pat Franco
Hub 3: Jerry Hindman
Hub 4: Cathy Liles
Hub 5: Joanne Knapp-Philo
Migrant Head Start programs: Katrina Montano-White
American Indian Programs:
Ory Cuellar