Introduction
Head Start uses a whole-family approach to support the well-being of children and families with low incomes. As a two-generation model, Head Start provides comprehensive services for families and their children from birth through age five, and parenting and family support services for parents. Intentional alignment and coordination across these services is expected to lead to positive outcomes for families and their children. This brief introduces a theory of change focused on one distinct and understudied aspect of the comprehensive services provided by Head Start’s model: family support services. Through family support services, Head Start programs aim to help families identify and reach “their goals and dreams” by directly providing them with or referring them to services that support those goals and build on individual strengths. These support services address needs regarding education and employment, financial capability, housing and food assistance, emergency and crisis intervention, substance use treatment, physical health, and mental health, among others. Determining families’ strengths and needs, identifying relevant support services, communicating with service providers, and helping families access services—that is, the coordination of family support services—in combination with the child-focused services, is expected to promote families’ safety, health, and economic security.
Purpose
This brief introduces a theory of change about how the coordination of family support services in Head Start programs is thought to result in improved outcomes for the whole family. A theory of change is an illustration of how and why a desired change is thought to happen.
Key Findings and Highlights
The theory of change includes multiple components: coordination and individualization of family support services, parent outcomes, and family outcomes.
Coordination and individualization of family support services has two overarching components: building and maintaining partnerships with families and with community providers.
- Partnerships with families refers to family support services staff members’ work in Head Start programs to build a supportive, trusting, and stable partnership with each family through ongoing relationship-building activities. Family support services staff members conduct an assessment to identify each family’s strengths and needs, and use that information to work with parents to develop a set of parent- and family-specific goals, which can include economic, educational, or health-related goals. The goals inform the specific support services for the family and together with the identified services make up an individualized family partnership plan or agreement. Next, the family support services staff member connects the family to services and follows up on progress.
- Partnerships with community providers includes family support services staff members’ work to identify resources available within a local community, and develop and maintain partnerships (formal or informal) with the organizations that provide those resources so that families can be referred to them.
The development of partnerships with families and community providers allows Head Start family support services staff members to connect parents with a range of support services that are responsive to their needs and goals—meaning that the services are both comprehensive in nature and individualized to a particular family.
The interaction among these two types of partnerships and the connection to support services leads to a set of outcomes for a parent. A parent’s improved outcomes are expected to lead to a set of family outcomes, specifically improved family well-being and improved parent-child relationships. Finally, both improved parent outcomes and whole-family outcomes are thought to lead to improved child outcomes—meaning that children are safe, healthy, learning and developing, engaged in positive relationships, ready for school, and ultimately successful in school and in life. Although not shown in theory of change model, Head Start’s child services also support these outcomes.
Finally, three sets of factors are thought to influence how Head Start programs approach coordinated family support services and the outcomes that might be seen in parents, families, and children:
- characteristics of parents/guardians and families,
- characteristics of Head Start programs and staff members, and
- the external environment.
Methods
Development of this theory of change is part of the Head Start Connects: Individualizing and Connecting Families to Comprehensive Family Support Services project. It was informed by a literature review; a set of case studies with six Head Start programs to explore the coordination process from the perspectives of Head Start staff members, families, and local community service providers; and discussions with experts from the field.
Citation
Maier, Michelle F. 2023. “Theory of Change for Coordination and Individualization of Family Support Services in Head Start Programs.” OPRE Report 2023-304. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- Family support services:
- Refers to services targeted toward parents that may include education and employment services, financial capability services, housing and food assistance, emergency or crisis intervention services, substance use treatment, physical health services, and mental health services, among others.
- Parent:
- Refers to a child’s mother or father, other family member who is a primary caregiver, foster parent or authorized caregiver, guardian, or the person with whom the child has been placed for purposes of adoption pending a final adoption decree.
- Family support services staff members:
- Refer to Head Start staff members who have primary responsibility within a Head Start program or center for coordinating family support services.
- Family well-being:
- Refers to a family as being safe, healthy, and financially secure—including having safe and stable living conditions and food sources, physically and mentally healthy parents, and opportunities for educational advancement and economic mobility.