Women United
Early Childhood Education ~ Innovation Grant Application
The Family Partnership
Legal Name of Organization:
Program Name:
Self-regulation Coaching: Building Capacity for K-readiness
Contact Person for this Application:
Title:
Phone:
Email:
Kay Tellinghuisen
Vice President of Early Childhood Services
612-294-2659
ktellinghuisen@thefamilypartnership.org
Mission of the Organization:
The Family Partnership’s mission is: Building strong families, vital communities, and better
futures for children. Through counseling, education and advocacy, we support families in need
and empower them to solve problems. We envision a Twin Cities where all families and
children, regardless of income or origins, have fair opportunities to realize their potential.
For a new or existing program?
New
Application focus area:
Early Childhood Education
Requested Amount:
$ 79,500
Total Program Budget:
$ 79,500
1.
Brief description of your current or past early childhood education programming.
Our Multicultural Therapeutic Preschools are a uniquely tailored early education and care
program for children in poverty who have faced serious adverse experiences. Through our yearround, daily program, we’re demonstrating that it IS possible to reverse the impacts of poverty
on young children to close the educational achievement gap.
Our preschools offer a whole-child/whole-family approach that includes: building up the child’s
cognitive skills and intellect; promoting the child’s age-appropriate social-emotional
development; advancing the child’s physical and brain-body development; and nurturing a sense
of inquiry, creativity and love of learning – all accomplished through evidence-based curriculum
delivered side-by-side with play, with targeted therapies such as occupational, physical, speech
or mental health therapies, and with cultural/linguistic relevance. Another key element in this
winning formula is supportive and educational services for parents who have many challenges to
enhance the ways in which parents nurture their child. This holistic approach does what it takes;
each year the majority of our little graduates enter kindergarten scoring ready.
The Family Partnership
Page 1 of 9
Our Multicultural Therapeutic Preschools target children and families with the most severe types
of distress, adverse experiences and child development impacts. While many child cares and
preschools serve low-income children/families, none intentionally recruits the most deeply
distressed of low-income children/families as we do. All the children and families in our
program have histories of trauma, domestic abuse or reports of child neglect/abuse, exposure to
various forms of violence, precarious housing, homelessness, history of chemical abuse, low
parental life skills, limited knowledge of child development, low parental education attainment,
immigrants with limited English, young parenting, and inadequate utilization of health care. The
children have faced multiple adverse experiences that result in trauma, delayed child
development and undiagnosed developmental, health or mental health issues. Against this
backdrop our little graduates’ outcomes are notable – most DO achieve age-appropriate
development and score ready for K.
Our Multicultural Therapeutic Preschools serve children ages 16 months to 5 years old at two
sites in high-poverty neighborhoods: north Minneapolis, and south Minneapolis/Phillips next to
the Little Earth of United Tribes community. Our program is accredited by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which is considered the gold
standard for quality in early education. We are licensed by the Minnesota Department of Human
Services, and have been awarded the 4-Star (highest) Parent Aware rating.
The children and families come to us via referrals from child protection, social services, public
health, welfare-to-work, and word-of-mouth (self-referrals). We also serve children/mothers
through partnerships with supportive housing and CD treatment programs. Targeting culturally
diverse families in poverty with histories of trauma is intentional and speaks to our efforts
toward decreasing disparities. During the 2013-14 school year, 93% of the families served in our
preschools lived below 100% of the federal poverty guideline.
2.
Describe new or improved programming you would like to develop over the two years.
As a result of poverty and adversity, the children have delays in their learning and development,
and they demonstrate emerging social-emotional-behavioral problems. Studies indicate that
adverse childhood experiences are linked to lifelong negative outcomes. Research reveals that
adverse childhood experiences have detrimental impact on children’s developing brain
architecture, including their ability to develop social-emotional controls/self-regulation. These
children have high risks, even at young ages, for transfer out of mainstream programs into day
treatment. The lack of self-regulation and emotional controls are prime factors interfering with
the child’s capacity to learn and achieve cognitive development essential for kindergarten
readiness and ongoing success through the grades in school.
Many children that we serve demonstrate little ability to control emotions and to self-regulate
behavior. This impulsivity is noted in their poor interaction with peers, inability to delay
gratification for wants and needs, and aggressive acting-out behaviors. These behaviors impact
learning, not only for the individual child but also for classmates.
The Family Partnership
Page 2 of 9
We seek the Women United support for a new two-year initiative that will build upon our
existing strong program of holistic learning and child development, by innovating in the way we
address the serious delays in self-regulation skills that many of our children experience due to
their life circumstances and multiple adverse experiences. Over the two-year span, we will take
this new initiative from pilot to integration into our daily preschools through three main
activities:
A.) Building the capacity of our preschool teaching staff to promote children’s self-regulation in
the classroom, through teacher training and individualized coaching of teachers in real-time
classroom settings.
We will enlist a self-regulation expert to: a) provide group training to teachers, and b) provide
individualized coaching to teachers inside the classroom for a real-time experience that further
builds teacher skills. Through these training/coaching methods, the self-regulation coach will
help teachers gain strategies to use in the classroom, which will in turn help children to improve
upon:
1) Monitoring one’s own and others’ emotions through vocabulary, cues to identifying feelings
in self and others, and intensities of feelings.
2) Self-control and reducing escalation of emotions through various tools and concepts that
help the child understand intensity of an emotion, how to monitor feelings and gain control to
stop feelings from entering a hot zone.
3) Skills for a child to maintain self-control and regain equilibrium through strategies for selfcalming and developing control over aspects of one’s own (the child’s) life. Cognitive and
behavioral skills are taught in simple terms suited to the child’s developmental level.
We will deliver the group training to teachers once in Year One, and will deliver a Year Two
training that builds further upon the first year’s content. The in-classroom coaching/advising of
teachers will take place each month for each teacher during both years of the project. This may
be re-distributed in Year Two after evaluating Year One effectiveness. During Year Two the
self-regulation expert and center directors will identify particular teachers in each preschool who
demonstrate strong skills in responding to children’s self-regulation issues, and we will engage
these teachers as peer-coaches for other teachers in the preschool. More description of our plan
for peer support and peer coaching is given in activity “C.” below.
B.) Creating parent training/ parent engagement that helps parents learn strategies to use with
their child that build the child’s self-regulation abilities.
A project steering team that includes the self-regulation coach, our preschool center directors,
director of unified therapies, and teacher representatives will develop an upbeat parent workshop
with key strategies that parents can use in interactions with their child that foster the child’s selfregulation. This steering team will deliver the workshop once per school year in each of our
preschools, and will also develop methods for engaging parents individually during parentteacher conferences, home visits, or other contacts with parents to encourage parents’ skills for
using these home strategies. Through Year One we will observe the impact of these parent
learning and engagement efforts, and will compile outcomes and parent feedback, in order to
make adjustments as needed for parent training and engagement in Year Two.
The Family Partnership
Page 3 of 9
C.) Establishing a structure within the Multicultural Therapeutic Preschools program that
sustains the impact for children going forward.
During Year One the self-regulation expert will also deliver small-group consultation for
teachers that fosters peer support and peer learning. This will occur monthly in each preschool,
after the initial group training session. The self-regulation expert will facilitate the monthly
small-group session with teachers. The sessions will include training, discussions related to
classroom coaching, and actual case studies for review. By Year Two, as the self-regulation
expert and the center directors identify teachers who are particularly skilled in promoting
children’s self-regulation, these highly skilled teachers will be asked to facilitate the monthly
peer support/ peer learning group in each preschool. In this way, the two-year initiative will have
created an ongoing “structure” to continue building teachers’ capacity and skills to promote
children’s self-regulation in the classroom. In addition, the content of the group training sessions
developed in Years One and Two will be re-utilized for new teacher orientation and training after
the grant period has ended.
Additionally, we will incorporate what we learn and observe during the two-year parent training
and engagement activities into the preschools’ ongoing schedule of monthly parent events and
other forms of parent contacts, home visits, and conferences. From our two years of results,
observations and parent feedback, we will draw upon the most successful strategies for engaging
parents in expanding their use at home of strategies that develop their child’s self-regulation
skills.
3.
Describe the unique needs of the target population to be served and the gaps you hope to
address through new and different programming you propose. Provide a clear rationale for
the innovation proposed.
The children and families to be served in this project live in and below poverty, and have faced
many adverse experiences that interfere with the young child’s early brain development. These
life circumstances impede the child’s overall physical, health, social-emotional and cognitive
development and learning, and at the same time, reduce the parent’s capacity for creating the
type of environment the child needs to thrive, grow and learn.
The gaps we will address in this project are:
A.) The delayed child development of young children resulting from poverty and multiple
adverse experiences, which also is at the root of low-income children’s educational achievement
gaps as they move through the grades.
The particular innovation we will implement is building quality by expanding preschool
teachers’ knowledge and skill for providing in-classroom responses that promote children’s selfregulation abilities, through learning from a self-regulation coach and developing a “Train the
Trainer” model for ongoing teacher support. The self-regulation coach will provide teachers with
group teaching, individualized coaching/modeling in the real-time classroom setting, and
The Family Partnership
Page 4 of 9
facilitated small-group consultation for teachers that builds their further understanding, peer
support, peer learning, and ultimately develops peer leaders among the teaching staff for ongoing
peer coaching about children’s self-regulation.
B.) The gap in knowledge or skill of parents who struggle in deep poverty and face significant
challenges in managing life and providing stability for their children.
The parents in our program have themselves faced many adverse experiences in their early years
which have diminished their ability to function well as an adult. The Minnesota Department of
Health’s 2013 study “Adverse Childhood Experiences in Minnesota” found that people with
three or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) had substantially more depression, anxiety,
alcohol or drug abuse, poor educational achievement, unintended pregnancy, unemployment,
poor health and constant worry about how to pay for rent or groceries. Of all racial groups
African Americans and American Indians had a significantly higher percent of individuals
reporting 5 or more ACEs, and also the highest percent with 2, 3 and 4 ACEs. This is the profile
of parents we serve (and that we intentionally recruit) in our program.
Our parent engagement drive will be an empowerment model, giving parents better knowledge
and motivation for providing their child with a home environment that promotes the child’s selfregulation. All parents have aspirations for their children. Having their child in preschool
presents a window of opportunity for engaging the parents at a time when they are particularly
receptive to messages about their child’s progress. We will utilize various strategies for parent
engagement as described above in question 2, section B. Our two-year Women United project
will allow us to test and refine these parent engagement strategies, gather parent input, and
identify the most effective and successful methods that we can then incorporate into our ongoing
parent supportive and educational services after the grant period has ended.
4.
What new innovation, partnership, or infrastructure changes will you implement in the first
year?
During the first year of the project we will:


Innovate through a new approach to improving the classroom milieu. This new approach
will incorporate teacher group learning, individualized coaching of teachers in the realtime classroom, and regular opportunities for teachers to engage in small group
consultation facilitated by the self-regulation coach and which fosters peer support, peer
learning, and eventual peer leadership on this topic.
Begin to establish, in Year One, the basis for an internal structure in our preschools that
can carry on the self-regulation efforts after the grant period. As mentioned above, a
regularly held small-group consultation will occur during both years of the project, where
teachers can continue to learn from the self-regulation coach and from one another. They
will build peer support through this activity. By the second year of this effort peer leaders
will emerge from among the teachers, who demonstrate particularly strong skills and
knowledge for handling self-regulation issues in the classroom, and they can be enlisted
to continue providing peer support and learning after the grant period.
The Family Partnership
Page 5 of 9



5.
Develop and gather results from the Year One parent engagement strategies, which can
be adjusted during the second year for further learning. By the end of the two-year
project, we will identify the effective ways in which to engage parents in home practices
that promote the child’s self-regulation skills.
Develop a brochure “Behavior Tips that Work” for parents with input from behavioral
coach, managers, teachers, and parents.
Design and implement quiet spaces in 5 of our 10 classrooms that are safe, inviting and
soothing areas for one or more children to engage in calming activities and/or to deescalate. Monitor the effects and make adjustments as determined; then utilize what
we’ve learned during Year One to develop similar spaces in our remaining five
classrooms during Year Two.
How will this programming support kindergarten readiness? Describe the specific impact
you hope to achieve with this new or enhanced programming.
As teachers increase their knowledge and skill for promoting children’s self-regulation, we
expect to see the classroom milieu improve, which will improve the chances for all children in
our classrooms to achieve optimal gains in overall child development as well as in cognitive,
language, and concept knowledge needed achieve K-readiness. In early childhood the domains of
child development and learning are tightly interwoven, so addressing the need for improved selfregulation can help to advance overall executive functioning, development and learning
readiness. In addition, supplementing the child’s classroom experiences of self-regulation with
improved parent knowledge and skill for promoting self-regulation at home (via our parent
engagement strategies) adds the likelihood for deeper impact on children’s K-readiness. Upon
entering kindergarten the student/teacher ratios increase, which makes having self-regulation
skills even more crucial for children’s ongoing learning and success.
Our impact targets are as follows:
Classroom capacity building for self-regulation
90% of 10 teachers increase knowledge of self-regulation strategies, demonstrated via posttraining evaluation
90% of 10 teachers demonstrate effective in-classroom practices that promote child selfregulation, as measured by self-regulation coach observation and documentation
90% of 10 teachers report feeling a sense of peer support for handling children’s self-regulation
issues, as measured through survey
100% of 5 assistant teachers report increased knowledge of self-regulation strategies
Parent engagement
75% of 100 parents identify one or more home strategies they use to promote the child’s selfregulation, as measured through parent participation checklist and/or parent survey
The Family Partnership
Page 6 of 9
6.
Provide a detailed plan for the development implementation of this new programming over
the course of the two years. Provide a timeline for implementing the proposed plan as well
as expected milestones.
Year One
Oct. – Nov. 2015
 Enlist self-regulation expert to develop and deliver content for group teacher training to teach
self-regulation techniques that teachers can implement on a daily basis.
 Project steering team comprised of self-regulation expert, center directors, unified therapies
director, teacher representatives, and vice president of early childhood services develops
parent workshop content.
Dec. 2015
 Design the schedule for in-classroom, individualized teacher coaching and begin.
 Deliver parent workshops at each preschool
Jan. 2016 to Sept. 2016
 Continue individualized in-classroom coaching for each teacher.
 Provide monthly small-group consultation/training with teachers.
 Project steering team develops further parent engagement strategies, in which teaching about
children’s self-regulation is incorporated into parent visits, conferences, etc. Steering team
trains and engages other preschool staff to carry out the individualized parent engagement.
Steering team begins to develop Behavioral Technique tips for brochure.
 Quarterly meeting of administrator-level members of steering team (self-regulation coach,
center directors, unified therapies director, vice president of early childhood services) to
monitor project process and adjust as needed.
 3 times per year, assess and document children’s development with standardized tools
including Work Sampling System and Ounce Scale.
 Aug. 2016 preschool graduation events for children who will enter kindergarten.
 Sept. 2016 collect and analyze Year One project data: teacher outcomes, children’s
developmental outcomes, parent engagement, parent feedback on home engagement
strategies.
 Distribute Behavior Tips brochure to all families and add to intake packet.
Year Two: Oct. 2016 – Sept. 2017
 Based upon Year One results, make adjustments as needed.
 Oct: Develop and deliver monthly group teacher training, building upon content from firstyear training.
 Nov-Dec: Deliver parent workshop on ways to promote children’s self-regulation at home.
 Continue regular in-classroom teacher coaching.
 Continue other parent engagement strategies and track usage/results.
 Continue monthly small-group teacher consultation and peer support/learning.
 Jan 2017: Self-regulation coach together with center directors identify teacher peer-leaders in
self-regulation, and enlist them to lead and facilitate the small-group peer meetings.
The Family Partnership
Page 7 of 9
 Continue with quarterly review of project processes and outcomes by administrator-level
members of project steering team, making adjustment if needed.
 Ongoing solicitation of parent input on home strategies via parent-teacher conferences 3 times
per year and parent interviews.
July 2017 – Sept. 2017
 Compile project Years One and Two outcomes, results.
 Incorporate ongoing teacher peer support/peer learning into ongoing preschool program.
 Based upon parent input, incorporate ongoing parent engagement strategies for promoting
children’s self-regulation in the home environment into ongoing preschool program.
 August 2017 preschool graduation events for children who will be entering kindergarten.
 Report results to stakeholders; share results with MACC Early Childhood Services network
and Minnesota Tribal Resources for Early Child Care network (MnTRECC).
7.
Describe your plan for sustaining this new programming beyond this innovation grant
investment.
As shown through many sections of this application, we will use the two-year project to test and
refine a new approach to improving classroom milieu by building preschool teachers’ capacity
for promoting children’s self-regulation skills, and to engage parents in using home strategies
that also promote children’s self-regulation. As we learn through the two years, we will
incorporate the successful aspects of each project component into our ongoing preschool
program.
Early Childhood Education Project Impact
Include program specific indicators listed for the year and/or new indicators. Include any
relevant definitions. Only fill out this section if you are proposing an early childhood program.
Indicator (please list all relevant)
1) Total number of children served
2) Children who received Early Childhood Screen at or near age 3
3) Children who are up-to-date with immunizations
4) Children who are age appropriate in their social, emotional,
cognitive, language, and physical development
5) Children who receive early intervention as appropriate
Other program indicators
6) Teachers demonstrate effective in-classroom practices that
promote child self-regulation to assure ongoing learning.
7) Parents handle behavior concerns in new and positive ways.
Intended Results
* 170
* 100
* 170
* 150
* 108
9
75
*Note: We already collect the starred indicators in our overall preschool program. The “Other”
indicators are specific to this proposal, and will contribute particularly to indicators #4 and #5.
The Family Partnership
Page 8 of 9
Budget
Revenues:
Women United Grant Request:
Other Grants:
In-Kind:
Other revenue:
79,500
TOTAL:
79,500
TOTAL:
20,880
626
4,364
5,600
31,600
430
11,000
5,000
79,500
Expenses:
Salary & Staff:
Pension Allocation:
Other Taxes & Benefits:
Programming Costs:
Staff Development:
Communications:
Program supplies:
Client support:
The Family Partnership
Page 9 of 9