Welcoming Newcomer Families to Early Childhood Programs - Supporting Hard to Reach Families

Supporting newcomer families in EarlyON Centers and other early childhood programs can be challenging; and yet, programming for young children is often a critical gateway to successful settlement. This webinar explores some of the reasons why it may be difficult to reach newcomer families and suggests strategies for encouraging hard to reach families to participate and return again and again. Although it identifies obvious reasons why families do not participate, the webinar focuses largely on the invisible barriers to participation, such as differences in understandings, priorities, goals and beliefs. With a focus on daily activities like eating and playing, it establishes a cultural basis for such differences and suggests practices for successfully supporting newcomer families.