Strategic Planning and Building
TCU ECE Family Engagement
2020-2021
About The Program
The Strategic Planning and Building TCU ECE Family Engagement program involved a $200,000 grant that supported 7 TCUs with family engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as supported the development of a strategic plan for the next 1, 4, and 7 years of the American Indian College Fund’s Indigenous Early Childhood Education (IECE) programming.
TCU grantees demonstrated that the funding supported families and children during the pandemic through several family engagement activities:
- Virtual story time facilitated by community elders
- Trapping and harvesting demonstrations
- Crafting activities such as beading mask holders
- Cooking meals together
- Virtual workshops such as budgeting and couponing for parents
Grantees also used the funding to cover the cost of winter coats for children, gift cards for families’ emergent needs, and wellness and learning packages. The program also offered webinars to the TCUs on family engagement and faculty wellness.
The IECE strategic planning process recognized the changing social and economic landscape in our place-based institutions and the value of continued support of lifelong, intergenerational learning in tribal communities. Native families, children, and ECE teachers and students play a vital role in all of this. The College Fund’s IECE strategic plan was developed through consultants, and interviews were conducted with 19 TCUs, Early Childhood Education (ECE) funders, and College Fund Board members and staff.
The Strategic Planning and Building TCU ECE Family Engagement program was followed by a $100,000 food security grant to support Native families’ food needs. Families were given gift cards for groceries, distributed by the ECE programs of 26 TCUs.
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Early Childhood Education Blogs
Articles and success from the College Fund programs team.
Indigenous ECE Family Engagement Webinar with Janice LaFloe
The American Indian College Fund’s Strategic Planning and Building TCU ECE Family Engagement Grant provides TCUs support for family engagement and wellness in Native communities during the pandemic. This may include sending families early childhood learning kits, organizing virtual story time or language lessons, or assisting families with meals and basic needs.
For the Wisdom of the Children Meets COVID-19
By Janine Pease, For the Wisdom of the Children LBHC Project Director Just as we were rounding the turn to the last leg of the school year, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit. The Montana governor declared a Shelter in Home order in response to the coronavirus, and all public...
Using Social Media to Strengthen SIPI’s Teacher of Color Pipeline
I am a member of the Navajo Nation from the Ramah-Navajo reservation attending the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), where I am majoring in early childhood education (ECE).
Grantees
Thank you to our Grantees for supporting this program.
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Sitting Bull College
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Little Big Horn College
Northwest Indian College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Salish Kootenai College
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How to Help
Currently only 14.5% of American Indians hold college degrees. But with 42% of Native Americans being 24 years old or younger, you have the opportunity to make an incredible impact for this generation and generations to come when you donate today.