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.
Program Gallery
Grantees
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
Little Big Horn College
Northwest Indian College
Salish Kootenai College
Sitting Bull College
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Related Blogs
Ké’ Family Engagement : It’s Too Easy to Get Caught Up in the Craze of Today’s World
In the life of a parent, there is so much to keep up with that it can be easy to forget to slow down and enjoy the ride. I have to take a moment and remind myself that the children are only going to be this small once. Some day, my boys are going to be grown and start families of their own.
Pueblo of Jemez –Photo Voice Showcase
Our Parent Photo Voice team had the great honor of having Walatowa Headstart Program Manager, Lana Toya, enlighten us with their Photo Voice project and journey. Lana shared information on the project’s foundation, development, motivation and their efforts to transform a head start to a language immersion program in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico.
Wakanyeja Sacred Little Ones & K’é Family Engagement Initiative Presents: “SIPI YDI Community Planting Event”
The Wakanyeja Sacred Little Ones and K’é Family Engagement Initiatives presents Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute “YDI Community Planting Event” held on Tuesday April 28th, 2015 from 4:30-6:00pm. This event took place just west of the SIPI/YDI center in the YDI heritage garden.
College4Kids Program Features Pigs, Pancakes and Maple
you give a pig a pancake — oh, the adventure you will have! Maple sugaring was the theme for this Saturday’s College 4 Kids session. Children and their families attending the College of Menominee Nation’s College 4 Kids on March 21 enjoyed the adventures in Laura Numeroff’s book titled If You Give a Pig a Pancake.
