Parent Inquiry Initiative Update

As of the beginning of 2013, the Parent Inquiry Initiative, referred to as Parentii, work is continuing to build sustainable momentum through the parent leaders’ actions, research activity, dissemination, and learning agreements. For decades, the interwoven efforts of community and state-level entities have provided information, access, and education to Connecticut’s parents and families. Contributing to this work, Parentii focuses on parents being producers of essential knowledge as well as consumers of information. PII engages stakeholders in participatory, community-based research.

The purpose of this initiative is to:

• Promote parent leader engagement in their communities
• Support parent capacity-building in inquiry and assessment of information value
• Instruct parents in the acquisition and production of essential knowledge
• Facilitate conducting community-based research with scholars, parents, community-based agencies, and EC practitioners
• Value community-based research conducted by parents, with parents as well as by others on behalf of families and communities

This initiative has grown out of the two-year Parent Information Action Research project including multiple dissemination venues as well as continued parent leadership and inquiry opportunities.  Collaborative efforts that have provided feedback clarify this work and inform how Parentii moves forward. To learn more about the Parent Inquiry Initiative read about the work presented at the October 10, 2012 Stone Soup Conference: Collective Action: Parts To Whole

Parent Information Action Research Teams meet. (l-r) Yury Maciel-Andrews, William Carter, Carmen A. James, Rubis Collado, Rubis Collado (again) and Timeca Peters

Intended value-added outcomes for this initiative are:

• Parents owning the data
• Parents listening for community needs which directly inform inquiry process
• Parents making data-driven decisions
• Parents taking action towards desired community-based outcomes

An Open Invitation to Participate  If you are a parent, work with parents or would like to support parent leaders in ensuring children’s well-being and community success we would like to hear from you.  You are welcome to join our collaborative efforts to support parents with young children birth through age eight be critical consumers of information as well as producers of essential knowledge. If you see yourself contributing to this work in anyway, contact Paige M. Bray through the Parent Inquiry Initiative at parentii@hartford.edu.

Stakeholders in this initiative include:

• Parent leaders
• Community-based researchers, inclusive of parents, community leaders, practitioners and scholars
• William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, specifically Discovery Initiative Communities
• Kettering Foundation
• University of Hartford Early Childhood Programs with their collaborative partners in parent information and professional preparation
  
  • Connecticut Birth to Three System
• Early Childhood Conversation Conference, for parents and practitioners

This research is conducted under the auspices of the Center for Learning and Professional Education in the Institute for Translational Research in the College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions at the University of Hartford.