Family Leadership Toolkit

The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has collaborated with partners from across systems in developing the Family Leadership Toolkit, which is designed to provide resources to support the development of family leadership practices that nurture family leaders whose experience and knowledge can then be tapped to improve programs, resources, and initiatives that support Pennsylvania families with children.

The Toolkit leverages the strength, experiences and expertise of a wide array of professional and family leaders and serves as a tool for Pennsylvania’s maternal and early childhood systems to have shared language, as well as resources to support the development of family leadership practices that empower parents and caregivers whose experience and knowledge can then be tapped to improve programs, resources, and initiatives that support Pennsylvania families.

The Toolkit is the result of months of collaboration, hard work and shared commitment to advancing family leadership, and would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of professional and family leaders who participated in the FLC meetings, interviews and feedback sessions held as part of the development of the Toolkit.

Family leadership is vital to promoting the wellbeing of children and families, and this Toolkit can be an important tool in improving policies, procedures and practices to elevate all family voices in decision making in Pennsylvania.