ECEAP Family Support

Family Support Person (FSP)

The Family Support Person (FSP) maintains an outreach recruitment and enrollment process throughout the school year. The FSP works in partnership with the site team to encourage and plan for parent participation in their child's education. The FSP works together with families in an effort to support them in recognizing and building upon their family strengths and improving the conditions and quality of their family's life. The FSPs work will adhere to ECEAP Program Standards, Service Plans and the principles of best practice in the field of family support.

Responsibilities:

• Contributes to the development of positive communication, mutual respect, mutual support, competence and creativity among all members of the ECEAP staff.
• Organizes and conducts ongoing recruitment to ensure full enrollment in the ECEAP center.
• In collaboration with other site staff, participates in ongoing recruitment.
• Organizes and conducts enrollment activities, interviews parents to determine program eligibility, verifies income and obtains necessary parent permission for ECEAP activities.
• In collaboration with site staff, organizes and conducts parent orientations to ECEAP, including orienting parents to their rights and responsibilities in ECEAP and explaining relevant ECEAP policies and curriculum approaches.
• Assists families in recognizing their strengths and supports them in setting goals and planning how to meet the goals through the development of a Family Partnership Plan.
• Works in partnership with families to overcome barriers, meet their stated goals and achieve economic success and prosperity.
• Provides family support services through at least three hours contact with each family during program year.
• Works collaboratively with center mental health professional in addressing mental health issues of the enrolled children and their families.
• Visits family's home as appropriate for the purpose of enrolling children in program, interviewing parents, informing parents of school and/or community resources and providing child development and parenting information.
• Collects and identifies health and nutrition information including medical, dental, immunization records and other information from parents and health providers for the purpose of providing health summaries and information reports to center staff and coordinators and referring to health treatment as appropriate.
• Develops individualized child health and/or nutrition plans, as necessary, for the purpose of supporting the child's success in school.
• At the end of the school year, evaluates and documents in child's file the family's experience with working on their child's health plan.
• Provides support to families experiencing a crisis and refers them to emergency assistance and crisis intervention providers, as appropriate.
• Partners with parents for the purpose of assisting with access to health providers, obtaining exams, identifying obstacles to completing exams and securing appropriate treatment and follow-up on referrals for children.
• Promotes parent, staff and community partnerships in the ECEAP program through various methods (e.g., parent meetings, parent leadership, Parent Professional Development opportunities, newsletters, parent trainings, home visits, Policy Council, volunteer opportunities, and other strategies).
• Encourages parents to participate in the decisions concerning the education of their children and supports families involved in site leadership activities.
• Provides or assists with providing health screenings, immunization verifications, and outside agency referrals (e.g. hearing, vision, immunization compliance, height/weight) for the purpose of promoting needed treatment and complying with program requirements.
• Works with families and site team to ensure smooth transitions for children and families to before- and after-school care and between ECEAP and Kindergarten.