The IECMHC Network provides a virtual community reflective practice series for home-based child care and early education providers across California. The goal is to offer consistent and supportive spaces for providers from a variety of backgrounds to share their experiences providing care for young children. Groups are offered to Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers and Family Child Care Home (FCCH) providers to support their unique needs in the daily care and interactions with young children and their families. A variety of Community of Support (CoS) Groups offers FFN caregivers and FCCH providers an experience to promote reflection and support their well-being. Groups are offered in English and Spanish. Check out our events page for updates on upcoming virtual CoS Information Sessions.
Information Sessions will occur every Monday from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (PST) October 16 to November 6. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish. Visit our events page to register for a session today!
Please note that you must attend one Information Session in order to register for a Community of Support Group.
If you are a center-based child care and early education teacher or staff and are interested in a Community of Support, we encourage you to join us for one of our Open Door monthly drop-in sessions. For individualized support, you may contact our Helpline or request our Consultation Services.
Communities of Support Group Descriptions
This group will engage in conversations and opportunities for using reflective practice in participants’ daily care and interactions with young children and their families. We will explore our strengths and stressors, as well as hopes for ourselves and the children we care for, through the lens of supporting caregiver well-being.
This group will engage in conversations and opportunities for using reflective practice while exploring ways to enrich and support connections and relationships in the role of a care provider for young children. During this series, we will use a reflective approach to dive into how we provide care while exploring topics such as Honoring our Past While Staying in the Present, Brain Development, Developmental Milestones, Everyday Routines, and Caring for Ourselves.
This group will focus on building community with other caregivers and centering the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) caregivers. While this space is open to anyone, the focus will center on uplifting BIPOC voices. We will share our joys and challenges, our strengths and vulnerabilities, and our ancestral hopes and wishes for future generations. We will learn about each other’s rich cultures and family traditions and how these experiences have shaped our identities and have impacted the way we support young children. We will deepen our discussions further by sharing how these experiences may be judged by those in society that hold power and privilege. With our collective wisdom, we will share stories of lessons learned.
