A Farewell from ECD's Director, Dr. Deborah Bergeron
Dear ECD Partners:
In 2018, I was appointed Director of the Office of Head Start. About a year later I was asked to also lead the Office of Early Childhood Development. I was very excited to add this broader sect of early childhood to my portfolio. With only a few staff and scant resources, ECD set out to become the ‘go to’ federal office for early childhood issues. As I reflect on the last two years of work with ECD, I think the small staff and need to be particularly efficient and creative with the resources we had actually led to more growth and greater impact. Each member of this incredible team has given so much of themselves to get the office to where it is now. We’ve been innovative and allowed ourselves to really think beyond the norm. And, we’ve only been able to do that with your partnership. Our first big event was the ECD Film Festival. The popcorn at 9AM was a standout feature of that meeting, but behind the popcorn was a room filled with such caring people who work in a wide variety of spaces that impact early childhood – school systems, university researchers, childcare, philanthropy, local, state and federal government. It was at that point that ECD knew there was a void in this space and since have worked to create a ‘go to’ federal office to catalyze those who work to improve the lives our children and families. From simple things, like enhancing communication through this newsletter and our ECD Twitter, to more complex tasks, like hosting the first-ever Early Learning Showcase at the Department of Education’s ED Games Expo and our Radical Family Engagement Week with parents, schools, and national, state and local leaders. We worked hard to establish structures for results-focused federal interagency collaboration through our ACF Early Childhood Collaborative, the Early Childhood Health and Well-being Federal Leadership Group, and the Tribal Early Childhood Working Group. We’ve partnered with our federal colleagues, across ACF, HHS, ED, USDA, and beyond. ECD has made great strides in becoming a ‘go to’ federal office. We know there is more to do. As I transition out of my position as ECD Director, I am so excited for everyone involved here. ECD has laid the foundation, and you are helping us to erect the walls. I envision a beautiful structure with big windows, brightly painted walls, and a front porch where, together, we can sit and look out on the needs of our children, looking for ways to better meet their needs and ultimately better serve our nation’s families.
Thank you for your contributions and support so far, and thank you for the work I know you will continue to do.
Happy 2021!
Dr. Deborah Bergeron
About Human Trafficking
What is human trafficking?
There are two types of a severe form of trafficking in persons:
- Labor Trafficking: Individuals are made to work or provide services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
- Sex Trafficking: Individuals are made to engage in commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. If a person is under 18 engages in commercial sex, it is sex trafficking regardless of whether there is any force, fraud, or coercion.
Who is at risk?
Individuals from any class, religious, cultural, or ethnic group can be targeted for human trafficking. While this is the case, there are some individuals that are especially vulnerable, including individuals who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect, children and youth involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, individuals experiencing homelessness, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals from low-income families. For more information, visit OTIP's website.
Myths and facts about human trafficking
There are plenty of myths about human trafficking — what it is, who can experience trafficking, what happens in a trafficking situation. Learn the truth about some common myths from the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
How to get help: National Human Trafficking Hotline
The National Human Trafficking Hotline connects victims and survivors of sex and labor trafficking with services and supports to get help and stay safe.
- Help is available via phone, text, and live online chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year in English or Spanish, or in more than 200 additional languages through an on-call interpreter. Visit the National Human Trafficking Hotline website for more information.
What ECD and OTIP are doing about Human Trafficking: A Joint IM
High quality early care and learning programs have a positive impact on a variety of child and family outcomes, including reducing an individual’s vulnerability to human trafficking. Many protective factors are included in the programming as this is essential to ensuring that the whole family’s needs are met and that young children can be successful. These protective factors support efforts of primary prevention of human trafficking, ensuring that children start on the right trajectory as soon as they are born and making sure that parents and caregivers have the individual and community support they need to ensure the safety and well-being of their children.
To prioritize early childhood development and anti-trafficking efforts, deeper partnerships and a shared responsibility should be established and maintained at all levels to ensure that the needs of children and families are effectively met. When understanding the importance of early learning experiences, it is important to work across programs so that children and families have the best outcomes possible. OTIP and ECD will be publishing a joint Information Memorandum (IM), Prioritizing Early Childhood Development to Prevent Human Trafficking, which focuses our collective work on four strategies that most align to the strengths of early childhood learning and support:
- Strengthening Skills to Promote Self-Efficacy and Prevent Labor and Sex Trafficking
- Promoting Family Environments that Support Healthy Development
- Creating Protective Environments
- Fostering Multidisciplinary Networks and Coalitions
The joint IM will be available soon.
OTIP SOAR to Health and Wellness Training
Many individuals who have experienced trafficking encounter health care and social service professionals during and after their exploitation but remain unidentified. SOAR training equips professionals (including those in educational settings) with skills to identify and respond to those who are at risk of, currently experiencing, or have experienced trafficking and connect them with the resources they need. Learn more about SOAR Online training.
Resources on Human Trafficking
OTIP website
Head Start: Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center website
U.S. Department of Education: Human Trafficking in America’s Schools
U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Blue Campaign
U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development: Human Trafficking and Homelessness
OTIP National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center
Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center
Child Welfare Information Gateway: Human Trafficking Resources for Child Welfare Professionals
Bought and Sold: Recognizing and Assisting Youth Victims of Domestic Sex Trafficking
Presidential Proclamation: January 2021 – National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
In Case You Missed It: ECD's Radical Family Engagement Event
Beginning on October 26, 2020 the Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) hosted a week of events for cross-sector partners to discuss how radical family engagement could change the landscape of education and early childhood systems. ECD and our partner organizations developed a series of events that brought together stakeholders to learn, re-think, co-create, and deepen our understanding about what is needed to authentically engage parents and partners to ensure successful transitions for children from early childhood programs to K-12. Each event had over 200 participants and was structured to focus on the unique roles of families, schools, national, state, and local leaders, researchers, and representatives from philanthropic organizations in creating and sustaining radical family engagement.
Throughout the week, participants and presenters were asked to identify action steps that they could take to advance radical family engagement activities for shared impact in the future. Some participants shared examples of actions they could take immediately; for example, an educator shared the following: “I will send out a note to parents to tell us their desires for their child and have it returned. Then share with staff." Similarly, ECD and our partners shared a series of actions that were developed throughout the week. Some of these actions are immediate—like sharing resources and supporting ParentCamp—and some are big ideas that will advance Radical Family Engagement—like a collaboration between ECD, the Office of Head Start, AASA, NAESP and ParentCamp to develop a cohort of schools focused on identifying and utilizing family engagement processes that are effective and radical.
Mary Jo Caruso, from the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention joined each event throughout the week and used her graphic recording skills to capture all of the inspiration in one cohesive image.
You can watch a brief video recap of the week on YouTube (see below) and learn more about the speakers in the event Bio Book.
Announcing: “What Head Start Can Teach Us About Engaging Families,” an article by Dr. Bergeron.
Don't Miss this Funding Opportunity!
Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS): Health Integration Prenatal-to-Three Program
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is now accepting applications for FY 2021 for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS): Health Integration Prenatal-to-Three Program. The purpose of this program is to build integrated maternal and early childhood systems of care that are equitable, sustainable, comprehensive, and inclusive of the health system, and that promote early developmental health and family well-being and increase family-centered access to care and engagement of the prenatal-to-3-year-old (P–3) population. The full posting is available at grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328462
We encourage you to share the opportunity broadly with your networks and colleagues as there are many specific opportunities for partnership and progress. Specific questions can be directed to Ekaterina Zoubak at EZoubak@hrsa.gov.
Contact us here
Email: earlychildhooddevelopment@acf.hhs.gov
Website: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd
Twitter: @ecdgov