(On the cover and above) Family Voice Council Member Tré Tailor and her grandchildren participated in a First Five SC photo shoot which featured real families to tell the story of public programs.
Families are at the heart of early childhood systems, and their voices play a vital role in shaping policies, programs, and practices that support early childhood development and learning.
A Year of Family Voice highlights current family voice efforts in South Carolina, shares key learnings from the Early Childhood Advisory Council’s Family Voice Council (ECAC FVC), and outlines opportunities for strengthening family engagement in the state’s public systems. This report is intended for parents, policymakers, program leaders, and child- and family-serving professionals, offering insights into how family voices can inform and improve systems of care and education.
It is important that South Carolina build a network of family voice, joining the themes of parents across the state, and bridging the experiences of early childhood and families throughout the lifespan. When public systems and direct service providers holistically focus on the needs of all the important people in young children’s lives, entire families and communities can thrive and succeed.
In South Carolina, we have many family-driven groups that center family experiences and leadership to create change and to partner with impactful programs. Below is a select inventory of some parent leadership and voice efforts across South Carolina with potential to collaboratively share family voice and jointly expand reach within the early childhood system.
• Children’s Trust of South Carolina facilitates a statewide Parent Advisory Council that formed in 2024. They also hosted Parent Leadership Academy over the summer of 2024 with in-depth trainings on topics parents and direct family-serving professionals had requested. Parents on the Parent Advisory Council have children ages birth-18. More information can be found at https://scchildren.org/coalitions/parent-advisory-council/.
• Family Connection of SC (FCSC), a statewide support network serving families of children with disabilities and speical healthcare needs and the largest identified parent center in South Carolina, is the appointed SC Family Voices Parent Center (https://familyvoices.org/). FCSC offers specialist programs in which parents receive personalized guidance from others who truly understand, offering insights and resources that transform lives. FCSC initiatives engage families and professionals, creating a network of support. FCSC aims to build collaborative relationships that foster a community of care and understanding. FCSC offers year-round, accessible workshops covering essential topics for parents, families, and professionals. From understanding rights to exploring therapies, workshops equip participants with knowledge and confidence. Learn more at https://www.familyconnectionsc.org/.
• Head Start Parent Policy Councils began in 1970, and each Head Start agency has a Policy Council, as defined in the Head Start Program Performance Standards. Parents are partners and leaders of local Head Start agencies that are fundamental to the way they operate. Learn more about the Policy Council requirements at https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/policy/45-cfr-chap-xiii/1301-3-policy-council-policy-committee , and visit the SC Head Start Collaboration Office to locate Head Start programs in SC by county. https://www.scchildcare.org/ programs/head-start-collaboration-office/.
• The South Carolina Early Childhood Common Agenda (ECCA) is a coalition led by the Institute for Child Success. The ECCA deeply engages agencies and parent partners through testimony and awareness raising about a variety of early childhood health and well-being issues families are experiencing throughout the state. Learn more at https://www.instituteforchildsuccess.org/our-initiatives/initiative/sc-ecca/.
• The SC Department of Social Services began the Family Voice Alliance in 2022. The Family Voice Alliance is a collaboration between parents with Child Welfare lived experience and the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS). Together they aim to address SCDSS policies and practices that impact children, communities, and parents. The collaboration will improve the efforts to honor families and regularly receive meaningful lived expertise perspective to better align with South Carolina’s mission to be rooted in delivering change. Applications for the upcoming year will be launched December 2024. SCDSS also is piloting Parent Partnership in Greenville, which is based on work being done in all 99 counties in Iowa. Children & Families of Iowa and Iowa Child Protective Servies have partnered together and several community members to serve the children and families. The model partners parents in open cases with a parent who has been through process and now has a closed case. This builds social supports for families experiencing the challenges of being involved in the child welfare system. Learn more at https://dss.sc.gov/lived-experience/ .
OPPORTUNITIES TO BUILD A NETWORK OF FAMILY VOICE
Agencies need support in adding capacity to train and prepare professionals to work with and partner with families so that they are able to receive and act on parent recommendations for change. Agencies need to train staff to include the public in decision making processes, and elicit feedback from groups that may not necessarily know what feedback to give or the methods to share it most impactfully.
• Professionals and parents need more training about person-first language, trauma-informed care, and using common/plain language to prevent barriers to open, respectful communication.
• Many public programs need to rebuild trust in communities through transparency to parents about processes, eligibility criteria, and upcoming changes to services that impact them.
• There need to be safe ways for parents to have conversations about challenges they face without fear of losing services or of being negatively impacted. One opportunity to do so is through SCParents.org where parents can anonymously ask questions that are then answered by other parents. These questions can then be used to identify common issues, concerns , and common experiences that families face. Any recommendations that arise from parents for possible program changes can be elevated to program staff.
• Passionate parent leaders deserve support in identifying opportunities to share feedback and lift their voices for impact in the areas they most care about.
• Family leaders should be fairly compensated for their time, service and labor in quality improvement efforts for programs as consultants. Further, compensation promotes the ability for families to commit to leadership opportunities and provide services without taking away from time otherwise needed to work to financially support their families.
• Family voice initiatives across the state need to develop a common language of family partnership with operationalized definitions. This could serve as the basis for a joint framework for family leadership, family voice, and family engagement across SC agencies and organizations that is trauma-informed, strengthsfocused and whole-family-centered.
• Families are often asked the same questions repeatedly by programs and family engagement efforts through listening sessions and surveys. To avoid duplication of effort by agencies, as well as survey burden for parents, parent-serving groups could share family feedback and the common information direct service professionals are receiving from families. There could be joint feedback loops in place to see what changes occur from family feedback, which could broaden the places where family voice is included effectively, appropriately, and elevated. One such opportunity could be to create a Family Voice Dashboard with specific family feedback as well as the common themes family voice groups receive. This could elevate family voice by have a repository that researchers, policy makers, and program staff could review when considering changes and parent perceptions on issues.
(Opposite page) SC Early Childhood Advisory Council Family Voice Council Member Rosa Linda Contreras shared her parenting experiences as part of the family voice video project filmed by SC ETV and aired during the 2023 SC Summit on Early Childhood.
The South Carolina Early Childhood Adivory Council Family Voice Council (ECAC FVC) was born of a commitment from the public early childhood system to partner with families and listen, center, and co-create the future of programming and policies that impact families in our state. The ECAC FVC is supported through funding from the Preschool Development Grant, Birth-Five. The group began meeting in August 2021, and its members represent all regions of the state and have a wide range of experiences, family composition, parent and child ages, incomes, professional backgrounds, and viewpoints. At the foundational meeting in August 2021, members identified key principles and values for the group that persist today: parents are a child’s strongest champion, and families supporting other families is fundamental in building flourishing communities. Members recognize the ECAC FVC as a way not only to amplify and center the experiences of parents, but also a way for each member to share personal interests, skills, and passions for the betterment of our state and to connect with other families.
ECAC FVC members wanted to learn about early childhood services so they could help promote parent awareness and use of available resources in their regions. At ECAC FVC monthly meetings, a different state agency or publicly funded program or initiative presents to the members. The presentations are opportunities for members to learn more about the programs that are of interest to them, and for members to offer feedback about possible areas of enhancement when applicable.
Since the Year of Family Voice Report 2022, ECAC FVC members, in partnership with SC Educational Television, recorded videos stating their values and hopes for the future that were featured at “We Are Family: 2023 SC Summit on Early Childhood.” Members also planned the “We Are Family: 2023 SC Summit on Early Childhood” in order for early care and education professionals to learn about topics families find important. The Summit’s opening plenary panel was comprised of current and alum members Ashley Berendzen, Rosa Linda Contreras, Corina Esaw, Canihja Simon, Dana Quattlebaum, and Tre’ Tailor. They shared their experiences and insights from parenting, their biggest concerns for parents of young children, their vision for the future for families, and things they wished they knew earlier in their parenting journey. They all echoed the challenges in finding care for their children and knowing about resources to help their families, as well as the loneliness that often comes from parenting and maintaining or cultivating a circle of support.
SC
Childhood
In June and July of 2024, the SC Early Childhood Adivory Council Family Voice Council current and alum members were invited to respond to an open-ended survey that collected information about various aspects of their family life, concerns, and details about experiences they had while interacting with public programs and systems. Remaining sections of this report contain FVC member feedback they shared on the survey, in meetings, and while producing this report. The feedback centers around family support, challenges in accessing public benefits, costs and benefits cliffs. The report ends with their recommendations for public benefits systems to address these challenges.
FAMILY SUPPORT
Many parents feel isolated and lonely, with few social connections. They feel it is hard to create and sustain support systems with the demands of parenting, and wish they had more community supports for families and a “village.”
There needs to be more continuing education opportunities for parents.
Staying encouraged is hard, as no one else is required to help.
Young parents need mentorship, and other parents who had children young can help them. There isn’t a lot of education around parenting and planning for parenting and how to parent. There are not enough options or information, not everyone is ready, and many are just thrown into parenting. Not everyone is mentally prepared for parenting ahead of time.
SNAP, TANF, WIC, and Medicaid were reported to have had the greatest impact on many families.
A member reported that having child care assistance kept their child in a safe child care facility and also kept them in safe, stable housing during a very financially difficult time.
There is bias against participating in public programs that support families, and stigma for those who do participate in programs and services. These programs exist in order to support families and to help.
One member stated that every person should have access to services without prejudice. Many people will not take advantage of services because of how demonized it has been to be on public assistance.
It is difficult for families to find child care and other resources including social programs and public benefits.
Finding dental care has been a challenge.
Members felt that most programs and services focused only on fixing what's currently wrong instead of getting to the root of the problem.
“We all have a responsibility to take care of the children and make sure they have access to what they need to grow up to be productive and healthy members of our state.”
- FVC Member
“It was frustrating not knowing what’s going on with my child— like sending them off to school, the school will tell you things but not help. You have to figure it out on your own, it’s sad. I looked to doctors and the school which I thought were the main people who were sent to help. It was hard having to do it alone. I know I’m not alone, but I feel alone a lot because we are still in the process…it really stinks. I live in a small town, so resources are limited.”
–Jalisa Byrd
“There were preschool suspensions, then three kindergarten suspensions. We went to professionals, family and multidisciplinary therapy, where we got the most thorough evaluation I’ve ever seen. It talked about impulsivity, and when he turned six he got a medication. Holding school officials accountable for the IEP is hard, they don’t look at the underlying causes, and readily suspend and will not work with you. It makes you feel really bad. I didn’t go through that with his brother and sister; my youngest child had trauma from birth through early childhood, and it impacted his behavior. As a baby, he went through so much. His IEP still doesn’t make extra allowances to meet what he needs to do well and to address his anxieties. It’s so hard to get a diagnosis, and even when you get them, it’s not always right. We need to be able to get diagnoses sooner rather than later. People need to be held accountable to the IEP, and breaking it is just awful. I shouldn’t have to fight so hard.”
–
Brenda Cantey
Members state that many applications for programs are too long and the process is too difficult. This impacts not only families but the elderly, and veterans, particularly the many homeless veterans. An example members gave was for SNAP, where so much information was required, yet the benefit was $20 a month. It was said that it took a whole lot of their work to get so little.
Families experienced challenges in knowing that the criteria for SNAP and Child Care scholarships were changing and their services were ending after COVID relief. Not having ample notice that eligibility changes were coming to financially prepare for the change in benefits amounts and it caused hardship on their family income and financial resources.
Child care costs as well as the rising cost of living is a burden and is hard with limited financial resources, including for middle income families and single parent families. It is a challenge to buy food with soaring inflation, and many families are no longer eligible for SNAP after the end of COVID relief. Working and middle class people also struggle when they earn too much income to qualify for public services but then don’t make enough to keep up with financial obligations.
Many programs have eligibility cliffs, when there should be a phasing out of the program over time; programs need to understand that incomes that were seen as sustainable in the past no longer are. There needs to be consideration for this to not leave families without vital resources they can’t financially replace. It should be a slope instead of a cliff.
Members said that many people they know are afraid to work because they won’t earn enough to make up for the amount of the benefits, like losing Medicaid. Members recommended to help parents figure out these key things and what the costs are. A member stated that if you stay in the system you can’t elevate, “you don’t want to be stuck and have them forever, but want more options to get past it.”
Members expressed that there have been many funding cuts in education and health, and budgets keep getting cut when people need those resources. One member said they are scared for their child. “These systems are failing our children who aren’t getting the level of education they deserve.”
Members said that cutting education and health programs penalizes the people who want to send their kids to public school because when these systems get worse, it pushes people out. They felt this is not the direction we need to go in order for South Carolina to flourish.
“Somehow at some point in the generations, it changed, and communities aren’t as connected, but people can’t do this all alone. We have to help each other. ”
- FVC Member
ECAC FVC members had a number of recommendations about opportunities to better support families.
Programs could have clearer and more expanded eligibility criteria, so more families can participate.
Programs could be sure to offer more timely notification about upcoming changes that make families ineligible that result in removal. This could help families better financially prepare for the loss of the program.
There should be help for people once they no longer qualify for benefits; members recommended programs offer a support group for transitioning of publicly funded programs in order to help families with employment and childcare concerns.
Programs should be more responsive to parents’ contact attempts, as well as reduce administrative burden, and make applications easier.
Outreach should be more direct to communities so families know what’s available so that they can participate.
Programs and services should partner with parents and others with personal experience to develop or change policies and processes that impact them. Parents want feedback loops to be embedded in projects to keep them informed about improvements that have been made. Families should be included from the beginning when changes are being considered to improve programs, as they will be most impacted by those changes. They have experience and understand how changes could directly benefit or harm program participants. This way feedback comes from the people who most intimately understand the problems from the perspective of experiencing it personally.
Families need help when in crisis, as well as opportunities for training on finance and investing to help prepare for the future and unexpected circumstances. Challenges to this are lack of availability of emergency financial assistance and the daily financial demands that make it challenging to plan ahead.
“Nothing about us without us”—decisions made are often by people with no personal experience with the subject, and more program staff should be people who have direct lived experience with different challenges, to think through solutions that address the problem.
Programs should spread more positive things about their programs, since so often the messages about them are negative, to show the good things that they’re doing to help families. Often the people being impacted by programs don’t hear about the successes and positive things happening.
It may be possible for services to partner to get discounts to participants or ways for programs to be more available so everyone can have the same standard and opportunity for enriching early childhood experiences such as museums and zoos. Because a family may be struggling or need services, this could be an opportunity to make it equitable for that family to participate.
Parents should be trained and invited to offer testimony at meetings along with others who went through experiences. These stories help others understand that it’s okay and reduce stigma. Whenever programs are talked about it should include stories of those with experience, so that people who have not participated but have worked in these programs can see the results directly. Looking at statistics and data is not the same as actually hearing from those who have benefited.
To encourage other parents who may read this report, ECAC FVC members wanted to end with messages of encouragement.
Parenting is mentally as well as physically stressful. If care about families, we’ll make sure they’re mentally and physically well. Seeking services is stressful. When we work together to share and voice our fears, feelings, and thoughts, we can make difference even if it doesn’t change overnight.
Parenting is about learning, and reaching out—you never know who knows who or what to help your family. You can help somebody else by telling them your problems and how you got through; if we would talk about it we would find other people are experiencing it too and find resources.
Families, reach out to available resources, there may be things to help that you don’t even know about and resources through school and medical providers; go ahead and apply and you may be surprised that you are eligible. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Somehow at some point in the generations it changed, and communities aren’t as connected, but people can’t do this all alone. We have to help each other.
You’re not alone.
A member reported that having child care assistance kept their child in a safe child care facility and also kept them in safe, stable housing during a very financially difficult time.
Precious Aldridge, Current ECAC FVC Member
Nadya Brown, ECAC FVC Alum Member, presentation proposals
Jalisa Byrd, Current ECAC FVC Member
Courtney Buckmon, Current ECAC FVC Member
Ferlecia Cuthbertson, ECAC FVC Alum Member, SC 2Gen Video participant
Sara Espinoza, Current ECAC FVC Member
Tracey Evans-Wilson, Current ECAC FVC Member
Brittany Fogle, Current ECAC FVC Member
Laura Baker, Communications Coordinator, SC Early Childhood Advisory Council, report editor and designer
Deborah DePaoli, Palmetto Engagement & Policy Director, Institute for Child Success, contributor
Rachal Hatton-Moore, Two-Generation Systems Manager, SC Early Childhood Advisory Council, ECAC FVC facilitator and report editor
Amy Holbert, Executive Director, Family Connection of SC, contributor
Leesa Nelson, Parent Engagement Coordinator, Children’s Trust of SC, contributor
Sarah Nevarez, Current ECAC FVC Member
Karen Oliver, Program Manager, SC Early Childhood Advisory Council, report editor
Jamie Pacheco, Current ECAC FVC Member
Dana Quattlebaum, Current ECAC FVC Member
Tamela Riley, Current ECAC FVC Member
Canihja Simon, Current ECAC FVC Member
Sabrina Plummer, Parent Partnership Program Manager, Family and Community Services, SC Department of Social Services, contributor
Tré Tailor, ECAC FVC Alum Member, presenter
This publication was made possible by Grant Number 90TP0080-03-00 from the Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.