ECFE programs continue to evolve after 50 years

State’s early childhood programming created half century ago

When Corey McKinnon, director of Community Education at the Forest Lake district, tells people outside of Minnesota what his profession is, the idea of community education sounds Utopian to some.

“The beautiful thing for, really, the Minnesota concept … is getting your youngest learners and littlest, youngest families or new families into the school buildings early,” McKinnon said.

When the Early Childhood Family Education program was created 50 years ago in Minnesota, it just expanded the idea of community education to connect with families earlier in life.

“It became wrapped into this whole, all-inclusive education concept of from birth to last years of life – that really is what community ed. is,” McKinnon said.

Over the years that the Early Childhood Family Education program has operated in Forest Lake, it’s been an ever-evolving program that is tailored to meet family needs.

“The family is the basic structure of society, and the stronger our families are, combined with the stronger our school systems are, I think just the more solidified our community is as a whole,” McKinnon said.

As family structures change over time, Early Childhood programs coordinator Bethany Hardy and McKinnon have reassessed the district’s offerings as they’ve seen an increase in the number of families who have two full-time working parents.

“We’re just finding different ways to incorporate those parents that aren’t able to come into traditional classes,” Hardy said.

The ability for the ECFE programs to continually adapt is one of its primary roles in the community – to constantly move the needle to support family needs.

“If we can’t figure out how to support them, then we’re completely missing the mark. So we want to make sure that we’re hitting what they need,” Hardy said.

More recently, in the wake of the pandemic when more and younger children were utilizing electronics, they’ve noticed motor skills are a challenge for some of the young learners.

“Motor development is different than it was before, which is not something we realized we were going to be dealing with, because everybody was used to using a finger [on a tablet], and so holding a pencil, holding a marker is different than it was five years ago,” Hardy explained.

While ECFE is able to help young learners get a taste of independence and what life in a classroom is like, the programs offer parents or guardians time to socialize.

“We see a very drastic difference, especially in our 3-year-old classes in preschool, for students who have not been in any kind of environment where they’ve separated” from their parents, Hardy said.

For the families who have utilized the ECFE programs, there are some who progress through the programs as their children grow up, offering them an outlet for adult relationships. She pointed out the Wednesday participants who have formed a strong bond after participating in various programs together.

“That’s really what we want to do is like, strengthen their relationships with the community, with other families and get a good support group,” Hardy said.

There are also adult classes that a parent or guardian can attend while their child is attending a class.

Looking ahead to what services can be offered to families, Hardy is actually looking to pre-pandemic programming. Due to the pandemic, ECFE’s home visitation programs were put on hold in order to follow social distancing guidelines. Since that initial shut down, that way to reach families is an opportunity that Hardy thinks the team is missing out on.

“A high focus for us right now is to rebuild that program, and get it to where it used to be because we really took a hit with that,” Hardy said.

There were also programs at local hospitals where the ECFE team would visit with parents of newborn babies and let them know what resources are available in the community, but also through the state if there weren’t any local programs.

“We’ve been trying to get creative with, ‘How do we get families more comfortable with this again?’” Hardy added.

While programs and classes have changed over the years, the driving force behind ECFE is its ability to offer parents or guardians an ever-changing means of support through its classes and programs.

“ECFE is all about embracing parents being their child’s first teacher, and really fostering that relationship with them and helping them create that bond with their child, while developing relationships with people in the community,” said Hardy.