SAN DIEGO — The Parents as Teachers International Conference is underway in San Diego at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina with more than 2,000 people in attendance.
The conference focuses on helping parents and their children succeed, including immigrant families who have just moved here.
They represent organizations from around the world that go into people’s homes and partner with families to help ensure their kids are healthy, safe and learning.
"Every parent wants to bring the best, and Parents as Teachers is really just a tool to help them do that," said Parents as Teachers President and CEO, Constance Gully.
For 40 years, the organization has gone into people's homes ensuring parents are equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to help both themselves and their children succeed.
The concept was developed in the 70's by teachers who noticed kids starting kindergarten had varying levels of readiness.
"Our model has four components, the home visits. We also do health and developmental screenings. We help families connect with resources in their community as a third component. And then lastly, we have group connections or group socializations," said Gully.
To do that, Parents as Teachers works with more than a thousand family-serving organizations worldwide.
Mentors help with everything from educating families about different childhood milestones to helping them register for school.
“We share different resources. We connect with lots of different people,” said Kea Klatt, a Head Start Home Base Supervisor with the Neighborhood House Association, a local non-profit specializing in helping immigrant families connect with services.
Partnering with Parents as Teachers, Platt oversees Head Start staff who do home visits, saying it's especially crucial here because of a recent influx of immigrants.
"A big challenge for families who just immigrated to San Diego is learning the culture and resources in the community, so connecting with people that they may be familiar with, or cultures that they are familiar with," said Klatt.
Klatt says they offer interpreter services, and train staff on cultural competency and trauma-informed practices, the benefits of which she can relate to.
"As an immigrant family myself, who has received home visitation services, it reinforces the power of home visitation, and it reinforces the power that parents have as their child's most influential teacher," said Klatt.
Parents as Teachers was granted part of a $56 million grant from the California Department of Health Care Services to continue their work with families and children.
During this week's conference, providers are learning how to best assist the people they encounter.
Board member Michael Huesca says it's all about meeting them where they're at.
"This organization does that. They're authentic, they're real. You know, they see parents for who they are," said Huesca.
Parents as Teachers offers its services for free.