Equity is part of all our work
This collection holds the equity toolkit, our equity webinar seasons, and resources on bias and on Tribal Nations. Culturally responsive consultation is competent consultation.
What's in this collection
Equity is a central component of infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC). Every individual who is part of the IECMHC system has an important role to play in promoting fair, positive, and equitable learning experiences for all children and families.
Program planning
Program Planning and Reflection Tool (PPRT): An entire domain is devoted to equity and covers: developing a program-wide strategic plan; staff training; service population & service delivery; reflective supervision; and data collection.
Online trainings and webinars
Equity in IECMHC Webinar Series (2023 to 2024): This series of webinars introduces a set of resources to support infant and early childhood mental health consultants and supervisors to strengthen cultural responsiveness in IECMHC for children and families in Tribal, African American, Latin American, and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities (AANHPI).
Toolkits and resource collections
IECMHC Racial Equity Toolkit: The CoE’s IECMHC Racial Equity Toolkit is a collection of videos, tools, and resources that can help consultation systems leaders and all IECMHC practitioners build capacity in understanding race and systemic racism, bias, and culturally responsive practice and meaningfully embed equity in their programs and practice.
Resource briefs
Promoting Black Joy and Countering Bias through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: This is a companion resource to the 2023 webinar, “Countering Bias and Promoting Black Joy in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation,” which is part of the CoE’s Equity in IECMHC Webinar series.
Assessments
Cultural and Linguistic Competence Self-Assessment Checklists: These tools are designed to assist managers and administrators in assessing the extent to which they demonstrate integration of cultural and linguistic competence into values, attitudes, communication styles, and the physical environment.
National reports and position statements
Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children, and Families: The Diversity-Informed Tenets are guiding principles created to encourage the infant mental health field to intentionally and mindfully engage in standards of practice that promote and strive for a just and equitable society.
Working with Tribal communities and Nations
IECMHC Resources for Tribal Nations: This webpage provides a collection of resources to support programs, local governments and tribal nations in creating better services and systems for infants, toddlers and young children and their families through an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation program.
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Webinars and eventsApplying a systems lens to decolonize IECMHC from the ‘inside out’Our hope for this session is to offer participants an opportunity to reflect on how we might move together (and sometimes separately) to transform our work in IECMHC by applying and embodying a strong anti-racist lens. Much of our work at Indigo Cultural Center is informed by the IECMHC workforce who identify as Black, Indigenous or as persons of color (BIPOC). Accepting and remaining open to recommendations that flow from BIPOC voices represents a major departure from the way most of our IECMH field has been shaped over the past 70 years. The racial dynamics that are particularly unique to our current charge of transformation can bring up concerns of safety and comfort for many. However, we also know through the tenets and canon of the IECMH field that discomfort is necessary for growth. Indeed, Resmaa Menakem reminds us that “We learn and grow up by experiencing discomfort, accepting it, moving through it, and coming out the other side. In the process, we metabolize the discomfort, and, paradoxically, it disappears. When we don't allow ourselves discomfort, we don't permit emergence or growth” (Menakem, 2017). In summary, our objectives for this session are to review social justice language and frameworks that guide much of our work and to provide tangible examples of how the healing justice movement is being applied (and can be applied) to our work in IECMHC. This workshop, including the frameworks, examples, and recommendations we share, is offered in a spirit of growth and a co-envisioned future where we can all experience liberation and healing. Webinars and eventsApplying the FAN Model to Integrate Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health ConsultationIn 2020, the Sacramento County Office of Education partnered with the Sacramento County Department of Health Services to place a mental health clinician in each of our 385 public schools in our County. The Early Childhood Education department envisioned this would be an excellent opportunity to expand ECMH Consultation services in the county, as California was beginning to expand Transitional Kindergarten throughout the state, bringing an increasing number of 4-year-olds onto public school sites. Attempting to integrate Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation services into a large, expanding school-based mental health and wellness grant has presented many challenges, setbacks and successes that the speaker will share. Among them, she will discuss the process of adapting Dr. Linda Gilkerson's ‘Facilitating Attuned iNteractions’ (FAN) Model as a framework for partnering with complex systems to support reflection, listening to others, collaborative exploration and beginning steps towards capacity building of mental health clinicians in an educational setting. The presenter will share outcomes of her initial professional development workshop and exciting opportunities to expand ECMH consultation through Sacramento County in the coming years to address early childhood inequities and bias toward boys of color. Participants will be given the opportunity to reflect on how core principles and practices of IECMHC may be integrated into their work with complex systems. Target Audience: IECMH Consultants who work with complex systems. GuideCentering Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Children, Families, and CommunitiesAsian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander children and families need, and deserve, more opportunities to feel a sense of safety, connectedness, and belonging. These values are rooted in AANHPI families’ strengths and assets of community, family, and cultural pride. This resource offers strength-based strategies for IECMH consultants and programs to foster connection and belonging for AANHPI children and families amid heightened anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander hate, a global pandemic, and increasing socioeconomic challenges. Explore this resource to learn promising practices aligned with the Revised IECMHC Competencies to build safety, connectedness, and belonging for AANHPI children and families. See the webinar, Centering Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Children and Families to Combat Racial Bias and Promote Connection & Belonging in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation that features a panel discussion on the importance of combating anti-AANHPI bias and promoting connection & belonging for IECMH consultants, supervisors, and leaders working with AANHPI children, families, and communities. Webinars and eventsCentering Families and Children Who Are Racially, Culturally and Linguistically DiverseThis workshop will provide information on how to interact, partner with, and value families and children who are culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse. Strategies will include (a) how to use self-assessment to improve diverse classroom experiences, (b) how to reach families where there is a perception of apathy, and (c) interactive strategies that deepen awareness and knowledge and improve skills. GuideCentering Latin American Children, Families and CommunitiesLatin American children and families represent diverse histories, lived experience, and unique needs and strengths. The tenets of anti-racist, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive practice applied to infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) are paramount to nurturing these unique needs and strengths. Explore this resource to learn promising practices aligned with the Revised IECMHC Competencies to improve equity and care for Latin American children, families, and communities. See the webinar, Centering Latin American children, families, and communities through an anti-racist, trauma-informed, and culturally-responsive lens in IECMHC, that features a panel discussion on the importance of anti-racist, trauma-informed, and culturally-responsive practices for IECMH consultants, supervisors, and leaders working with Latin American children, families, and communities. GuideCentering Native American Children, Families, and CommunitiesNative American children, families, and communities need and deserve opportunities that cultivate connectedness and belonging to honor their strengths and to support their healing and well-being, given the tenuous and traumatic history endured through centuries of cultural erasure from colonization and resulting socioeconomic challenges experienced by Native American people today. Such connectedness and belonging is fostered through deeply rooted environmental, community, family, intergenerational, and spiritual connections. Explore this resource to learn promising practices aligned with the Revised IECMHC Competencies to foster connection to promote healing and well-being for Native American children, families, and communities. See the webinar, Centering Native American Children, Families, and Communities: Cultivating Connection to Promote Healing and Well-being through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation that features a panel discussion on the importance of fostering connectedness and belonging to support healing and well-being for IECMH consultants, supervisors, and leaders working with Native American children, families, and communities. ReportCentering Racial Equity: Design Considerations for Oregon’s Statewide Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) Program BriefConsiderations for Providing Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation in Early Care and Education Settings to Support Children in Foster CareThis brief focuses on how infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) can mitigate the challenges these children face, as well as the challenges that early childhood education (ECE) teachers and other program staff face in providing the best possible care for them. Webinars and eventsConsulting about Challenging Behavior, the Role of Adult PerceptionChallenging behavior is developmentally expected for young children; however, adult perceptions influence our understanding and response. Through this perceptive process bias enters our evaluations which is documented in the language adults used to describe children’s behavior (e.g., defiant, willful). Participants in this session will gain understanding of the role and impact of adult perception in addressing young children’s challenging behaviors. Participants will become familiar with strategies and tools to confront their own biases and potentially biased practices and consider how to apply tools and strategies within consultative relationships. ReportDigging Deeper: De-Colonizing Our Understanding and Practice of Reflective Supervision Through a Racial Equity Lens Webinars and eventsDiversity Pathways for Maryland’s IECMHC WorkforceWhile there has been increased attention on the importance of having a racially and culturally diverse workforce, much of the IECMHC workforce nationally are White women, and recruitment and retention of BIPOC staff is something many programs struggle to achieve. In this session, presenters will describe Maryland’s efforts to support and retain existing IECMHC staff and to expand and diversify the IECMHC workforce. Efforts to support existing staff include the creation of a universal onboarding series, development of statewide minimum salaries, and formation of a Black affinity group. Some of the methods implemented to diversify the workforce include the creation of internship pathways and expansion of what it means to be qualified for IECMHC positions in Maryland. Throughout the presentation, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and share how they are already supporting the IECMHC workforce in their respective regions and ways in which they can expand their efforts. This presentation is geared towards IECMHC leaders and funders at the local and state levels. BriefDiversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children & FamiliesThe Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children, and Families (Tenets) are guiding principles created to encourage the infant mental health (IMH) field to intentionally and mindfully engage in standards of practice that promote and strive for a just and equitable society.