Around 2,000 early childhood development experts will meet at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina from Oct. 14 – 17 to enhance their professional knowledge of parenting through home visiting at the 2024 Parents as Teachers International Conference. The conference theme is “Born to Learn – Power of the Past – Building for the Future.” Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Parents as Teachers is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
Parents as Teachers is a program that connects parents and caregivers with trained professionals who make regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years, from pre-natal through kindergarten, to help with early childhood education and parenting skills.
Parents as Teachers President and CEO Constance Gully expressed enthusiasm about bringing the annual conference to San Diego, California, particularly since it was originally scheduled for 2020, but had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria welcomed the conference, recognizing the importance of home visiting and early intervention for effective parenting.
“We are excited to finally bring our annual conference to San Diego,” said Gully. “As a parent, especially as a first-time parent, there’s no way you can know everything—or even know where to go to find out. That’s where the Parents as Teachers’ professional development conference comes in. We present programming that evokes conversations about parent engagement, early childhood education, and the latest research that informs our work.”
Mayor Gloria echoed Gully’s sentiments, saying, “We’re honored to welcome the Parents as Teachers conference to San Diego. This organization has a long history of transforming the lives of families by providing critical early childhood education and support. Their work resonates deeply with our community, and we are glad to have them here to share their expertise and continue making a positive impact.”
The four-day conference will feature discussions on trends in home visiting, community engagement, collaborations and partnerships, diversity, equity and inclusion, health and wellness, parenting, and child education. It will also feature children’s book authors, and a Networking Night Out cruise along the San Diego harbor on the Inspiration Hornblower boat.
Each year, as part of its social responsibility initiative, Parents as Teachers makes a point to give back to the city that hosts its annual conference. It does so by choosing a local nonprofit to support through a fundraising effort. This year, Parents as Teachers has partnered with Promises 2Kids, a San Diego nonprofit serving foster children from the moment they enter foster care through adulthood.
A particular highlight of the conference will be the presentation of Parents as Teachers’ coveted Jack Tweedie Human Services and Early Learning Champion Award, which will be bestowed on California Assemblymember (79th District) Akilah Weber, M.D. Other conference highlights include an opening session keynote address by Dr. Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe Language at Bemidji State University. Dr. Treuer is well-regarded for his inspiring delivery on topics focused on education and advocacy on behalf of Indigenous Peoples.
Also, Dr. Walter Gilliam, executive director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, and Dr. Joshua Sparrow, executive director of the Brazelton Touchpoint Center in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, will be honored with Research Trailblazer Awards for their dedication to Parents as Teachers’ 40 years of research. Both individuals actively participate in the Parents as Teachers Research Council. To read their full bios, click here.
Josh Shipp, bestselling author of “The Grown-Up’s Guide to Teenage Humans” and a former at-risk foster kid turned youth advocate, will deliver the closing session keynote speech. Shipp is renowned for the eight-part documentary TV series Teen Trouble on Lifetime and A&E that followed his groundbreaking work with youth and families.
Co-hosting a LIVE Podcast recording entitled “Teachers, Toddlers, and Tissues: Candid Conversations on Health and Child Care” are early childhood advocates Rachel Giannini and Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Audiences will have the opportunity to listen in and ask questions following the broadcast.
Moderating a panel called “Supporting Newcomers & First-Generation Immigrant Families” will be Pete Weldy, regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families in Region 9.
Other presenters on the panel include Jasmin Banderas of Child, Adolescent, and Parent Support Services in Marshalltown, IA; Anna Barraza of Luna County Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program in Deming, NM; Cynthia Garrison with Child Care Group in Dallas, TX; Heidi Kranz of Parenting Solutions Inc., in Los Lunas, NM; and Esmerelda Monroy of Child Abuse Prevention Services in Marshalltown, IA. Read their full bios at www.parentsasteachersconference.org.
For more information and to schedule an interview, please get in touch with Eric L. Clark at 314-363-1400 or at eric.clark@parentsasteachers.org.
A brief 40-year historic retrospect
In the early 1980s, Mildred Winter, a public-school educator and eventual founder of Parents as Teachers, had an epiphany. She imagined the impact on children’s development and learning in a home/school partnership that begins before birth.
Her revelation was realized through the New Parents as Teachers (NPAT) pilot project, which involved 60 pregnant women. It was a four-year study that eventually morphed into what is now known as Parents as Teachers through years of trial and error, legislative actions, state and federal funding, and bipartisan endorsement.
Over the years, Winter, who died in 2019 during the Parents as Teachers annual conference, where she was scheduled to be honored, buoyed the fragile organization until it rose to prominence with the aid of political backing and strongly willed fortitude from business and civic supporters.
Winter knew then what many know now: providing direct support and practical learning tools during the critical first years of life is essential to helping parents raise healthy and prosperous children.
Fast-forward 40 years, and you have a burgeoning nonprofit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its internationally recognized evidence-based home visiting model is backed by four decades of research-proven outcomes for children and families. Parents as Teachers serves 180,000 families in all 50 U.S. states, 115 Tribal organizations, six other countries, and one U.S. territory.