Designing an Inclusive Engagement Plan for the SF Department of Early Childhood

The Challenge

The San Francisco Department of Early Childhood (DEC) set out to create a communications and community engagement plan that truly reflected the experiences of parents of children ages 0–7 in San Francisco. DEC wanted a process that didn’t just ask families for input but placed their perspectives at the center of decision-making. To achieve this, the department partnered with VIVA to design and lead community engagement efforts that elevated the insights of parents and service providers and ensured their contributions shaped the final plan.

The Approach

VIVA partnered with Parent Voices San Francisco (PVSF), a grassroots parent advocacy group, to co-design and carry out the community engagement strategy. Together, we built a process grounded in three principles:

1. Human-Centered Design – Listening to and centering parents’ real needs and experiences.
2. Community-Based Participatory Planning – Collaborating with families as partners and decision-makers rather than passive recipients.
3. Cultural Humility – Acknowledging institutional biases and ensuring diverse voices were included.

To bring these principles to life, we created multiple opportunities for parents and providers to participate:

1. Parent Communications Workgroup: 13 San Francisco parents representing diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds met over six months to help shape the plan from start to finish.
2. Parent Focus Groups: VIVA and PVSF facilitated six multilingual focus groups with 59 parents. Each session was led by facilitators who reflected the race, ethnicity, and background of the participants
3. Parent Survey & In-Person Engagement Events: To learn from a broad range of families, VIVA launched a parent survey available in six languages, which reached 1,676 parents. Recognizing that not all families have easy access to technology, VIVA and PVSF also organized three in-person events in community settings where parents could complete the short survey. These in-person surveys were offered in four languages, ensuring more families could share their perspectives.
   
   
4. Service Provider Listening Sessions: VIVA held four listening sessions with professionals who work directly with children and families, including early childhood educators, family resource center staff, mental and behavioral health providers, and healthcare providers.

Throughout the process, DEC staff were directly involved in parent engagement activities, strengthening trust and transparency between families and the department. The findings from the community engagement process can be found here.

Together, these efforts ensured that diverse perspectives shaped the final plan and fostered stronger community trust and investment in DEC’s success.

The Impact

Through this collaborative process, VIVA developed the San Francisco DEC 2023–2027 Communications and Community Engagement Plan. This roadmap will guide how DEC communicates with families and partners across the city in the years ahead.