Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies serve thousands of parents each year and work to provide efficient, effective services to help parents meet their child care needs. Many seek parents’ views as they think about how to improve their services. Building on their contact with parents, this brief explains how CCDF Lead Agencies can use community-engaged methods (CEM) to partner with parents on research and practices that impact their lives. CEM is an approach that includes people with personal, lived experience (such as parents served by CCDF Lead Agencies) in the process of knowledge-building and decision making.

Purpose

The purpose of this brief is to introduce CCDF Lead Agency staff and researchers to applying CEM to engage parents in research. The brief focuses on defining CEM and the motivations for using them, explaining how to build equitable partnerships, and providing concrete examples of engaging parents in research related to child care and early education. 

Methods

This brief draws on findings from early childhood and community-engagement projects. We also spoke with five researchers who partnered with parents in research and five parents who have been research partners. Two Urban Institute researchers, two parents, and one university researcher wrote this brief together. As a team, we offer guidance on creating strong partnerships of parents, agencies, and researchers.