{"id":28191,"date":"2025-04-07T09:39:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T13:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/positiveexperience.org\/?p=28191"},"modified":"2025-12-09T09:47:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:47:05","slug":"hope-framework-helps-great-start-collaborative-increase-staff-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/positiveexperience.org\/blog\/hope-framework-helps-great-start-collaborative-increase-staff-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"HOPE framework helps Great Start Collaborative increase staff retention"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row remove_bottom_col_margin=”true”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\n

We’ve seen it in the results. I’ve actually heard from people in our agency that have said, you know, your teacher seems so much happier just from one year to the next. So it’s [HOPE framework is] really, really making a big difference in our organization.\u201d Janice Smith, Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HOPE Champions helps reduce staff burnout in the education sector<\/h2>\n

When Veronica Pechumer, Flavia Maccio and Jessica Trotter from the Great Start Collaborative<\/span><\/a> in the Oakland School District in Michigan heard that their partner organization Head Start Michigan was struggling with staff retention, a lightbulb went off. The three had become <\/span>HOPE Champions<\/span><\/a> and had already been applying it to their work providing support for young families with children. They\u2019d done Introduction to HOPE workshops for home visitors and they\u2019d offered the strengths-based approach to support physicians and families to better work together to meet healthcare goals for their children.<\/span><\/p>\n

They thought: Staff burnout? Perhaps a strengths-based approach could work there, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were actually losing classrooms because they couldn’t keep teachers in them,\u201d said Pechumer, Director of Great Start Collaborative at Oakland Schools. \u201cIt\u2019s a high burnout rate because you’re working with \u2026 low pay on top of having the staffing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pechumer said that one of the presentation slides from the HOPE Champion training jumped out in her memory. It was about doing research on preventing burnout. She and her team decided to see if they could help.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\n

Using a strengths-based approach to increase staff retention<\/h2>\n

They connected with the HOPE National Resource Center and with the Center for the Study of Social Policy<\/span><\/a> (CSSP) and said, \u201cOkay, we have this opportunity [to support Head Start]. We want to put all these frameworks into work and see what kind of comes up from that,\u201d said Maccio, Great Start Collaborative Coordinator.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pechumer said that in the same way that you need to provide families with a strengths-based approach, you also need to find those strengths within staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t just say to staff, \u2018here’s our goals.\u2019 You have to say to the staff, what are your goals, and how do we jointly meet them together?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They met with Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency <\/span><\/a>(OLHSA), one of Head Start\u2019s grantees, who needed support with its team of 120. They assessed that OLHSA management and teacher staff needed to strengthen their communication and trust, and that that would go a long way to prevent staff burnout. They used the HOPE and <\/span>Strengthening Families Protective Factors<\/span><\/a> frameworks to help develop a workplace culture that included a communication plan, workplace norms and tips for weekly communication. The idea was for all communication, even just emails, to be strengths-based. And for staff and management to have more intentional contact, including an increase in 1:1 meetings.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Utilizing HOPE and Strengthening Families frameworks to create positive internal changes<\/h2>\n

In Pechumer\u2019s reflection on what the HOPE framework added to their plan to improve workplace culture, she said: \u201cWe’ve been training for a very long time in [The] strengthening families framework.. and one of the reasons that I fell in love with HOPE is \u2026 how it fits like a puzzle piece with Strengthening Families.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a perfect training to have both of these,\u201d she said. \u201cTo talk about how to build those positive experiences with children \u2026 and support families with those protective factors \u2026 it just felt like such a great marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

They used a survey to collect data on whether the new workplace culture was taking off. The questions centered around themes of belonging, safety, and connection, inspired by the Four Building Blocks of HOPE<\/span><\/a>, key types of positive childhood experiences<\/a> (PCEs) that all children need to thrive. For example, staff had to rate how true the following statements were for them over the course of 3 surveys:<\/span><\/p>\n