Whether you are new to the field of Family Support or have been doing this work for decades, one constant you will notice is change. Many of us have seen huge shifts in just the past few years, with changes brought on by COVID, the evolution of technology, and socioeconomic shifts. All of these influence family dynamics, which means part of the job of a family support professional is to continue learning, growing, and adapting so we can best support the families we work with.
This isn’t easy. There isn’t always a major event, like a pandemic, to draw our attention to these shifts. We can see some of these shifts in census data about American families. Pew Research's How the American Family Has Changed highlights many of the ways family life has evolved over time and how those changes continue to shape the families we serve.
This is why attending professional development opportunities is so vital to family support. No matter how much you think you know about a topic, there is always more to learn! Your experience may make you feel like a subject matter expert in some aspects of your work, but as time marches forward, that can change. It is critical that we all take the time to not only attend professional learning offered to us by our employers and programs but also seek out opportunities and research topics from vetted and reputable sources. Make your own learning part of your annual routine. Just as you prepare for holidays or other yearly events, set aside time each year to focus on your own professional growth.
Now that we’ve attended that webinar or conference, read an article, or researched some facts, we’ve done what we need to do, right? Ideally, we have learned something—but have we grown? One incredibly important step many of us overlook is taking the time to reflect on what we have learned and considering how it affects us and applies to our work. When you're setting aside time for learning, don’t forget to also set aside time for meaningful reflection. Johns Hopkins University “Reflection as a Tool for Professional Growth”, offers practical guidance on making reflection part of your professional practice.
The final piece of this circle should be adapting or changing the way we work with families. The changes don’t have to be big. Perhaps you start providing families with a new resource or use a new approach to how you speak with families. There may be changes families never actually see, but changes they will benefit from, such as the way we prepare for visits. The world never stops changing; families change with it, and so must we.
