The Families Learning Conference is coming to Omaha, Nebraska, October 23-25!
Each year, the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) recruits the country’s family learning pros to present best practices, strategies, and resources to help families succeed in accomplishing their learning and career goals. NCFL is seeking proposals reflecting highly interactive and engaging presentations that include strategies and/or materials attendees can use right away in their classrooms or programs.
This Call for Proposals opens Tuesday, February 14 and closes 11:59 pm PDT Tuesday, March 28.
Before beginning your application, add @cvent-planner.com to your email provider’s list of safe senders to ensure you receive notification about your application. Preview the application by clicking here.
February 14, 2023: Application opens
March 28, 2023: Application closes
End of April 2023: Applicants notified of acceptance
Mid-June 2023: Presenters notified of date/time for presentation
September 15, 2023: Presenters must be registered for Conference
October 2, 2023: Hotel room block expires
October 16, 2023: Deadline to upload digital presentation materials for Conference mobile app
Lead presenters receive:
*A limited number of scholarships to cover registration costs will be available
Lead presenters agree to:
Your proposal has the best chance of being selected if you:
While education solutions for families are many, this conference and the selected presentations focus on education solutions that involve all members of the family and help to advance equity in communities. Presentations must focus on multigenerational learning strategies, best practices, or innovations, or family learning research, evaluation, or policy. Please submit a proposal that meets one or two of our content strands:
Family Literacy:
The four-component Family Literacy model includes children’s education, adult education, parent education, and interactive parent-child literacy and learning activities (Parent and Child Together [PACT] Time®). Presentations in this strand may include such topics as: learner diversity; adult English as a second language (ESL) classes; high school equivalency preparation; literacy education; adults supporting children’s education; college preparation; building strong technology skills that support education and work goals; goal setting for participants; getting a job or gaining skills to pursue a better job; instructional strategies, curriculum implementation, collaboration among early childhood and adult education, language and literacy strategies, innovative early childhood practices, assessment to instruction, learners with disabilities, dual-language learners, recruiting and retaining families for programming, and extending resources by identifying community partners that align with participant learning goals.
Family Engagement:
Family engagement programming includes learning opportunities, events, activities, and strategies that are focused on developing language and literacy skills, achieving developmental milestones, and supporting children’s learning outcomes. Presentations in this strand should reflect strong family engagement efforts that are designed in partnership with schools, districts, and community-based organizations, and are aimed at building dual capacity of families and educators. Suggested topics include building relationships with families, increasing positive communication, supporting at-home learning, involving families in decision-making, co-designing family engagement with families, engaging families that are second language learners, and supporting hard-to-reach families. Proposals that target innovative classroom practices and instructional strategies related to literacy, STEAM, inquiry-based learning, integration of technology, cultural competence, and social-emotional learning will also be considered.
Family Leadership:
Family leadership programs are designed to support parenting adults and caregivers with knowledge and skills by providing tools and learning opportunities to become engaged advocates for themselves, their children, their families, and communities. NCFL welcomes the submission of proposals that feature inclusive and informative practices for family leaders. Suggested topics for this strand include co-design, advocacy, language inclusive practices, community outreach planning, power and asset mapping, and strategies for parents and caregivers to engage other parents and caregivers, schools, and community organizations.
Research and Evaluation:
Sessions that focus on current topics of educational research have long been an integral part of NCFL’s national conference. NCFL welcomes the submissions of proposals that feature the implementation and impact of research-based program studies and evaluations of family programs, particularly programs that focus on equity and multigenerational education. Other suggested topics include insights on the challenges associated with doing research and evaluation with families who are furthest from opportunity; applying understandings of cultural context to researchers’ work; approaching evaluation co-design with families to ensure we are elevating their voices and lived experiences; and conveying quantitative data as well as qualitative data to tell the story of impact and outcomes.
Policy and Advocacy:
Successful and sustainable family learning systems (comprised of family literacy, family engagement, and family leadership) are built on creative and innovative uses of supportive policies and strong, long-lasting partnerships. This requires finessing effective communication of program successes with compelling impact data and family stories that reinforce the benefits they provide to families and more broadly, communities. Suggested topics within this strand include examples of how family learning programs have blended funding streams to provide services; how stakeholders have advocated for family-friendly policy at the local, state, and federal levels; activating parenting adults’ leadership in advocacy and policy recommendations; how data can tell convincing stories; and innovative ways to showcase programs.
In 2022, conference attendees shared the following as their primary work categories:
56% of attendees have 5 or more years of experience in education and 31% have 10 or more years of experience.
Attendees come to the Families Learning Conference for:
Share best practices from your community while highlighting your organization to a national audience. Apply to become a Families Learning Conference presenter!
Before beginning your application, add @cvent-planner.com to your email provider’s list of safe senders to ensure you receive notification about your application.