On August 19, the World Forum Foundation and Willow Tree Early Education Team brought together Head Start and early childhood colleagues for a national virtual Town Hall.
The purpose was simple.
Not to predict what will happen with the proposed Head Start regulations.
Not to tell people what they should think.
And not to pretend that uncertainty is easy.
The Town Hall was a deliberate pause — a chance to reconnect, put this moment into perspective, support one another, and begin thinking together about how Head Start moves forward.
A Wider Lens on Change
One of the most valuable aspects of the gathering was that the conversation did not remain entirely within the boundaries of Head Start.
Colleagues connected through the World Forum Foundation brought perspectives from early childhood systems beyond the United States, including experiences from Scotland and England.
Those global stories helped provide context.
Head Start is uniquely American, but the experience of navigating political change, shifting public priorities, workforce pressures, changing regulations and uncertainty about the future is not.
Early childhood systems around the world have faced moments when people had to ask:
What must we protect?
What can change?
What have we been doing simply because we have always done it?
And how do we adapt without losing sight of children, families and communities?
Sometimes looking beyond our own system helps us see our own moment more clearly.
Many Voices, One Conversation
The Town Hall brought together an unusually broad group of perspectives.
Among those helping facilitate and frame the conversation were Tara Schroder, Executive Director of the World Forum Foundation; World Forum founders Bonnie and Roger Neugebauer; Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association; Johanna Soto Aguilú of Ledership LLC in Puerto Rico; Melissa Metcalf and Sherronda Thompson of Family Resource Agency; Bob Bialas of Lutheran Services Florida; and World Forum colleagues Kenny Spence of Scotland and David Wright of England.
What mattered most was not the collection of titles.
It was the range of experience in the room.
Head Start leadership. Advocacy. Program operations. International early childhood perspectives. Professional development. People who have experienced earlier periods of significant change — and people responsible for helping staff navigate this one right now.
What Happened Next
Near the end of the Town Hall, participants began sharing their email addresses in the Zoom chat.
They wanted the conversation to continue.
Two needs emerged especially clearly.
First, programs want to share strategies for helping staff cope with uncertainty.
Policy discussions may happen at the federal level, but uncertainty is experienced locally — in classrooms, offices, buses, kitchens and conversations with families.
People are looking for ways to keep staff informed without increasing anxiety, acknowledge legitimate concerns without becoming immobilized by them, and maintain focus on children and families while important questions remain unanswered.
Second, participants wanted to continue sharing the substantive work being done during the 60-day public comment period.
Programs and organizations are reading the proposal, examining implications, identifying questions, comparing requirements and considering thoughtful responses.
There is no reason everyone has to do that work alone.
The Next Town Hall Does Not Have to Be Ours
Perhaps the most important invitation from the gathering is this:
Host your own.
Bring together your staff.
Convene neighboring programs.
Invite parents, Policy Council members or community partners.
Create a conversation among directors.
Gather people who see the proposed changes differently.
It does not require a polished presentation or a complicated agenda.
Ask what people are worried about.
Separate what is known from what is still speculation.
Ask what is helping staff.
Ask what should be protected.
Ask what could be improved.
Ask what others in Head Start might benefit from knowing.
And then find a way to keep the connections alive after the meeting ends.
If many of these conversations occur across the country, their collective value may ultimately be greater than any single national Town Hall.
Keeping the Conversation Going
At Willow Tree Early Education Team, we will continue developing and sharing tools, analysis and implementation-readiness resources to help programs navigate what comes next.
We are also beginning an informal Head Start Town Hall Resource-Sharing Network for people who want to exchange strategies, questions, resources and emerging work during this period.
The World Forum Foundation has also made the Town Hall recording available through Bonnie’s Global Café:
If you would like to join the resource-sharing network, connect with us through the Willow Tree Early Education Teamwebsite.
And if you hold your own conversation, let us know what you learn.
This may prove to be a consequential turning point in Head Start’s history.
We do not yet know exactly where the turn will lead.
But we can influence how we travel through it.
And we do not have to travel through it alone.