Supporting Oakland’s Family Navigators

Family navigators are a critical part of Oakland’s early childhood ecosystem. They help families find resources to meet basic needs, address barriers in service provision,  and understand many different parent perspectives.  OSSS recently led a research project focused on how to support family navigators and understand their needs. 

From interviews with navigators, we learned that:

• Navigators need accurate, up-to-date information on the availability of resources and services for families
• Navigators benefit from networking with one another
• A role separate from navigators to help find resources can be helpful 

The OSSS Lead Planning Team and the Oakland Family Resource Center Network has the following  initial ideas about action steps:

• Understanding family navigators as an early childhood stakeholder group
  • Navigators have a wealth of knowledge about family needs, as well as about which systems are working and areas for improvement. Organizations can create ways for navigators to share this knowledge for policy advocacy 
  • Funders can support systems change ideas that emerge from Navigator Network meetings and other peer networking opportunities
• Referral tools and Resource Sharing
  • Funders and organizations can help navigators with regularly updating and streamlining tools they use to share resources with families 
  • Organizations that serve Oakland families can choose a single referral tracking system to ease how families move through systems

To learn more about this Family Navigator project, check out this report.