Network Capacity Building

Through Network Capacity Building, we partner with community leaders and organizations including schools, early education providers, and other community-based organizations to better serve children and families. We offer custom professional development programs, community leadership cohorts, and access to high quality early learning resources. Together, we are building a stronger early learning ecosystem.

Tandem’s professional development workshops address a variety of topics including neuroscience and brain development, trauma-responsive strategies for supporting children and families, dual language learning, early math, and more. Content is designed for educators and staff at libraries, health clinics, family resource groups, and other family-serving community organizations. Professionals gain easily implementable strategies to support early learning, often building on storytime as the foundation for conversations and activities.

The Community Leadership program supports community leaders to share Tandem’s early learning tools, resources, and high-quality children’s books with families in their own neighborhoods and in their own language.

Community Leaders are committed to sharing information on early learning and development with families in their communities. Participants receive training, books and activity supplies, and support from Tandem staff members to become early learning peer ambassadors in their own communities.

Tandem provides access to the carefully curated book collection and accompanying resources in order to enhance and diversify school and home libraries. The Tandem book collection relies on quality books that make room for everyone and intentionally reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Bay Area. Staff and volunteers carefully review each book according to rigorous quality measures. Early Learning Specialists craft activity guides that help educators and caregivers build on each book with interactive book-sharing techniques and activities. These curated books and activities provide children with mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors: they see themselves reflected back and have the opportunity to learn about experiences outside of their own.

As an ever-evolving organization, we believe in partnering with families, educators, and administrators to customize programming according to local context. From piloting a home literacy program designed for family child care providers, to partnering with researchers to develop activities to build the foundations for math through play and everyday interactions, Tandem is continuously responding to the changing education landscape. Reach out if you would like to partner on creating high-quality early learning experiences.

Learn more about Tandem workshops

Explore our catalog to learn more about our early learning training topics. All Tandem workshops are available for customization.

Workshops Catalog

Network Capacity Building in Action

Tandem partners with Development and Research in Early Math Education (DREME) Network and East Bay STEM Institute researchers to develop and implement age-appropriate math programming.

Math workshops provide parents and educators with support and resources for incorporating math-focused activities into routines at home and school.

In response to feedback from a fathers’ group, Tandem developed Give Me 5, a series of interactive, multilingual, playgroup sessions focused on the five domains of kindergarten readiness.

We then developed and piloted a train-the-trainer workshop for staff at community organizations to expand partner agencies’ capacity for hosting play-and-learn groups using the GM5 curriculum.

Through an apprenticeship model, Community Leaders work hand-in-hand with Tandem staff to lead community read alouds within their own neighborhoods as early learning community ambassadors.

Tandem provides innovative, custom professional development programs designed for educators and staff at libraries, health clinics, family resource groups, and other family-serving community organizations.

TANDEM TIP

Math is all around us. Engage children in activities like counting and categorizing objects you have at home or in the classroom!

Contact us!

We want to partner with you. Reach out to Tandem to learn more about our Network Capacity Building programming.