Effecting change in real time: Natalie Pruitt helps educate and protect Early Head Start families

The Council of the Three Rivers American Indian Center (COTRIAC) is one of Pennsylvania's largest recipients of Head Start and Early Head Start funding.

MPH student Natalie Pruitt joined COTRIAC through Pitt Public Health’s Bridging the Gaps internship program. In eight weeks, Pruitt and another PPH student learned the ins and outs of the program, which serves more than 560 children aged 0-3 across Allegheny, Westmoreland and Philadelphia Counties and developed a plan and program to get information to families they might not find elsewhere due to policy changes and the removal of previously public information from publicly funded websites, such as the CDC and county and state health departments, which led leaders to identify the need for easily accessible health information and resources.

(Credit: Natalie Pruitt)
Natalie Pruitt (right) presents the Family Health Education Toolkit

“My co-intern and I created the Family Health Education Toolkit: Practical, Plain-Language guidance for parents, guardians, and caregivers for preschool-aged children,” said Pruitt.

After talking with leaders and narrowing down topics, the interns asked families directly, through online surveys, in the classroom and during home visits, what they wanted to learn more about. Before leaving, the duo made the full toolkit available online and in print to COTRIAC parents and staff.

“It was rewarding to be fully immersed in the three areas of Early Head Start work that COTRAIC provides,” said Pruitt, who shadowed during home visits, evaluated childcare center partners across Allegheny County, and designed health-related materials for parents about their child’s development. “Working directly with the families and childcare centers and the leadership of COTRAIC gave me a great insight into how Head Start and Early Head Start organizations run.”

With measles cases on the rise across Pennsylvania and the country, Pruitt was tasked with creating communications material about the dangers of measles in toddlers and the importance of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, as well as what the organization’s policy was if a child in the program is exposed to measles.

“We put our public health communications skills to use by using plain language and appealing to parents’ goal of protecting their kids and keeping them in consistent childcare,” said Pruitt.

With hands-on implementation science experience that required quick responses to new policies and rules, Pruitt says the experience has helped her approach both coursework and what comes next in her career from a different perspective.

“[It] showed me how theory and practice diverge—and converge—under pressure,” she added. “Just as importantly, I learned what it means to work directly with families, meeting them where they are, given the resources actually available to them, rather than the resources policy assumes they have.”

Additionally, the experience showed how social services function at the local, state and federal levels and where those systems are not intertwined or aligned, creating gaps for the people they are meant to serve.

“Altogether, this has deepened my interest in designing policies that genuinely work for families and has sharpened my commitment to translating policy into good, practical practice as I continue in this field,” said Pruitt, adding that it pushed her to engage more deeply with an Allegheny County community that I might not have encountered otherwise.


- Mike Friend

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