The Envelope is a place for curious conversations that challenge the ways we work with all families at the intersection of family strengths and professional practices.
These discussions include
We at The Envelope strive to have these discussions through the lens of acknowledging professional biases and privileges, which often render interactions useless and/or harmful to families who are marginalized by the dominant culture. This is an opportunity to think conceptually and practically, consider the words we use. No easy answers are expected and radical conversations are encouraged!
We designed this site because we were having challenging conversations about ways to practice that honored and were prominently situated on the strengths of families. These conversations acknowledged the strides the Early Childhood Intervention (EI) field has made and encouraged us to continue to evolve and be curious about new ways of doing, thinking, and feeling. We need to expand these conversations beyond us, to learn from the new and diverse voices out there who are questioning and moving the field forward. We also want others to benefit from what we were learning.
Why The Envelope
We decided to call this site “The Envelope” for a few reasons:
First, we think of this site as an opportunity to “push the envelope.” This term is about testing the limits and taking risks. We want to push the limits of how family support provision is viewed and question why we practice the way we do, including the historical privileging of disability above other diversity characteristics and the role personal biases play in professional interactions with families. We want to explore how to evolve EI further towards not only recognizing all families as confident and competent but practicing ways that truly evidence this.
Second, we are really thinking about the words we use in early intervention and other early childhood fields and whether or not they really convey what we want them to convey. So, we didn’t want to use words that are commonly used in our field.
And finally, we like the idea of an envelope as something where we put “things” – ideas, words, practices, and mindsets. This site is a place for all those “things.” Additionally, we started this site because we wanted to expand who’s included in the conversations. So, we are opening The Envelope to encompass the diversity of voices that will challenge our thinking and practice.
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