ECIN | PROMISE

About Promoting Resilience and Mental Health in Educational Settings for Early Childhood (PROMISE)

PROMISE is a comprehensive program promoting school-wide social emotional well-being for children, parents, and staff in early care education (ECE) programs. It optimizes early childhood development by supporting the mental health of parents, teachers, and program leaders, helping them remain resilient when facing challenges.

PROMISE includes both family facing and staff facing components:

A tiered pyramid graphic showing a multi-level mental health support framework. The left side is labeled 'Family Facing' and the right side 'Staff Facing'. The pyramid is divided into three levels: Universal Wellness (base), Targeted Wellness (middle), and Indicated Wellness (top). Each level lists corresponding programs or services, such as 'Community Mental Health Worker (CMHW) Professional Development' and 'TeacherWISE Professional Development' at the base, 'Strengthen Families Coping Resources' in the middle, and 'Mental Health Clinical Services' at the top.

PROMISE optimizes early childhood development and school readiness by supporting mental health of parents, teachers, and program leaders. While high-quality ECE effectively promotes child development and narrows opportunity gaps for low-resource families, PROMISE provides additional support when children and parents have mental health needs or teachers experience stress and burnout.

Learn more about the family components of PROMISE

Learn more about the staff components of PROMISE

impact on families

“I was going through my own struggles, but this program made me apply what I was learning to my real life. It’s been such a positive thing for me and the families I serve.”

“As a mom, I’ve learned to take a breath, push out negative thoughts, and focus on myself. This program has definitely impacted my well-being and mental health on many levels.”

"I think a lot more before I speak... I try to understand before I respond... and think about the questioner... where they're coming from, their point of view.... Every action doesn't require a reaction on my part. I think that's one of the most important things I learned from mindfulness."

About Family PROMISE

Family PROMISE partners with parents as leaders in early childhood mental health through peer support networks that reduce stress and isolation, strengthen coping skills, and recognize parents' expertise in shaping systems that foster optimal child development. The program includes the following components:

Universal Wellness

Community Mental Health Care Worker Professional Development: Georgetown University's Thrive Center offers the Infant, Early Childhood and Family Mental Health: Family Leadership Certificate, preparing caregivers and family support workers as community mental health workers through expert instruction and hands-on practicum opportunities. Learn more about the certificate here.

Targeted Wellness

SFCR-P2P: CMHW peer-led group intervention addressing intergenerational trauma, violence, substance misuse and mental health. Provides safe, structured environment for parents to discuss positive parenting, healing practices, and make connections between trauma and parenting.

Indicated Wellness

ABC: Individual parent/child treatment led by CMHWs helping caregivers provide nurturing care and promote attachment. Parents learn to interpret children's behavioral signals through 10-week peer coaching sessions. Learn more at https://www.abcparenting.org/

About Staff PROMISE

Staff PROMISE offers culturally responsive well-being support to teachers, staff, and leaders of early childhood education centers in DC. It addresses teacher stress and burnout, recognizing teaching as stressful with substandard wages especially for infant/toddler educators, and risk of secondary trauma from working with families facing adversity. Operating at 28 sites, Workforce PROMISE facilitators partner with program leaders to deliver interventions fostering professional and psychological well-being, creating an organizational culture of wellness.

Universal Wellness

TeacherWISE Professional Development : TeacherWISE is an online professional development program (6.5 hours) promoting educator well-being through research-based strategies in physical, occupational, intellectual, social, and emotional domains. Organized into eight modules with videos, assessments, reflective exercises, and practice activities, it helps participants create personalized wellbeing plans with SMART goals.

Targeted Wellness

Infant Toddler SEL Mentor Teacher Learning Collaborative M-TLC: Adapted from Head Start's TLC coaching framework, this peer-mentoring program promotes educator well-being and competence in supporting children's social-emotional development. It creates a trauma-responsive climate recognizing educators as experts, provides non-evaluative learning, enhances connections, and encourages restorative practices. ECIN partners with Southeast Children's Fund through DC LEAD to support ECE degree-seeking scholars.

LeaderWISE Community of Practice: A professional learning community for early learning center leaders providing opportunities for reflection and peer learning about social-emotional leadership. Aligned with TeacherWISE, the community meets twice monthly, offering individualized support between sessions to help leaders use workplace data to set goals and implement strategies fostering a supportive environment.

Indicated Wellness

CPR²: 11-week group-based well-being program helping early educators manage stress and advocate for themselves. Creates safe space for reflection, connection, and healing through weekly 90-minute sessions. Complements TeacherWISE with mindfulness strategies for stress management and emotional regulation while strengthening interpersonal relationships through engaging group activities.

Key Publications and Presentations

Charlot-Swilley, D., Zuskov, S., Curtis, L., Mitchell, S., & Anderson, E. (2025). Fostering Workforce Wellness: Insights from Nurse Managers and Early Childhood Educators Healthcare, 13, 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13050487

Kwon, K-A., Puma, J., Oh, Y., Jeon, L., Hatton, H., Ford, T., Farewell, C., Domitrovich, C., Clark, C., Charlot-Swilley, D., (2024). Nurturing the nurturer: Elevating educator well-being and competencies through comprehensive wellness programs. Zero to Three. https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/journal/nurturing-the-nurturer-elevating-educator-well-being-and-competencies-through-comprehensive-wellness-programs/

Domitrovich, C., Charlot-Swilley, D., Gavins, A., Curtis, L., Jones Harden, B., Li, Y., Zuskov, S., Hayes,K., Giampetruzzi, E. (2024, June). The Promoting Resilience and Mental Health in Educational Settings for Early Childhood (PROMISE) Project. Poster presented at the National Research Conference on Early Childhood, Washington, DC.

Farewell, C………Charlot-Swilley, D., (2024). Enhancing workforce well-being in Head Start: Preliminary Findings from Head Start-University Partnership Research. Poster: Administration for Children and Families’ National Research Conference on Early Childhood (NRCEC)

Charlot-Swilley, D., Zuskov, S., Curtis, L., Gavins, A., Domtrovich, C. (2023). Compassion, Practice, Relationships and Restoration (CPR2): A Wellness Intervention for Early Childhood Educators. Paper Presented in Symposium at the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) 31st Annual Meeting, Virtual.

Zuskov, S., Ferguson, I., Champion, I., Charlot-Swilley, D. (2022). "It's not Self-indulgence, It's Self Preservation": Compassion, Practice, Relationships, and Restoration (CPR2) a wellbeing program combating burnout in frontline workers. Poster presented at Georgetown University’s Pediatrics Department Research Day.

Baniadam K, Curtis L, Rullo M, Gavins A, Zuskov S, Charlot-Swilley D, Domitrovich CE. (2022, October). TeacherWISE Wellbeing Workbook Feasibility, Usability, and Acceptability. Poster presented at the Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health hosted by the National Center for School Mental Health. Baltimore, Maryland.

Domitrovich CE, Charlot-Swilley D, Gavins A, Zuskov S, Curtis L. (2022, June) “PROMISE: Promoting Resilience and Mental Health in Educational Settings for Early Childhood.” Poster presented at National Research Conference on Early Childhood (NRCEC), Virtual.

Zuskov, S. F., Charlot-Swilley, D. (2021). You can’t pour from an empty cup: Addressing individual and organizational factors for sustainable workforce wellbeing. Paper presented at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 150th Conference, Denver, CO.

Robertson HA, Biel MG, Hayes KR, Snowden S, Curtis L, Charlot-Swilley D, Clauson ES, Gavins A, Sisk CM, Bravo N, Coates EE, Domitrovich CE. Leveraging the expertise of the community: A case for expansion of a peer workforce in child, adolescent, and family mental health. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2023;20, 5921. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20115921.

Contact the Early Learning team