About Us
Our mission
The Huddle for Families helps parents, educators, and others better understand, support, teach, and advocate for children with behaviour challenges through programming prioritizing lived experience, developmental and educational expertise, and a safe, inclusive community.
Our vision
Caregivers and educators with developmental understanding, confidence in themselves and their children, and a community to lean on are better equipped to parent, work with, and enjoy children, leading to less stress and better outcomes for everyone.
Who’s behind The Huddle for Families?
The Huddle for Families was founded and most of our programs are run by Jacqui Robbins. Jacqui is an RECE with a Master’s Degree in Child Development, 30+ years experience as a special educator, and a lifelong interest in helping children who struggle at school. She also has 22+ years experience as a parent in a house full of diagnoses, neurodivergence, and general chaos. She is the author of the picture books The New Girl…And Me and Two of a Kind, both illustrated by Matt Phelan and published by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.
We started The Huddle for Families because it’s what we wish we’d had.
When our kids needed help, when we were on the phone every day with the teacher and on the internet every night, we found A LOT of advice, directions, and “programs.” But most of it:
addressed children’s “behaviour” without seeming to care what was causing it or what it was trying to tell us,
came from professionals who were well-meaning, but had never been in our shoes or didn’t have children at all,
wasn’t based on the developmental knowledge and real life classroom experience that make advice realistic and action-oriented,
promised to “fix” our children, when we know they aren’t broken,
tried to fix our parenting, as though if we were just firmer, more centered, more proactive, more SOMETHING, our children’s struggles would vanish,
was generic and didn’t fit our family or respect our culture, background, economics, or unique situation, or
was hidden behind a paywall, costs hundreds of dollars, or required a commitment we weren’t ready to make.
We wished we had an inclusive, welcoming community, where our children could safely be themselves and none of us would get judged. We wished we could find behavioural consultants with a different approach, who understand “bad” behaviour is really a sign of unmet needs or overwhelm (so we need to be empathizing and problem-solving, not “motivating” and punishing) and caring for children takes place in a range of cultures, financial situations, family structures, neurotypes, and individual values (so there is no “right” answer, only answers that work for your child and your family).
So we started The Huddle for Families. We gathered a diverse crowd of people who have been there — as parents or as those kids always in the principal’s office — and special educators, people who’ve sat on both sides of the teacher’s desk, so they have real life and educational experience. And, we designed it around Huddles, small groups who come together to share ideas and stories, to problem-solve, to laugh, and to hopefully make it all a little easier for our kids and for us.
Our values
Lived experience
Community
Embracing diversity
Learning
Respect for children
Our beliefs
We are all – children, families, teachers, spouses, and colleagues – already trying our hardest to do the best we can, given our skills, resources, and understanding.
Behaviour is communication. “Problem” behaviour communicates an underlying mismatch, skill deficit, or challenge that we can try to address.
Everyone should be welcomed to participate in ways that honor their own needs, goals, culture, background, and neurotype.
Parents are experts on their children, as are the children themselves.
Our commitment to equity
The Huddle for Families is committed to helping anyone who cares for children with behavioral challenges by prioritizing lived experience, while holding ourselves and our collaborators accountable for support and environments that are culturally, developmentally, familially, and financially inclusive.