Feed: The Quality Childcare Mentoring Collaboration - AggScore: 27.1

The Quality Childcare Mentoring Collaboration

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pOne of our new focus areas, Education, is divided into two parts Early Childhood and Youth. Most of the work done in the Early Childhood area is being done by Success By 6, the United Way initiative that for the last two years has brought together more than 70 community groups and leaders to help make sure that by the time they reach sixyearsold, every child in Central Texas is healthy, happy, and smartand ready to succeed in school.ppEnter the Quality Childcare Mentoring Collaboration, a project of Success By 6 and its many partners.ppGoal of the Collaboration Help childcare centers achieve stateapproved quality ratings, which ensure that the childcare center is effectively preparing children to succeed in school.ppWhy is this Work so Important Because we know that children who attend high quality early childhood programs are more likely to succeed in school and in life. Consider also that every 1 invested in quality earlychildhood care saves society up to 17 in costs down the road.ppCollaborators United Way Success By 6, WorkSource, Family Connections, Austin Community College, City of Austin, Travis CountyppAs part of the new United Way, we have outlined a deliberate and specific process for addressing our communitys needs, including the need for quality childcare centers. Starting at the top and moving clockwise, this process looks like thisppAnd heres how the Quality Childcare Mentoring Collaboration fit into this process...pp1. Assess Community NeedsppWe began with the simple question, How many childcare centers currently meet quality standards Unfortunately, we learned that less than 14 of childcare centers in Austin met any quality standards beyond basic licensing requirementsa much lower percentage than for other U.S. cities of comparable size.ppWe then asked, Who is providing services to child care centers now And how might things improve if we came together to tackle the issuepp2. Research Best PracticesppWe looked at mentoring models across the U.S., wherein various experts and community organizations help guide childcare centers toward making improvements in their services.. This resulted in a stack of data that shows conclusively which strategies yield the best results.ppThat data, showing evidencebased best practices and promising practices, was shared with our collaborating partners so that our strategies and practices could follow the lead of those that have been proven to work.pp3. Develop Collaborative StrategiesppWhen our partners came to the table, we discovered some duplication of services. Aligned under United Way Success By 6, the partners then worked together to create a new system for serving the childcare centers that eliminated any duplication of services. It was agreed thatpp WorkSource would serve the centers with the most needs, or the furthest to go in the quality rating system.pp Family Connections would work with centers that already meet some quality standards but are looking to improve.pp ACC would work with those centers striving to reach the highest standard of national accreditation.pp4. Invest And Take Action United Way SuccessppBy 6 is providing funding to the mentoring collaboration. Success By 6 also met with each City Council member and every Travis County Commissioner to request additional funding from the City and County. The result The City and County recently approved funding of over 210,000 for this important initiative.pp5. Measure Results Last year, fewer than 14 of childcare centers met any quality standards. Today, 19 have achieved quality ratings, and by mid2008, a full 27 of childcare centers will achieve quality ratings.ppIn just two years, the number of qualityrated childcare centers will have almost doubled.ppWere proud of these results, but we know we have a long way to go. Through this collaboration and other programs, United Way Success By 6 will continue this work until more than 90 of childcare centers in Central Texas achieve quality ratings, placing us among the leading communities in the country when it comes to serving our youngest children.p

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