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The Child Care Partnership Project Delaware’s Early Success |
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Description A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and Delaware’s Early Success partnership is taking those initial steps. Public- and private- sector partners are part of a focused statewide effort to create a coordinated system of care for young children. Though the partnership is still in the early stages, it has already established a vision that will shape the course of both the partnership and of early childhood programs and services. This profile examines a partnership in development. It shows how careful planning and relationship-building, two foundations for success, are being achieved. Partners
History and Development The bigger the mission, the longer the process. Since 1995, a group of committed individuals has been working in Delaware to create a coordinated system of early care and education. They created the Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) to promote high-quality, affordable early care and education services throughout Delaware. The ECEC included child care providers, the state resource and referral network, state agency personnel, and community advocates who were trying to coordinate efforts to improve child care in the state. In 1997, the ECEC engaged state policymakers from the Family Services Cabinet Council as new partners. The Family Services Cabinet Council includes the seven heads of cabinet-level agencies: education; labor; health and social services; corrections; public safety and services for children, youth, and families; and the state housing authority. The partnership evolved into a steering committee that contracted with Sharon Lynn Kagan, a national expert on early care and education from the Yale Bush Center on Child Development, to advise them on developing a coordinated system of early care and education. Dr. Kagan’s report, Not By Chance: Creating An Early Care and Education System for America’s Children, provided the framework for Delaware’s own Early Success initiative. Not By Chance is a blueprint for coordinating and improving services for young children based on the findings of current research, the experiences of children and their families, and the input of hundreds of early care and education professionals In 1998, the Delaware’s steering committee and Dr. Kagan held a series of focus groups throughout the state to adapt the national Not By Chance recommendations to Delaware’s needs and resources. The eight objectives of Delaware’s child care partnership closely mirror Kagan’s report and include:
Current Activities In 1999, the partnership has refined the objectives into a comprehensive vision for early care and education in Delaware. The vision will become a communication tool to build consensus among early care and education providers as the partnership moves forward in building a comprehensive system of care. The steering committee is also working to establish a statewide council to make the vision into a reality. They are currently looking at other statewide bodies to determine who should be on the council and whether it will be established through legislation or through an executive order from the governor. Resources The steering committee benefits from an unusual collaboration among three state departments, as well as nonprofit and private-sector partners. The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services transferred $37,500 from the Child Care and Development Fund to the Delaware Department of Children, Youth, and Families to organize and support the steering committee. The Delaware Department of Education provides staff to spearhead the committee’s efforts. In addition, the committee receives in-kind support from the private sector and from nonprofit organizations such as the Family and Workplace Connection. This nonprofit organization is the leading resource and referral agency on dependent care for the state of Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Results The early results of the Early Success Partnership are the establishment of a vision and a plan to implement the vision. Longer-term results will be monitored by an outcome-based evaluation conducted across programs and services to track whether the coordinated system improves school readiness. The statewide council will be responsible for designing the evaluation and deciding how results should be monitored. Sustaining and Replicating Delaware’s child care plan is modeled after the national Not By Chance recommendations, and it is the first state to adopt these recommendations. The plan includes efforts to track the effectiveness of programs, to engage the family to become involved in children’s development, and to educate the community at large on the importance of early learning. All of these objectives will help sustain the partnership over time. Lessons Learned Prepare before take-off. Prior to attending partnership meetings, partners should receive a healthy foundation of common knowledge about the issues to be discussed and the other partners joining the effort. Players need to learn about each other’s background, as well as the status and history of child care developments. It is also important to establish a bond among partners early on in the process. This helps to foster a team-oriented environment that is conducive to open and supportive dialog. Provide time for reflection. Partners need time to process ideas presented in meetings with their own agencies. Provide everyone with sufficient time to not only contribute in meetings, but to reflect upon what they’ve heard as well. With so many stakeholders involved in the process, a "quick fix" decision is unlikely and unwise. Devote exclusive personnel. By designating staff to focus solely on the partnership, the state makes the partnership a priority and the partnership is more likely to succeed. Without doing this, staff commitment can be inconsistent because too many existing responsibilities compete for their attention. Contact Information: Janet Carter Nancy Wilson, Ph.D. |
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