The Child Care Partnership Project.

The Child Care Partnership Project provides information and technical assistance to state child care administrators as they work with businesses, philanthropic organizations, and other groups to build and sustain partnerships. To this end, it is producing a range of publications and tools.

Profiles of Existing Public-Private Partnerships
Fact Sheets on Innovative Approaches
Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care
PowerPoint Presentation and Speaker Notes for the Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care
In-Depth Case Studies on Successful Partnership Approaches
Employer Toolkit Template for Engaging Business Partners
PowerPoint Presentation and Speaker Notes for Business Involvement in Child Care Partnerships
A Guide to Engaging Parents in Public-Private Child Care Partnerships
Using Results to Improve the Lives of Children and Families: A Guide for Public-Private Child Care Partnerships
Making the Case for Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (video) (2000)
How Are WE Doing? A Self-Assessment Tool for Partnerships
Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons for Success (PDF)
Taking Action: What State Officials Can Do to Promote Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (PDF)

Profiles of Existing Public-Private Partnerships

The Profiles provide descriptions of successful public-private partnerships. Each profile contains the following sections:

Description,
Partners,
History/Development,
Current Activities,
Resources,
Results,
Sustaining/Replicating,
Lessons Learned, and
Contact Information.

The profiles represent a wide variety of geographic areas, specialty topics and types of child care initiatives.

Fact Sheets on Innovative Approaches

Fact Sheets on Innovative Approaches are brief presentations of specialty topics in child care. The topics include:

Each Fact Sheet provides several examples of public-private partnerships employing the innovative approach described.

Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care (HTML)

This guide is designed to provide practical information on creating and maintaining public-private child care partnerships to increase and improve child care in states and communities throughout the country. It draws from the experiences and wisdom of successful partnership leaders at the national, state, and local levels to provide resources for existing and future partnerships.

The guide begins with a definition of public-private partnerships, followed by a summary of why they are created and what public-private partnerships can do. It then presents a set of principles and strategies for establishing and maintaining successful partnerships based on lessons from national, state, and local models.

PowerPoint Presentation and Speaker Notes for the Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care (HTML)

This PowerPoint presentation is a tool to help you engage partners by effectively communicating the importance and usefulness of partnerships for child care. It is based on the Guide to Successful Public-Private Partnerships for Child Care. The slides and "talking points" included in the presentation can be downloaded and customized according to your goals and audience.

In-Depth Case Studies on Successful Partnership Approaches

These case studies provide detailed information on innovative public-private partnerships. They highlight partnerships that have adapted particular models or approaches. They also provide insight into some of the issues that partnerships are grappling with, including funding, sustainability, replication, and technical assistance needs and resources.

The partnerships profiled in the case studies are:

Educare Colorado: A coalition of business, philanthropic, early education, industry, and government leaders working to create a statewide early education system in Colorado.
Georgia’s Prekindergarten Program: A statewide prekindergarten program available to all 4-year-olds in Georgia on a voluntary basis.
Indiana Child Care Symposium Project: An initiative focussed on bringing teams of public and private interests together throughout the state to address local child care issues.
North Carolina Partnership for Children (Smart Start): A statewide initiative that provides funding and technical assistance to county-level public and private partnerships that design and implement services and programs based on their community’s needs.
The San Francisco Child Care Facilities Fund: A project that provides technical assistance as well as small grants and loans to family child care providers, and non-profit child care centers for facilities renovation and expansion.
Hawaii's Good Beginnings Initiative: Building Community and State Partnerships for Young Children and Their Families: An umbrella initiative that is working to maximize healthy child development in the first five years of life by facilitating and supporting state and community partnerships.
Kansas City EQUIP: Mobilizing A Community to Support Early Education: An initiative that collects and uses data to mobilize community stakeholders from the business, philanthropic, government, and nonprofit sectors to work together to improve early education opportunities.
Building Parent Leaders in Boston: Parents United for Child Care: A grassroots membership organization that organizes and trains parents to take a leadership role in efforts to increase the quantity and improve the quality of child care in Boston.
Creating a Policy Agenda for Children and Families in Rhode Island Rhode Island Kids Count: A statewide children's policy organization that has helped to achieve substantial increases in support for child care in Rhode Island by collecting data, framing children's issues and convening stakeholders.
Improving and Expanding Child Care Across Maryland: Maryland Child Care Resource Network: A business-initiated and state-sponsored resource and referral network that is helping to build child care capacity and connect parents to child care resources throughout Maryland.

Employer Toolkit Template for Engaging Business Partners (HTML)

The Employer Toolkit Template provides organizations with practical tools to effectively engage the business community in finding child care solutions. Organizations and leaders can use the tools to assist businesses in addressing both the child care needs of their own employees as well as larger quality and supply issues faced by their states and communities.

The Toolkit contains the following sections that can be used as independent documents or as part of a larger, locally tailored business guide:

It’s Good Business to Invest in Child Care;
Getting Started ;
Business-Community Partnerships:
Child Care Options for Employers;
Overcoming Challenges; and
Resources.

The toolkit can be downloaded and customized according to the child care needs in your community and interests of the businesses you wish to engage

PowerPoint Presentation and Speaker Notes for Business Involvement in Child Care Partnerships (HTML)

This PowerPoint presentation is intended to help engage members of the business community in discussions about and/or involvement with a public-private partnership for child care. The presentation makes the business case for improved child care (why quality child care is so vital and why investments in child care make sense for business). The strengths of public-private partnerships are discussed. Finally, the presentation offers a large number of concrete and diverse examples of how businesses are involved in partnerships

A Guide to Engaging Parents in Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (PDF)

This consumer-friendly parent involvement booklet provides public-private partnerships with successful strategies and tools on how to encourage and assist families in playing active roles in partnerships. The guide explores various approaches to nurturing parent involvement and developing parent leadership and provides concrete examples of strategies that partnerships can use.

Using Results to Improve the Lives of Children and Families: A Guide for Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (PDF)

This guide provides a user-friendly context and framework for thinking about, measuring and reporting the results of public-private partnerships. The tool provides information to enable partnerships to plan and collect information to guide decision making and show their effects and effectiveness. It includes specific examples of indicators that address both the processes of building and sustaining partnerships and the results of partnership efforts.

Making the Case for Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (video) (2000)

This 8-minute video is designed for use as a meeting or discussion starter that enables viewers to understand the relationship between early childhood brain development, the need for high quality care and the role the private sector can play in meeting this need. It enables current and prospective partnership leaders to present the brain development information as part of the business case for partnerships, even if they do not have extensive knowledge or background in early childhood neuroscience.

To order copies of the videotape, contact the National Child Care Information Center at 800-616-2242.

How Are WE Doing? A Self-Assessment Tool for Partnerships (PDF)

The Partnership Self-Assessment is a tool to help partnerships at all levels of development to assess and improve the effectiveness of their collaboration. It is based on, and meant to be used in conjunction with, the Guide to Successful Partnerships for Child Care.

Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons for Success (PDF) Child Care Partnerships Project

Taking Action: What State Officials Can Do to Promote Public-Private Child Care Partnerships (PDF) Child Care Partnership Project