Bi-Monthly
Newsletter - June 2021

Nebraska's Strategic Plan Goal 1:
Access

Welcome to Year 2 of
Nebraska's Preschool Development Renewal Grant Birth to Five Years. For
the coming year, issues of the newsletter will not only focus on the
particular goals of the PDG Strategic Plan, but also the major themes that
the Plan addresses.

As part of their aim to
increase access to quality early childhood care and education, the
initiatives focused on Goal 1 seek to increase the availability of quality
care and services by creating funding strategies for providers, removing
barriers to families who seek quality childcare, making it easier for
families to find and enroll for care and services, and increasing access
for vulnerable and rural families.

This issue is part 1 of
the focus on access and will highlight several initiatives that identify
particularly with this goal.

First Year Success of PDG Renewal Sets Up Second
Year Funding and Continued Implementation

Year 1 of the Preschool
Development Renewal Grant has come to a close, and the award of a second
year of funding speaks to the successes of the work grant initiatives have
accomplished in the first year. Just a few of the highlights
include:

Communities for Kids contracted with
27 communities for Early Childhood Community Coordinator sub-grants, 9
communities for Spanish Speaking/Bilingual Provider Support Initiative
sub-grants, 18 communities for Early Learning Scholarships, 31
communities for Quality and Capacity Building sub-grants;

Learning Begins at Birth updated,
printed, and distributed across Nebraska 60,000 copies of their
guide  in English,
Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic;

Ready Rosie enrolled 29
communities/programs and added 400 classrooms to their program, an
evidence-based, birth-elementary age family engagement resource;

The Coaching Collaboration developed
and finalized The Nebraska Early Childhood Coaching
Guidebook: Competencies for Professional Practice
for coaches who work
within the early childhood system.

Getting Ready trained and coached a
total of 91 Early Childhood Professionals in their approach to support family engagement,
impacting 32 communities and more than 780 families.

There is so much more
and just not enough space to say it, but thank you to each initiative for
the fabulous work you’ve done in Year 1.

Looking forward to Year
2, a number of programs have already begun to take shape or have built on
the accomplishments in place from Year 1. Here are a few things to look
forward to in 2021-2022:

Social Emotional Support
Infrastructure plans to expand access to Circle of Security and
complete accreditation with the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant
Mental Health;

Coordinated Enrollment will expand to
3 more sites serving vulnerable populations;

Step Up To Quality 2.0 will roll out
in spring 2022;

The
Reflective Practice team will build
training capacity and support 4 training cohorts of 20 each;

The
Transition Committee’s toolkits will
be finalized and ready for dissemination in October 2021.

The newsletter will
continue to update PDG progress for all initiatives over the course of the
year.

Strategic Plan Update

The first strategic
plan engagement opportunity for partners and stakeholders is an
interactive webinar that will provide in-depth understanding of the
strategic plan. Participants can expect:

to explore the
strategic plan’s values and how they support the goals to achieve the
vision;

understand more about
the main themes and terminology used in the plan;

learn about the
current strategies under each goal.

Throughout the
presentation, participants will have interactive feedback opportunities to
consider and share how their experiences and work in the early childhood
system align to the work outlined in the strategic plan.

To register for one of
the webinar events, please go to the PDG Calendar of
Events and look in late June and early July for “NE EC Strategic Plan
Webinar.”  Click on each event to find the registration link. (Note:
Each of these webinars will cover the same
information.)

If you are unable to
attend one of the webinars offered, a recording will be posted on the
Nebraska Early Childhood Strategic Plan website after the series is
complete.

The Nebraska Early
Childhood Strategic Plan is a dynamic plan created by Nebraskans for
Nebraskans. Learn more about the plan at www.NEearlychildhoodplan.org.

For
questions about the Strategic Plan contact Susan
Sarver.

Needs Assessment
Update

As a continuation of
the focus groups conducted in 2019, the Needs Assessment team recruited
community-based facilitators to reach underrepresented families within
target populations. Focus groups explored families' experiences with
childcare needs, educational services, and other community resources that
can enhance the lives of children in the community.

Eleven community-based
focus group facilitators conducted a series of 15 focus groups with
targeted populations, including African American, Latino, Somali, Karen,
and families with disabled children, to better understand the needs of
families with children birth to five years of age.

A total of 84
participants engaged in conversations about the needs of families.
Following the focus group, the participants completed a post-survey of
demographic information, family structure, childcare, and necessities.
Qualitative coding of focus group transcripts is underway, and key
findings will be shared with Preschool Development Grant stakeholders
soon.

If you have questions
concerning Needs Assessment activities, please contact Kimberly Norman-Collins.

Achieving
Access through PDG Funding

Nebraska Early
Childhood Collaborative Enhances Childcare Business
Practices

Family Child Care
Network

The Nebraska Early
Childhood Collaborative (NECC) launched a statewide Family Child Care
Network in August 2020 to respond to the growing challenges facing the
childcare industry.  NECC’s Family Child Care Network provides a
combination of technology and high-touch services to elevate childcare
business practices, increase wages, and improve program quality. The goals
of our Family Child Care Network (FCCN) are to address the industry’s
greatest challenges, including antiquated business practices, low wages,
isolation, and large numbers of providers leaving the
field.

Even though the FCCN is
in the early stages, it is currently supporting nearly 350 childcare
professionals across the state and is already receiving national
recognition.  NECC’s Family Child Care Network was among 10 ventures
selected, based on our extraordinary potential for scaled impact, by
Promise Ventures Studio and recognized as a leader by US News in
an article about providing financing childcare, including home-based
programs, entitled "States Must Fund Early Child Care
Programs."

Wonderschool

In 2019, NECC engaged
Wonderschool, a national network of modern early education programs, to
pilot their comprehensive technology platform in Nebraska.  The
platform allows childcare professionals to manage nearly every aspect of
their business through one mobile-friendly application. Through a
partnership with

Wonderschool, childcare
business owners that are part of NECC’s FCCN can access the platform at no
initial cost. In turn, the provider’s data dashboard is shared with NECC’s
team who can mentor the provider on key business metrics.  FCCN
members utilizing the Wonderschool platform also have access to a
Nebraska-specific and a national Community of Practice, helping to address
the isolation providers experience.  Currently, over 50 Nebraska
family childcare programs have on-boarded to Wonderschool.  NECC has
plans to add an additional 50 programs to the platform during the next
year of the Preschool Development Grant.

Business
Training Series & Consultation

NECC also partnered
with All Our Kin (AOK), a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization that
had garnered national attention, to pilot their business training
curriculum, consultation model, and licensing toolkit.  At the
conclusion of the successful pilot in 2019-2020, NECC expanded the
10-week, 30-hour business training series and licensing toolkit to serve
family childcare educators statewide.  Since the inception of the
business training series, NECC has provided the Business Training Series
to more than 250 Nebraska family childcare educators.  NECC plans to
continue offering the business training series at least twice per year,
training over 50 family childcare educators in each
series.

Licensing
Toolkit

Modeled after AOK’s
highly successful program, NECC’s Licensing Toolkit program provides
materials, guidance, and support to help unlicensed and potential
providers fulfill state licensing requirements, meet health and safety
standards, and become part of a professional network for family childcare
business owners.

Last summer, NECC
launched the Licensing Toolkit.  The first participants are now
provisionally licensed and are serving children in Nebraska.  NECC’s
Licensing Toolkit program has enrolled 24 future family childcare
educators in the program, including 6 educators whose primary language is
Spanish.  NECC plans to translate the entire program to Spanish
during the next year of the Preschool Development Grant.

For more information
about NECC’s Family Child Care Network please email Brandee Lengel or visit the website.

Coordinated
Enrollment Pilot Expansion

Year 1 was certainly a
whirlwind for the Coordinated Enrollment Pilot Expansion.  The
initiative began the year by surveying families who reached out to apply
for services through the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP)
about barriers they had encountered while trying to access quality ECCE
services and essential services for their children.  The initiative
used that information to develop processes, create partnerships with
community childcare providers, and create a recruitment plan. They also
hired and trained two Coordinated Enrollment Specialists to serve each
family from initial intake until enrollment into a childcare program of
their choosing.

In January, team
members began recruiting families from over-income  EHS-CCP programs
waitlists whose income was between 100 and 200% of the Federal Poverty
Guidelines, which made them ineligible for EHS services.  Families
are screened to determine eligibility for childcare subsidy as well as
other DHHS benefits and WIC.  Families who are determined as
qualifying are assisted in completing their applications. Parents also
receive education about choosing quality childcare using resources from
Learning Begins at Birth.

Coordinated Enrollment
also helps parents make connections to other services that can assist them
in supporting their child’s healthy development.  The initiative has
developed partnerships with home visiting and parent education
programs as well as other community resources for housing, utility,
transportation, and food assistance to reduce barriers for parents.

For
more information about Coordinated Enrollment Pilot Expansion, please
contact Mary Lariviere.

PDG-Related
News

Early Childhood
Event Builds Bilingual Partnerships between Providers and
Families

“Speak English!” That’s
the reception Angelina Fregoso received from one parent when she was
overheard speaking Spanish to a child in her care. A story she recently
shared with a gathering of providers who had come to hear how they could
better support a bilingual environment for Spanish-speaking
children.

Angelina was part of a
dual county event that brought together (virtually) childcare providers
and families.  The two Nebraska counties, Madison and Dakota, took
steps on Saturday, April 24, toward creating a more equitable early
childhood care and education environment where providers and
Spanish-speaking families can engage in a mutual journey of
discovery.  “Supporting Spanish Speakers in Early Childhood” was
comprised of back-to-back Zoom sessions, one in English and one in
Spanish, to inspire conversations about the bilingual experience in
childcare. The event offered providers insight into Latinx cultures and
invited Spanish-speaking families to better understand the requirements of
the American educational system and to engage actively with the providers
who care for their children.

The event was the
brainchild of Abagail Gustad, who knows what it’s like to need extended
help from Nebraska’s early childhood care and education system (ECCE).
After receiving her associates degree in early childhood education, Gustad
worked for some time in the ECCE system before taking an 11-year hiatus.
But when her daughter was born and needed the assistance of the Early
Development Network, Gustad realized that there was more she could do with
her training than teach. Gustad became an Advocate for in-home support
with Healthy Families and later joined Nebraska Children’s Rooted in
Relationships as a Trainer of Trainers.

In her position as
Early Childhood Community Coordinator (ECCC) for Dakota County, Gustad
received community well-being funds for bilingual support in her area and
immediately knew she wanted to “dive in with a project.” She gathered
three providers in her community who had bilingual staff and asked them
where to begin. Gustad said that “they really felt there needs to be some
cultural inclusion training.” She describes the difficulty of an
atmosphere where Spanish-speaking children enter childcare and “come into
an environment where there’s nothing that reminds them of their culture.”
This creates a barrier for children and their families.

Read
the full article.

View
the PDG Events Calendar

The PDG Events Calendar is live.
To see what's happening or to submit an  event, please visit our
Calendar of Events Page.

Family
Engagement and Race Equity

Welcome Johanna
Pesante-Daniel

When Johanna
Pesante-Daniel first came to Nebraska from Puerto Rico 21 years ago to be
with her mother and brother, she already knew she had a passion for
assisting the Latinx community in moving beyond barriers that barred
access to resources they needed. She began her work in the state by
working with the Early Head Start program. For the last 14 years she has
worked in Public Health where she began as a translator and moved up to be
Minority Health Coordinator of Public Health Solutions.

She now joins Nebraska
Children as the Translation and Interpretation Navigator and will apply
her passion to

providing translation
of crucial resources for Spanish-speaking families and to outreach to
those who need interpretation services. Johanna understands how vital
her work is toward Latinx populations, particularly in rural areas.
She said, “I understand the struggles of the rural communities where
services are more limited.”

Johanna is no stranger
to rural isolation as she lives in the countryside near Crete where, she
jokes, during the pandemic, she “had to make friends with the deer and the
rabbits.” She enjoys a break from her quiet living space when she attends
her 13-year-old son’s baseball games and when she teaches adult ESL
classes for Crete Public Schools.

Please welcome Johanna
as she helps drive positive change toward greater racial equity in
Nebraska’s work with the early childhood community.

Opportunities
to Learn More about Juneteenth

On June 19, 2021,
Juneteenth celebrations will commemorate the emancipation of slaves in the
United States. The day celebrates the anniversary of the 1865 General
Order Number 3 issued in Texas by Union General Gordon Granger that read
"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation
from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."

If you would like to
know more about the history of Juneteenth celebrations or read about
African American experience, please check out the following
resources:

Short
Video

Article

Readings

Do You Have
Questions?

If
you have questions about newsletter content, PDG-related activities, or
partner organizations, we want to help you find answers. To receive
information regarding your questions, please submit an online query by
filling out the form at the bottom of our "PDG Progress" page, and we'll
do our best to find you answers.

Get Answers to Your Questions

PDG
Partners

Nebraska’s PDG work is led
by Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) under the
authority of Governor Pete Ricketts, in partnership with the Nebraska
Department of Education (NDE), Nebraska Children and Families Foundation,
the University of Nebraska system, and many other
partners.

This project is made
possible by funding received through Grant Number 90TP0079-01, of the
USDHHS-Administration for Children and Families, Office of Early
Childhood; Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services; Nebraska
Department of Education; and Nebraska Children and Families Foundation,
following grant requirements of 70% federal funding with 30% match from
state and private resources. Its contents are solely the responsibility of
the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the
Office of Child Care, the Administration for Children and Families, or the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For
questions or comments regarding the Preschool Development Grant, please
contact:

Shannon Mitchell-Boekstal, Assistant
Vice President Preschool Development

For
more information visit Preschool Development
Grant.

Our
Contact Information

Nebraska Children & Families
Foundation

215 Centennial Mall South
Suite
200
Lincoln, NE 68508

402-476-9401

http://www.NebraskaChildren.org

Unsubscribe | Manage
email preferences