I was thrilled to open the Washington Business Journal last week to see the work that we’re doing to form a collaborative around the issue of child care and early education in our region highlighted! (To view the article online, click here. Or, for a PDF, click here.)
Seeing the article inspired me to offer a bit more detail about our work on the collaborative and the issues around child care and early education that are impacting the region, and particularly low-income families throughout the region–many of them headed by single mothers.
Research shows that young children (ages 0 to 5) need a strong social, emotional and intellectual foundation to succeed in school. Parents and caregivers have the responsibility to ensure young children get off to a strong start and establish healthy patterns for life-long learning. Young children who enter kindergarten without this foundation for learning are more likely to face significant academic challenges than peers who come prepared.
Quality early care and education can successfully close this “preparation gap,” while facilitating the economic security and long-term financial success of low-income families by supporting parents in the workforce, and by preparing the workforce of the future to meet the needs of the regional business community.
The Women’s Foundation established the Early Care and Education Collaborative (ECEC) to meet these pressing social and economic needs by focusing on improved access to quality early care and education for low-income families in the Washington metropolitan area. A multi-year, multi-million dollar collective funding effort, the ECEC is supported and directed by corporate funders and local and national foundations. Members of the ECEC believe that strategic collaborative efforts can create meaningful change in the early care and education field by improving the quality of services and influencing public decisions.
The ECEC’s mission is threefold: To increase the capacity and institutional stability of the early care and education programs in the region, enable these entities to develop and manage their resources more effectively, and to improve early care and education programs through grantmaking, training and technical assistance.
In keeping with this mission, ECEC’s goals are to:
1. Encourage and strengthen partnership(s) among early care and education practitioners and key stakeholders.
2. Support changes in the early care and education programs that will improve learning and ensure the overall quality of care among the very young (ages 0 to 5).
3. Promote early care and education programs working towards long-term sustainable systemic reforms.
4. Strengthen the capacity of early care and education professionals by investing in training and technical assistance for Grantee Partners.
5. Invest in evaluation to ensure the investments and programs have the desired impact.
The ECEC will do so by funding programs or capacity building efforts to enhance the overall scope and effectiveness of the quality of services, which could include professional development, assessment, quality assurance and accreditation and public education and advocacy efforts affecting the early care and education field.
Grant recipients will be limited to organizations working in the District of Columbia, Arlington County, City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, Prince George’s County, and Montgomery County. They will be chosen based on a demonstrated ability to support long-term sustainable early care and education efforts.
For more information, feel free to contact me at hchung@wawf.org.
Hye Sook Chung is The Woman’s Foundation’s consultant on the Early Child Care and Education Collaborative.
