Initiated independent evaluation of the Collaborative by Trinity College. Evaluation describes strength of the Collaborative in one place where all child care groups and interests could come together, share information and explore options for working together.
Hired first full time director
Awarded more than $1.3 million over three years for projects directly generated by the Collaborative.
Revised mission to improve quality of services to bring together diverse organizations in the field.
Awarded La Casa de Puerto Rico funding for successful Provider Recruitment and Training Program for Latinos, dramatically increasing the number of Hispanic family day care providers in Hartford and emphasizing the development of culturally and racially responsive child care services through the family day care providers.
Awarded Community Renewal Team funding for successful Provider Recruitment and Training Program for African Americans, dramatically increasing the number of African American family day care providers in Hartford, and emphasizing the development of culturally and racially responsive child care services through the family day care providers.
Funded Towards a Brighter Future, a consortium of six agencies to provide mobile services for identifying developmental delays and special needs in young children and parent outreach and education in Hartford’s neighborhoods.
Established with Hartford College for Women, a substitute training and placement service.
Published Providers Funding and Resource Guide to help providers obtain resources for programs.
Developed Accreditation Facilitation Project to systematically assist child care centers in their pursuit of program improvement while meeting national quality standards and reaching accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAYEC).
Expanded Resource Guide for Quality Child Care and provided training for programs and family support workers.
- Recognized by the Department of Public Health as provider of professional development requirements for licensing.
Produced “Choosing Child Care” brochures in English and Spanish, printed by Pratt & Whitney.
Contracted with the Hartford Association for the Education of Young Children to deliver the state’s first Accreditation Facilitation Project (AFP) to support quality improvement in child care centers.
AFP project increased accredited centers in the area from 9 to 96 in just 7 years.
State legislation created 5 regional AFP projects working with 130 regional sites.
Provided support for 101 centers receiving Accreditation.
Created and funded the Early Accreditation Support (EAS) project for programs not ready for successful participation in the AFP.
EAS becomes part of AFP.
American Business Collaboration (ABC) funded school-age accreditation training for 10 school-age programs through the National School-Age Care Alliance and the Wellesley School-Age Child Care Project.
Surveyed teachers, towns, and families on availability, affordability and quality. Published report “Child Care in Greater Hartford: Are we Meeting our Families’ Child Care Needs.” In a nutshell—no.
Media coverage of many child care issues including staffing shortages, snow days, license exemptions and compensation, with references to the Collaborative as media resource.
Facilitated broad group of after school groups to work toward coordinated and systematized process of programs to meet before and after school needs of school-age children.
Published report developed from surveys of Hartford programs that identifies programs, gaps and recommendations based on national research: Before- and After-School Programs for Elementary School-Age Children in Hartford, CT: A Study of Services, Gaps and Recommendations for a Year-Round, Coordinated, City-Wide system of Before- and After-School Programs.
Provided intense training and technical support to all Hartford Head Start Programs to move toward participation in AFP and national accreditation.
Partnered with the National School-Age Care Alliance and the Wellesley College School-Age Child Care Project to provide school-age accreditation training, funded by the American Business Collaboration.
Served as community representative on national superintendents’ early childhood initiative, Success for All Children, funded by the Danforth Foundation to improve outcomes for young children.
Served as community representative with Hartford Children First Initiative, a community-wide program to improve outcomes for young children funded by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.
Instrumental in passing Connecticut School Readiness Legislation fully funding five state-wide accreditation facilitation projects and names Collaborative-HAEYC model for replication.
Created first-ever CT Quality Child Care Teacher Awards and recognized four outstanding teachers, hosted by the new Captain Kangaroo and awarded $1,000 to those teachers.
CPTV aired Quality Child Care Teacher Awards
Awarded School Readiness Quality Enhancement Funds to start state’s first-ever early childhood coaching project.
Delivered onsite coaching and consultation to 7 school readiness programs, with 145 staff, serving 1100 children.
Received funding from Hartford School Readiness Council to start lending library for the early childhood community
Co-convened Child Care Financing Symposium to address child care teaching shortages.
Designed and implemented Traveling Trainers, a project to bring training to the classrooms during the teachers’ day.
Partnered with the World of Difference to provide training to help child care programs reach cultural competency and created a Diversity Action Resource Team from participants with a grant from the Hartford School Readiness Council.
Transferred oversight of AFP to HAEYC.
Surveyed Connecticut child care directors to determine base for developing Connecticut Director Credential and produced report on child care directors (leadership) in Connecticut.
Surveyed Hartford region employees and employers to determine what employees need to balance work and family. Results helped companies review work-life policies and produced report.
Press Briefing at Capitol on Balancing Work & Life Survey, by the Collaborative and Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford of nearly 1000 employees in the region to determine what employees need to balance work and life. Compiled collective research to develop strategies for effective communication with families.
Convened focus groups to assess current language, methods and concepts used to deliver messages to families.
Partnered with the American Business Collaboration to develop guidelines for the Denise Killeen Cichon (former Collaborative Steering Committee Chair) Memorial Scholarship Fund to help pay college tuition for working child care teachers.
Selected the Hartford Association for the Education of Young Children to distribute funds from the Denise Killeen Cichon Scholarship Fund for early childhood teachers.
Partnered with First Experience Communications to market the concept of quality early childhood programs, funded by William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.
Executive Director recognized for outstanding service for efforts on behalf of Connecticut's young children and families by the Connecticut Association for the Education of Young Children.
Provided workshops on Communications, Public Relations and Marketing in Early Childhood Care and Education with First Experience Communications to improve parent/teacher interactions, create better parent and public understanding of the value of high-quality child care programs. Funded by William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.
Executive Director recognized by the National Council of Jewish Women as "one of Twelve Women who Dare to Make a Difference".
The Collaborative expands operations and moves to 221 Main Street, Hartford, CT.
Produced Exposures, a workbook by Jean Berkwitt, released for child care staff, provided general information, guidance and inspiration to those who plan and operate programs, regardless of setting
Recognized four outstanding child care providers in 2nd Annual Quality Child Care Teacher Award. Developed Connecticut Leadership Empowerment Action Project (ConnLEAP) to build early childhood leadership in the underserved community.
Implemented
survey to determine compensation, benefits, education and experience levels, turnover in child care staff in the region.
Created Diversity Action Resources (D.A.R.T.) team to provide diversity awareness training to adults working with young children.
63 non-traditional students produced action projects and successfully completed ConnLEAP college-course.
14 volunteers from the National Council of Jewish Women spent one week organizing library to improve ease of use to accommodate current and projected library growth.
22 Directors completed The Human Side of Management early childhood leadership training.
Workforce Environment Surveys completed by programs in director leadership project. Surveys analyzed by the Center for Early Childhood Leadership.
Partnered with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and Teaching Strategies, Inc. to provide intensive curriculum and assessment training for 250 child care providers in 8 agencies in Hartford serving nearly 1000 children.
Developed Reliability System for CT program rating using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale.
Partnered with Operation Respect to provide training for early childhood consultants and college instructor to help students/teachers create climates of caring and respect in programs.
Supported the Hartford Association for the Education of Young Children’s co-location to strengthen collaboration between two early childhood organizations and provide one-stop shopping for early childhood customers
Partnered with Charter Oak State College, Connecticut Charts-A-Course, and Department of Social Services to award first 25 Connecticut Director Credentials.
Connecticut Hospital and Education Facilities Authority (CHEFA), in partnership with the Collaborative, developed cost-modeling template to project financing costs of quality early childhood programs.
