Spark NH continues to build coordination and collaboration in the early childhood system.  To this end, in addition to the work on the functional aspects of the early childhood system being done in the Spark NH committees, we are working on some new collaborative efforts to strengthen  this system:

Race to the Top

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services will soon be releasing an application for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant.  The grant is intended to focus attention on improving early learning and development for young children.  New Hampshire is eligible to apply for $37.5 million in funds to:

• Increase the number and percentage of low-income and disadvantaged young children in high quality early learning and development programs,
• Design and implement an integrated system of high quality early learning and development programs and services directly resulting in more children, especially those with high needs, entering kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life; and
• Ensure that any use of assessment conforms to the recommendations of the National Research Council reports on early childhood.

If the state applies and the grant is awarded, it would enable our state to achieve most of the goals in the New Hampshire Comprehensive Plan for Early Childhood in four years and would go a very long way toward realizing Spark NH's vision that all New Hampshire children and their families are healthy, learning and thriving now and in the future.

A number of key stakeholders have begun to meet to discuss possibilities for an application.  At a meeting Spark NH recently helped to convene there were stakeholders from across the state who were excited at being able to collaborate on this effort.  Members gave wonderful input on what should be included in the grant, including engaging and empowering families, high quality early education for all young children, bettering access to prenatal care, health care, home visiting, family support, services for children with delays and disabilities, bettering public awareness of the importance of early childhood, working better with immigrant and refugee families, building early childhood systems that work well together, and many other exciting ideas.  All are already goals of Spark NH and it was incredibly exciting to see the level of commitment and collaboration in New Hampshire.  

Susan Hibbard, from the BUILD Initiative and her colleagues will be supporting New Hampshire (as well as other states) in writing the application.  At the meeting she reminded us that even in states where they did not receive grant funds, the process of collaborating and jointly writing an application had significantly moved the needle forward for the early childhood system.  

Early Childhood Summit - November 18

The roll out event for the New Hampshire Comprehensive Strategic Plan for Early Childhood will be on Monday, November 18 - please mark your calendars.  We will be collaborating with the New Hampshire Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on including the Strategic Plan in a day-long early childhood summit for the state.  We hope that early childhood stakeholders will attend from health, family support, early education: birth through grade three, and people who work with expectant parents.  We plan to have a number of exciting speakers and breakout sessions about the importance of early childhood, opportunities for alignment and collaboration and other early childhood related topics.  

Spark NH on Legislative Task Force on Work and Family

Legislation enacted by the 2013 General Court repealed and re-enacted the Task Force on Work and Family, naming Spark NH to its membership.  It's exciting that Spark NH is now well known enough to be invited to join this effort.

Enjoy your summer!

Director, Spark NH

 so much."