FEBRUARY 2016 | ISSUE 17
This Early Childhood-LINC newsletter connects communities across the country as they build and strengthen systems to help children and families thrive. Click the box below and enter your email address in the Stay Informed box to sign up. 
 
        

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COMMUNITY NEWS
EC-LINC Communities Receive Research-to-Action Grants

EC-LINC is excited to announce the launch of four research-to-action projects, funded by an anonymous donor. Small groups of EC-LINC member communities are working together on projects designed to advance the field of early childhood systems through actionable research. 

The research-to-action grantees will begin work on a variety of topics of interest to both the EC-LINC network and a wider audience of early childhood systems builders. The topics to be explored in the coming months are as follows:
Two-Generation Programming: Connecting Families to Economic Opportunity (Lead: Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County)
  • Design a pilot project focused on aligning child care and workforce development services to improve child outcomes and the financial well-being of families
  • Review research and best practices for addressing the "cliff effect"
0-3 Best Practices: Playgroups (Lead: First 5 Ventura County)
  • Establish a best practice framework for playgroup services
  • Develop systematic protocols for triaging of families into services and integrating services into playgroup settings
  • Analyze current costs and funding mechanisms for playgroup services and identify leveraging and advocacy opportunities
Creating Tools to Successfully Engage Communities and Families in Early Childhood Programs and Systems (Lead: First 5 Alameda County)
  • Define the continuum of family and community engagement opportunities in early childhood
  • Develop an Early Childhood Family Engagement Tool Kit with support of parents and families and pilot elements of the tool kit at two sites
Measuring the Impact of Early Childhood Systems (Lead: Children and Families Commission of Orange County)
  • Build upon the research and success of the EC-LINC Outcomes and Metrics Learning Lab and test implementation of proposed outcome measures and metrics
  • Assess how this data will inform the governance and decision-making processes of key champions for children and families within the local participating communities
We will share updates as the research-to-action projects unfold throughout 2016. For more information on these projects, contact Steve Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy.
New EC-LINC Community Profiles
Two years into the work of EC-LINC, we are proud to share newly revised and redesigned profiles of our nine extraordinary member communities. The profiles highlight key aspects of the early childhood system in each community, including its origins, goals and strategies, approaches to measuring progress and structure and leadership. Demographic details give a sense of the community context and illustrate the range of communities participating in EC-LINC, from rural to urban, with varying rates of child poverty and other challenges. In addition, an "Innovation of Note" is described in each community's profile.
NATIONAL NEWS
Brief: Supporting Young Children through the Budget
The  President's budget for Fiscal Year 2017 includes significant investments in programs that have the potential to improve outcomes for young children, families and the communities where they live. Explore the proposed budget through this White House blog post and see CSSP's new brief, Increasing Opportunities and Addressing Disparities: Supporting Young Children through the Budget, which provides a summary of key line items in the budget that can be used to support more equitable outcomes for young children and their families. The brief also highlights strategies from Rhode Island, Washington State and Georgia for using federal investments to advance equity in early childhood systems.
RESOURCES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD SYSTEM-BUILDING: Neighborhoods as Agents of Change
New Guide
Early Learning in Promise Neighborhoods
 
The Promise Neighborhoods programs support the implementation of innovative strategies that improve outcomes, including school readiness for children in the nation's most distressed communities. This new report from CSSP describes the defining attributes of three Promise Neighborhoods grantees, showcases early learning efforts and emerging results, identifies challenges and discusses implications for other neighborhoods.


Initiative Profile
Family-Centered Community Change

Services for kids and adults in high-poverty neighborhoods are often disconnected. The Family-Centered Community Change initiative, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, partners with community development initiatives in New York, Ohio and Texas neighborhoods to better connect services. The ultimate goal is to help communities improve the quality of schools for kids and, at the same time, build job and parenting skills for their parents. 
EXPLORE MORE RESOURCES                        
    • For systems-builders: A new guide from the Quality Improvement Center for Research-Based Infant-Toddler Court Teams focuses on sustainability. Sustaining New Approaches in Child Welfare shares a sustainability framework that can apply to many innovations that depend on collaboration within and across systems.
       
    • For providers: The Center for the Developing Child has released a 52-minute training module for child health care professionals on "Early Childhood Health Optimization."
       
    • For parents: This article from the Greater Good Science Center shares how parents can manage conflict. 
       
    • For researchers: The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published a study showing that pediatric primary care interventions can play an important role in helping reduce poverty-related disparities in school readiness. Its findings support expansion of these low-cost interventions to prevent socioemotional problems.  
       
    • For funders: Blue Meridian Partners (BMP) is a partnership structure among several funders, designed to aggregate capital and expertise more effectively and efficiently than a single funder could. BMP will focus on discovering and expanding programs shown empirically to lift the life prospects of disadvantaged children and youth.
 
Early Childhood-LINC is a learning and innovation network developed by and for communities. Our mission is to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country with a focus on accelerating the development of effective, integrated, local early childhood systems. We are currently made up of nine member communities across the country. Learn more about the innovative work of our communities.