http://buildingbrightfutures.org/chittenden/about/
August 23, 2016

We believe all children should have the best start in life.

Chittenden County has received over 6,000 refugees over the last 25 years and expects another 250 this year. The new news is that Rutland is expecting 100 refugees from Syria. As you may have seen in the papers, this has come with a mix of responses. Though we don't know the number or ages of children, early childhood providers in Rutland are gearing up to receive and support new children and families into their community. 

Chittenden and Rutland Building Bright Futures Councils are partnering to share information about working across cultural backgrounds, languages, race and religions. 

This summer I made two trips to Rutland with Chittenden BBF Council partners to meet with Rutland colleagues. We met with the Rutland BBF Council and Children's Integrated Services Administrative Team. Discussions covered a range of issues including: best practices for family outreach, interpretation, how to prepare staff to work with different cultural groups, and about the resettlement and integration process. I anticipate these discussions will continue to deepen our ability to work across differences; regardless if it is due to refugee resettlement, or families native to Vermont with different family structures, cultures or race.

Thanks to the three Council partners who traveled with me: Robin Hood from the Winooski School District, Karen Prosciak from the Winooski Family Center and Linda Li from the Community Health Center of Burlington. 

-Beth Truzansky, Building Bright Futures Chittenden Regional Coordinator, [email protected]
Ask Your Questions about the new Regs
 
The Child Development Division (CDD) recently released new Center Based Child Care and Preschool Programs Regulations, Registered and Licensed Family Child Care Home Regulations, and the Afterschool Child Care Program Regulations. CDD is now seeking questions to help you understand and comply with the regulations. The Division is currently developing resources for child care providers about the new child care regulations. One of the resources will be a Frequently Asked Questions page on the website for common questions and their answers about the child care regulations.

Please help with the development of these tools by submitting your questions to the Division through this survey. [LINK]

Please be as specific as possible. You may submit as many questions as you would like. Please submit one question per response. If you have another question, simply take the survey again.
Children and Family Mental Health: ACCESS Group and Collective Impact


ACCESS is a collaboration among Chittenden County service providers invested in improving children and family mental health. The group has a broad Stakeholder Group which meets monthly and is supported by a Leadership Group and backbone staff support by Howard Center. This group has evolved over time and is currently applying a Collective Impact Model to enhance how the system responds to community needs. The group is invested in broad community wide change, as well as focused problem solving. 

The group recently defined why and how they come together to improve services to children and families. The group articulated their shared agenda, organization structure, decision making and leadership to improve its function as a collaboration. All of this is core to the Collective Impact model used by several collaborative efforts in Chittenden County. For ACCESS, the group affirms its shared agenda is to, 
  • Share resources and strategies in order to offer children, youth, and families the right services, at the right time
  • Work 'upstream' by striving to meet needs of children and families as early as possible  to reduce needs later
  • Use lessons learned from serving children and families to improve the system and quality of care
  • Support coordination and collaboration across education, mental health, and child protection to meet complementary outcomes
  • Advocate for systems change related to the ACCESS mission
The ACCESS group meets monthly and has several work groups: Safe Access to Medication, Adverse Childhood Effects and one recently convened to explore wait lists for mental health services. If you are interested in more information, please reach out to [email protected] who attends ACCESS regularly.
For your Calendar: 
Chittenden BBF Regional Council meets the first Thursday of the month. The next Council meeting will be Thursday, September 1 from 5-7pm at the Howard Center 1138 Pine Street, Burlington. The discussion will  identify priorities in our Regional Action Plan, transition of direct service funds from BBF to Parent Child Centers,  and issue of transporting children to early care and pre-k programs. 

Notes from the July 7 meeting about Legislative priorities as well as discussion about training on race, class and culture are here
Regional Networks and Building Bright Futures (BBF)

Chittenden BBF Council is one of 12 Councils State-wide
working to improve access, quality, and affordability of early care, health, and education 
for families and young children 0-8Link
Project LAUNCH
Quick Links

Let's Grow Kids

VT Early Childhood Alliance

Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant

U.S. Office of Early Childhood Development

Diversitydatakids.org

CLASP

ZERO TO THREE

BUILD Initiative

Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

American Academy of Pediatrics

U.S. Office of Head Start

SAMHSA's LAUNCH Website

 Alliance For Early Success   

Childtrends