May 23, 2023 | EC-LINC Webpage



Building knowledge and sharing resources by and for local early childhood systems builders.

The New Neighborhood:

Local Early Childhood System Building Resource Hub

We are thrilled to introduce The New Neighborhood, a hub designed for communities exploring or early in their development of local early childhood systems. The webpage is dedicated to highlighting and sharing innovative early childhood systems efforts from across the country and is a place for organizations to access the latest information on local early childhood system building.

The New Neighborhood highlights many of the resources CSSP has developed over the years to support the development of local early childhood systems, including tools focused on the impact, innovation, and progress of communities making a change on behalf of young children and their families. Over time we will include new resources developed by national partners and local early childhood system builders and champions. The hub uses the Building Blocks of an Early Learning Community as its framework, which captures community characteristics and actions that promote healthy child development and family well-being. We use the four key building blocks to explore the components of an integrated early childhood system and examples of resources to support further development:

1. Community Leadership, Commitment, and Public Will to Make Early Childhood a Priority

The resources under this tab focus on local leaders and community members understanding the importance of and focusing on providing high-quality, accessible early childhood supports. 

2. Quality Services that Work for All Young Children and their Families

This building block includes resources focused on ensuring that communities provide comprehensive basic services for families that proactively promote health, learning, and family strengths, as well as routine screening and identification of concerns, and timely access to intensive services when needed. In addition, there are resources about making those services more effective including active engagement of families and parents as partners, support for service providers, and using data to drive change.

3. Neighborhoods Where Families Can Thrive

This building block contains resources that focus on place-based strategies and the neighborhoods where families live. The community's physical environment facilitates safety and access to essential services both locally and beyond, while economic and job opportunities are accessible to everyone, and individuals feel a sense of belonging and hope within their neighborhoods and connection to the broader community.  

4. Policies That Support and Are Responsive to Families

This final building block contains information on policies and workplace practices that prioritize families and children, with an emphasis on equity and responsiveness, while land use and community development policies are designed with young children and families in mind.

Dr. Joan Lombardi, longtime champion and founder of the podcast that first launched this name, reflects on The New Neighborhood in a new blog, The New Neighborhood: A Home for Community Early Childhood Systems. Dr. Lombardi shares that, “Whatever the pathway towards assuring that the community supports families and young children, we need to learn from efforts; where challenges have been faced and solutions found to address them. To that end, the information posted on the New Neighborhood site, is another step to bring more cohesion to this movement for change.” 

We encourage you to check out The New Neighborhood and explore all of the available resources and tools. If there are local resources you would like featured on The New Neighborhood, please email [email protected].

Let Us Rise: How Parents and Caregivers Would Design a Permanent Child Allowance to Advance Racial and Economic Justice

To learn how a child allowance can be designed to meet families’ needs and advance racial and economic justice, CSSP interviewed more than 40 Black, Latinx, and other parents and caregivers of color with low and moderate incomes, asking about their goals for themselves and their families, their experiences with the Child Tax Credit and other programs that helped meet their needs, and what they would need from a permanent child allowance in order to support their families and fulfill their goals.

The Biden Administration’s Budget Recognizes Investments in Families Are Long Overdue: Now Let’s Get To Work

In its annual budget released in March 2023, the Biden administration once again proposed critical investments in families, including restoring the Child Tax Credit, establishing a national paid family and medical leave program, and expanding access to high quality child care and early education. This fact sheet shares how the Biden administration’s proposals reflect what Black, Indigenous, and Latinx parents and caregivers have told us that they need.

Featured Resources for System Building:

Expanding Community-Based Doula Care

Access to community-based doulas promotes more equitable infant birth outcomes, maternal and child health, and child-parent relationships. The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center released a new research report, “Community-Based Doulas: A Proven Solution To Improve Perinatal Outcomes.” Their comprehensive review of new evidence reveals that doulas are an effective strategy to improve healthy birth rates and development outcomes of young children.

The Getting Doulas Paid Policy Brief by HealthConnect One defines the services offered by and the role of community-based doulas and explores the key considerations for doula Medicaid reimbursement that are unique to this doula care model. The brief includes an overview of the scope of practice and importance of the community-based doula model, a review of the current state of reimbursement rates for Medicaid coverage, and recommendations on how to move forward.