SFTA Member Network:

Family Resource Centers (FRCs) and Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (CCR&Rs)

SFTA Welcomes New Leadership
AHW/MCW Consistency is Key - New Grant
Behavior Help Wisconsin
CCR&R & FRC Highlights

2023 SFTA Programming Data
Advocacy
Upcoming Events
SFTA Marketing Updates
Staff & Board Members

SFTA Welcomes New Leadership

SFTA welcomes Jodi Widuch as Interim Executive Director. As the longtime Executive Director of The Parenting Place (a combined Family Resource Center/Child Care Resource and Referral) she brings a depth of understanding of our work and is well positioned to lead SFTA through this transition time.

Jodi's extensive tenure as Executive Director at The Parenting Place, which has served as a combined CCR&R/FRC since 2002, uniquely positions her for the role. Leadership at SFTA expresses confidence that she possesses the required expertise to stabilize the organization, identify its needs, and provide guidance and structure to enable the team to excel in our work.

Jodi can be reached at [email protected].

AHW/MCW Consistency is Key - New Grant

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has successfully identified 10 community-based organizations that serve diverse populations throughout the state to receive $2.8 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for maternal and child health equity projects. MCW invited applications for the ARPA funds in February from Wisconsin-based non-profit hospitals and health systems, federally qualified health centers, and other nonprofit organizations to develop and improve strategies to address social determinants that contribute to Wisconsin’s significant disparities in maternal and child health outcomes.

We at SFTA, are proud to announce that we have been awarded federal funding through the Medical College of Wisconsin’s American Rescue Plan (ARPA) for the initiative ‘Consistency is Key: Enhancing Family Support Services with Essential Infrastructure’. Our project aims to enhance maternal and child health in Wisconsin, and we are confident that this investment will make a significant and positive impact. Stay tuned for more details about this project and the services that will be available in select local communities through our SFTA Member agencies!

Behavior Help Wisconsin

Behavior Help Wisconsin is designed to connect Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers with coaches and infant mental health specialists to address challenging behaviors in infants and toddlers who are at risk of expulsion. In the last year we have seen more providers looking for assistance with challenging behaviors and an increase in demand for services. Behavior Help Wisconsin was initially hindered by the onset of Covid-19 resulting in lower-than-expected enrollment, and while ECE teacher retention continues to be a barrier, trends over 2022 showed increased enrollment and increased completion rates. Academic partners will assess outcomes after the pilot program is complete.

CCR&R & FRC HIGHLIGHTS

Supporting Breastfeeding Friendly Practices in Child Care

August is National Breastfeeding Month and the week of August 8th-14th celebrated Indigenous Milk Medicine Week. SFTA is proud to support the initiatives surrounding breastfeeding-friendly practices, including breastfeeding-friendly child care. Many Wisconsin group and family child care providers support breastfeeding friendly practices within their program by offering warm and inviting spaces for mothers to feed their children, implementing breastfeeding-friendly policies and procedures, providing resources to families around infant feeding, and executing other practices to support families to continue to breastfeed.

We are hearing successes around the state from child care programs that have implemented breastfeeding friendly policies in their programs with the help of the Go NAPSACC (Nutrition and Physical Activity in Child Care) assessment tool used to determine strengths and areas of development to improve child care practices in supporting the healthy development of young children.

“Because of Go NAPSACC and its breastfeeding topic, we were able to create a breastfeeding area within our Center that is worthy of our parents use and the available books and stuffed animals that so beautifully explain the process are now provided for the small children that accompany our parents,” shared by Cindy from the Pacelli Catholic Early Childhood Center in Stevens Point.

Lynda, from Happy Hearts Childcare in Middleton shared some ideas that they learned from the Go NAPSACC assessment that they implemented into their child care program. “(We) discuss options with parents at intake interview and encouraging breast milk as best for baby. Serving expressed breast milk. Keeping a few bags of milk in the deep freezer for days when a baby needs more. Using a baby blanket that the parent has slept with so the infant has a familiar scent when taking the bottle. Helping with options if breastfeeding difficulties arise such as suggesting contacting La Leche League or a pediatrician. I have 3 parent books available on the working and nursing topic as well."

Child Care Resource and Referral agencies are seeing the benefits of the Go NAPSACC assessment in implementing breastfeeding-friendly practices into child care programs. Candy Hall, Executive Director at CCRR, Inc. in Kimberly writes, “We are working with the county to help providers become Breastfeeding friendly using Go NAPSACC. It makes me smile that the county is utilizing something that providers know and is simple as they are so busy.”

Family Resource Center Infrastructure

Over the past 2 years, SFTA and the Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board have been collaborating with 10 Family Resources Centers (FRCs) to develop a foundational infrastructure for all FRCs in Wisconsin. With the initial pilot project coming to an end in June, information from the first cohort of FRCs supported the development of a formalized FRC Infrastructure which includes best practices for all Wisconsin FRCs. SFTA and the Prevention Board would like to congratulate the first group of FRC Infrastructure recipients as they work towards obtaining their FRC of Quality Accreditation through SFTA:

Burnett County Family Resource Center

Children’s Wisconsin Black River Falls Family Resource Center

Family & Childcare Resources of N.E.W.

Family Resource Center, Inc (Eau Claire)

Family Resource Center of Sheboygan County

Family Connections of Southwest Wisconsin

Family Resource Center of St. Croix Valley

Northwest Connection Family Resources

The Parenting Network

The Parenting Place

On July 1st, 2023, The Prevention Board announced the second cohort of 10 FRC’s that will begin their journey to high quality and assuring that FRC’s in the state of Wisconsin hold a standard of best practices. Congratulations to the following FRC’s:

Bayview Community Center

Child Care Partnership, Inc.

Children’s Wisconsin Northwoods Family Resource Centers

Children’s Wisconsin Rock County Family Resource Center

4-C’s

Family Connections, Inc

Indianhead Community Action Agency

Lakeland Family Resource Center

River Source Family Center

Watertown Family Connections

To learn more about what Family Resource Centers and these member agencies, visit SFTA’s website and click on the interactive map.

2023 SFTA Statewide Network Programming by the Numbers

Partner Up: 287 Cohort 3 Child Care Slot contracts were signed. All these were renewals of businesses that had previously participated in the program. 78 awarded renewing businesses from cohort 3 had contracts signed during Quarter 2.
Pre-Licensing: 78 potential licensees successfully completed the pre-licensing process during this quarter.
CCR&R: 1,125 unique families received a total of 1,436 referrals involving 1,830 children.
Training: SFTA and our members delivered 156 Trainings across all funding sources.
Family Resource Center Network: 17 community of practice opportunities were hosted for FRC member agencies with 363 participants across all COPs from January to June.
Tribal Supports: From January through June, 4 Tribal Rural funded trainings have been delivered, reaching 96 participants for a total of 17.5 hours and 44 child care programs were reached through Tribal Rural funded trainings.

Advocacy Updates

Governor Evers Press Conference on Child Care Programming

Calling for the Legislature to prioritize passing policy this upcoming fall session that supports young children, their families, and their early educators, Governor Evers ordered a special session on September 20th to address the child care crisis.

The Governor has proposed investing $365 million in child care services in the state. Of that, $340 million will be allocated to the Child Care Counts Program and $22.3 million for the Partner Up! Program. Child Care Counts has already helped over 4,300 providers, while Partner Up! has enrolled 220 businesses and provided spaces for more than 1,200 children. Some of the funding will come from reallocating $15 million previously earmarked for grants to child care providers in the 2023-25 budget.

To watch the press conference, click here.

Upcoming Events

Children Living with Grandparent-Led and Multigenerational Families: Implications for Policy and Practice

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

2:00-3:00 Eastern | 1:00-2:00 Central | 12:00-1:00 Mountain | 11:00-12:00 Pacific

The number of children living in multigenerational households has been increasing steadily since the 1980s, and as of 2021, more than 10% of children (roughly seven and a half million) share a home with two or more generations. While the stays may be relatively short, overall, about 30% of children will live in a multigenerational or skipped-generation household at some point during their childhood. This is even more common for children of color and for those whose adult family members are low income. In this webinar, the panelists will examine the scope of the issue and its implications for child wellbeing and security, as well as opportunities in policy and practice to support these children and their adult household members.

More information and registration here.

Parenting While Rising to Child Developmental Challenges Begins September 25

This free, 5 episode virtual conversation series offers a warm and inviting opportunity to connect with other parents and families of children with differences in or challenges to their development. Through a series of conversations with parents of children with developmental differences, challenges, or disabilities, they will explore the unique as well as common experiences of loving and raising children whose developmental process and journey is delayed or atypical. They will discuss the challenges and joys of family life with children with a wide array of ways of being in the world.

Over the five conversations, they will cover topics near and dear to the hearts and experiences of families as everyone learns from each other about how to best support and advocate for children, the whole family, and communities.

The series will run from Monday, September 26, through Monday, December 18, 2023, from 3 to 4 PM ET / 12 to 1 PM PT. All episodes are one hour with live Spanish translation and closed captioning available.

Learn more and register.

Snapshot of SFTA's Members

Find your local CCR&R and FRC here!

SFTA Marketing Updates

Take a Closer Look at Your Local CCR&R

SFTA is highlighting the people behind local CCR&Rs in Wisconsin this quarter with our "Take a Closer Look" campaign. We want to showcase their hard work and dedication to agencies and programming with weekly posts featuring employees from each CCR&R, recognizing and celebrating their contributions to SFTA's CCR&R network.

SFTA shares weekly campaign posts on our Facebook page here.