Newsletter
September 2020
Greetings Early Childhood Community,

It is my distinct privilege to accept the appointment as the Executive Director of the Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD). I am deeply honored to serve in this role and appreciate the continued support of the GOECD team and the early childhood care and education community at large.

Jamilah R. Jor'dan, PhD
Executive Director
Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD) 
Opportunities

Opportunity for Statewide Parent Involvement & Advocacy

APPLY NOW, to be a Member of the Family Advisory Committee!

We are specifically looking for parents in the Central and Southern Counties in Illinois as we have reached the maximum number of applicants in other counties.

OVERVIEW
  • The Family Advisory Committee (FAC) is a newly formed parent-led committee of the Illinois Early Learning Council that will add parent voice to early childhood policy development and will work to increase family engagement in early learning systems across the state.
  • Members will receive leadership, advocacy, and other training sessions.
  • Members will receive additional support including stipends, travel reimbursement, child care, language interpreters, and technical assistance.

TO JOIN YOU MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:
  • Live in Illinois.
  • Be a parent, guardian, or family member with a child/children birth-12-years old.
  • Your child/children are enrolled in a publicly funded school, early child care program, or home visiting services(s).
  • Agree to participate in meetings, trainings, and collaborate with other advocates.

If you are interested, complete the online application here.

For more information, contact Stefi Hernandez, estefania.hernandez@actforchildren.org.

This project was made possible by grant number 90TP0057-01. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.


Study Opportunity for Early Childhood Program Administrators

In 2018, Illinois enacted legislation affecting all licensed childcare and preschool programs in the state. Since then, we have surveyed program administrators each Fall to understand their experiences and identify what supports they need to comply with the law. Information about program practices, challenges, and access to resources is critical to advocates and state agencies striving to best support your work with children and families.
 
Whether you have participated in the past or are participating for the first time this year, we are grateful for your willingness to share your experiences and perspectives, especially given the additional burdens you and your program are facing during these trying times. All licensed home- and center-based programs, as well as state-funded early childhood programs, are eligible to participate. The survey can be completed by lead or assistant administrators on your program’s behalf. 
 
The survey is accessible online until October 7, 2020, using the link below and will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Illinois-based administrators who complete the survey will be able to enter a raffle to win one of five $50 Amazon e-gift cards as a sign of appreciation for their time. 
 
 
If you have any questions about the study, please feel free to contact the principal investigator:
 
Kate Zinsser, Ph.D. 
Psychology Department, the University of Illinois at Chicago 
1007 W. Harrison St (M/C 285), Chicago, IL, 60607 
Phone: 312.996.5494 
Announcements
MIECHV Receives Continuation Funding for Provision of Home Visiting Services in Illinois

Congratulations to the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program on its recent award of $8,257,262.00 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These funds will allow Illinois to continue to provide voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services to women during pregnancy and to parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. The grant dollars will be used to continue home visiting and coordinated intake in thirteen communities, universal newborn screening and referral at three hospitals in two communities, and ancillary services such as professional development for home visitors, pilot project coordination, and research/evaluation.
Featured Resources
How Right Now Initiative

NORC at the University of Chicago and many other national, regional and local organizations are working together to help improve individual and community resilience during these unprecedented times. The How Right Now initiative, made possible with funding through the CDC Foundation, aims to address people’s feelings of grief, loss, and worry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit www.howrightnow.org to explore the resources, designed to offer information and support to help people cope and be resilient.
Early Learning Council Annual Report

The goal of the Early Learning Council (ELC) is to fulfill the vision of a statewide, high-quality, accessible, and comprehensive early learning system to benefit all young children whose parents choose it. P. A. 93-380 requires the ELC to annually report to the Governor and General Assembly on the Council’s progress towards its goals and objectives. This Annual Report highlights the goals, accomplishments, and challenges of the Council’s standing Committees and Subcommittees. Highlights from GOECD are included.  
New Policy Brief from PolicyLink

In Pursuit of an Equitable Start: Leveraging and Expanding Public Funding to Support a More Equitable Recovery for Young Children, Families, and Child Care Workers was developed in partnership with ZERO TO THREE’s Think Babies™ initiative. In this report, PolicyLink describes how COVID-19 is widening existing racial and economic gaps in opportunity for infants and toddlers. They suggest to leverage this moment to create more equitable systems that ensure all children have the support that they need for healthy development, including investments in high-quality affordable child care and paid family and medical leave policies.
Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap 2020

On September 15, 2020, the Prental-to-3 Policy Impact Center released their first annual Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap 2020: Building a Strong and Equitable Prenatal-to-3 System of Care. Through rigorous and comprehensive reviews of the available evidence, the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center has identified the most effective state-level policies and strategies that bring to life the science of the developing child. The Roadmap takes an in-depth look at these policies and strategies and is designed to provide clarity to states for policy actions and better outcomes in early health, maternal care, family life, economic security, and early care and learning.
Erikson Institute’s TEC Center Publishes Media Literacy in Early Childhood Report

Young children are regularly engaging with media in their homes, schools, and outside of school experiences, including museums and libraries. All of these environments offer an opportunity to support and develop young children’s media literacy skills. However, there is a lack of consensus about what media literacy education for young children means and includes, what media literacy experiences in both informal and formal early childhood settings should look like, and how to empower parents and other adults as media literacy role models and mentors. The Media Literacy in Early Childhood Report, published by Erikson Institute’s Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, is a result of needing a consensus view of media literacy in an early childhood framework.
New Tool Available: Urgent Maternal Warning Signs 

The Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care is excited to launch its Urgent Maternal Warning Signs tool, designed to empower patients to trust their bodies, speak up, and be heard. This patient-facing resource can be accessed through an interactive format on the Council’s website and is also available as a single-page PDF for easy printing in English and Spanish. Contact quality@acog.org with any questions.

The Council is proud to share this resource in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly launched Hear Her Campaign, designed to raise awareness of potentially life-threatening warning signs during and after pregnancy and improve communication between patients and their health care team.
MIECHV Summary Report Federal Fiscal Year 2019

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program in GOECD supports voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services for pregnant women and parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. A Summary Report for Federal Fiscal Year 2019 was recently prepared by the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois; this report covers program data and information from October 1, 2018 - September 30, 2019. The report highlights the performance of Illinois MIECHV-funded Local Implementing Agencies (LIAs) in six benchmark areas. A summary of findings as well as recommendations for future funding and program improvements are provided in the report.

Highlights include the following:
  • MIECHV home visiting served over 1,000 families in FY2019
  • 92% of newly enrolled caregivers received a screening for symptoms of depression
  • 96% of newly enrolled participants were screened for intimate partner violence within six months of enrollment
  • MIECHV Coordinated Intake programs matched families with young children to home visiting programs and supports through the following: 3,474 referrals to home visiting programs; 5,041 completed intake interviews; and 1,371 referrals to other support services (housing, food, medical, etc.)
  • Most MIECHV participants are not working, while 40% have jobs. One quarter of participants work full-time and 15% hold part-time jobs. Home visitors support parents in securing employment and exploring careers.
New Home Visiting Toolkit Available - Coordinated Intake for Your Community

A new toolkit—Developing Coordinated Intake for Your Community: What It Is and How To Start or Maintain A Strong System—developed by the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the GOECD MIECHV program, and others—describes the main components and quality elements of Coordinated Intake (CI) for home visiting. Intended both for areas considering the initiation of CI and those interested in improving their CI current system, the toolkit includes actionable resources for communities to use as they engage in this process. The toolkit provides foundational knowledge on the CI system by defining it, identifying roles and responsibilities of primary participants, reviewing major processes and enumerating benefits. It also describes the components of a strong CI system—using the CI Elements of Quality Framework as a guide—and lays out steps communities can take for implementing or refining the identified quality components.
Lessons Learned: Erikson Institute’s Family Child Care Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative Pilot

Erikson Institute's two-year project developed, planned, and piloted a Learning Collaborative (LC) of eight to ten family child care networks. The project focused on implementation of innovative, expert-supported network strategies to support family child care quality practices that lead to improved outcomes for infants and toddlers and their families. The LC contributed new knowledge about how to engage home-based child care providers in quality improvements, how to improve caregiving for infants and toddlers in these settings, and how to sustain effective quality improvement services. The pilot, implementation, and future sustainability of the LC shone a new light on this historically unrecognized sector of the early childhood workforce and field by bringing program staff and providers together to document effective strategies and approaches to improving child care quality. Click here to read the lessons learned brief.