|
A brief history: Did you know on January 28, 2021 Governor Mike Parson and the Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Health and Senior Services, and Social Services announced nearly all early childhood programs across state government will be consolidated into a single Office of Childhood? Previously, each state agency provided various services for children and families. The transition to one office will allow early childhood work across state government teams to become more streamlined and effective.
This new office ensures children and families across the state have better access to more consistent, quality programs and services. DESE houses the new office, and provides a comprehensive approach to early childhood care and education, including all programs related to childcare, home visiting, early learning, and early intervention. Ensuring Missouri’s children are safe, healthy and successful learners is the cornerstone of this initiative.
In our work to embed this vision into Region 13- St. Louis City and County, we created a comprehensive Early Childhood Community Plan to work on through June 2023 in partnership with our Community Leadership Team. To get a background of this work check out the Community Leader Website to learn more and to sign up for future emails.
Goal One:
Create one landscape analysis of all early childhood meetings in the area. As of January, we are working with the team to build a spreadsheet to hold this data.
Goal Two:
Create and send newsletters to include a focus on school readiness and local early childhood resources and events. We set a meeting to plan and create the first newsletter.
As you can see, goal two is officially starting with this inaugural newsletter!
| 
