The Coös Coalition for Young Children and Families works to promote optimal cognitive, physical, social and emotional development for children birth - 8 in the Coös region. | Welcome Back to a New School Year |
A Message from Kelly
As we head into fall, there is so much to celebrate across our region. The growing connectedness across our communities reflects the many ways partners are working together to make supports easier for families to find, access, and navigate.
This summer, we continued bringing resources to where families already are, from the community farmers' markets and our theme, "Meet Your Community Resources", to a new co-located, embedded support pilot at White Mountains Learning Center, where the Family Resource Center and Northern Human Services’ Infant Mental Health Program are bringing supports directly into the child care setting, helping families build relationships, increase awareness of available resources, and connect with support where they already are. We continue centers, now moving into a new pilot phase with local SAUs. We’re also seeing wonderful growth in our peer-to-peer groups and gatherings, creating more opportunities for families to find one another, build relationships, and grow their villages.
Behind the scenes, systems are strengthening too. We celebrate our Coös Directors Network and the formation of Evergreen Start, a new 501(c)(3) that will begin providing shared back-end support to childcare centers across the region. And on October 1, the BrECC demonstration pilot will be launched at the Family Resource Center, expanding access to brief, enhanced care coordination for children and families. And, on October 16th, families and providers will come together for our Grow Your Village: Connecting Families for Strengthened Communities, a co-designed day centered on shared learning, meaningful conversation, and building stronger networks of support. Together, we’ll listen, learn, and design alongside one another, strengthening the connections that help children, families, and communities thrive.
Together, these efforts show what’s possible when we work differently, connecting across organizations, building on one another’s strengths, and making it easier for families to find the support they need. There is so much momentum across our North Country communities and across our Coalition partners, and we invite you to join us, share your ideas, make connections, and help shape what comes next!
With appreciation,
Kelly
| | Community Highlights & What’s Ahead | | 📊 ASQ Online: Growing Across the Region | | |
Thank you to the CMF Kids Foundation for awarding $5,000 to North Country Education Services to bring ASQ Online to North Country school districts, and an additional $3,000 to the Coös Coalition for Young Children and Families for our Peer to Peer Support expansion. Thank you also to Watch Me Grow NH for donating ASQ kits to participating districts. Together, these contributions are helping schools implement developmental screening tools. Seven districts have confirmed participation.
Across the region, partners have completed approximately 800 developmental screenings in less than a year. Each screening creates an opportunity to recognize a child’s strengths, talk with a family, and identify support when it is needed.
This fall, the work is growing:
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👨👩👧 Head Start: Approximately 30 Head Start staff joined Family Access training in August.
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🧑🏫 Carroll County: Eight directors began a four-part ASQ Online training series in September with Children Unlimited.
- 🏫 Welcoming Districts: Seven North Country school districts have confirmed participation in an ASQ Online pilot supported by a $5,000 CMF Kids Foundation award.
Feedback from 26 early childhood staff and administrators is guiding the next round of training. They identified family communication, referral decisions, follow-up documentation, and Family Access as areas where practical support would help most.
What’s next: District onboarding continues this fall, with training expected to begin in the winter.
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Melissa White, CMF Kids Executive Director presented Ryan "Chuck" Patterson, NCES Executive Director & Kelly Dussault, CCYCF Executive Director with a total of $8000 to support the ASQ Enterprise district roll out & the expansion of our non-clinical behavioral health peer to peer support work initiative! | | | 🔎 Ten Years of Working Together: What Have We Learned? | | |
A decade of Coalition work has brought people and organizations together around young children and families. Now we’re taking a closer look at what those partnerships have made possible.
With Kayla Boisvert of Thought Bubble Consulting, LLC, partners will explore the Coalition’s work in early childhood connections, social and emotional learning, developmental screening, behavioral health, and family support.
We want to understand:
- 🤝 Which partnerships helped ideas turn into action?
- 🌱 What changed for the organizations supporting children and families?
- 🧭 What can we carry into the next chapter of our work?
Screening and training numbers tell part of the story. Partners’ experiences can help us understand changes that are harder to count, including how people work together and connect families with support.
What’s ahead: Partners will help shape the evaluation over the coming months. We’ll share what we learn as the work moves forward.
| 🎒 Your Community, Your Voice: Join an ECC Work Group | | |
What helps a child feel ready for kindergarten? Families, early childhood providers, and schools each see a different part of the answer. Early Childhood Connections (ECC) brings those perspectives together in regional work groups.
This year, groups will turn four shared priorities into local action:
- 🤝 Make the move from preschool to kindergarten smoother
- 🗣️ Bring more family voices into planning
- 💚 Share ways to support behavior and social and emotional learning
- 🏫 Strengthen connections between early childhood programs and schools
Each group will develop activities that fit its community. Families know their children best, and your experiences and ideas can help shape that work.
Interested in joining your regional ECC Work Group? Scan the QR code or click the button to find your facilitator’s contact information.
We’d love to hear from you!
| | 🎒 ECC Fall Summit Registration Is Open! | | |
Thursday, November 19, 2026 | 4:30–8:00 p.m.
Bellevue Barn | Jefferson, New Hampshire
Dinner provided
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Spend an evening with families, educators, early childhood providers, and community partners who care about helping children thrive as they move into kindergarten.
We’ll open with members of the Alpine Clinic pediatric therapy team: Tracy Jordan, SLP; Hilary Bradshaw, OT; and physical therapists Heather Montemurro, Amy Mullins, and Iris Rhodes. They’ll share perspectives on how families, early childhood programs, and schools can work together.
Then choose conversations that speak to your work, including behavior and trauma, music and movement, peer mentoring, and practical strategies to bring back to your setting.
Space is limited to 100 participants. Register now to save your seat!
💛 Interested in sponsoring the Summit? Visit the event page to explore sponsorship opportunities.
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| Thank you to our sponsors!! | | 🌱 Grow Your Village: A Day to Connect | | |
Friday, October 16, 2026 | Town & Country Inn, Shelburne
Registration is full for Grow Your Village: Connecting Families for Strengthened Communities. Families, caregivers, educators, providers, and community members will come together to build relationships, share ideas, and learn about the region’s work to strengthen non-clinical behavioral health support.
The day will include shared learning, lunch, wellness activities, and time to connect and "Grow Our Villages", with others who support children and families. We look forward to sharing highlights after the convening.
Thank you to our presenting sponsor: North Country Healthcare
and additional event sponsors: NH Children’s Trust, NH Children’s Health Foundation, YouthWell New Hampshire, Amerihealth Caritas Foundation, and the Boys & Girls Club of Northern New Hampshire.
Your support helps make this gathering possible.
| | 💚 An Updated SEL Guide and Video | | |
The North Country Partnership for Social and Emotional Learning has updated its Social and Emotional Learning Competencies, Strategies, and Practices guide.
The August 2026 edition offers a shared resource for supporting social and emotional development from birth through adulthood. Educators, early childhood professionals, families, and community partners can use its age-based competencies and practical strategies to support learning and relationships in everyday settings.
An accompanying video introduces the resource and the partnership’s work.
| | | 🥕 Fresh Food and Familiar Faces at the Farmers Markets | | |
What better place to get to know your community than a farmers market? This summer, our “Get to Know Your Community Resources” events brought families and local partners together in three North Country communities.
Families met the people behind local services, learned what support is available, and took home $2,400 in combined food vouchers.
Thank you to the partners who made time to connect with families where they were already gathering.
| | When contributing to the Coös Coalition for Young Children and Families, please note that our fiscal sponsor is North Country Education Services. All donations made to this link above will go directly towards supporting of the Coös Coalition's System's Plan. Thank you for your consideration. | | | | |
