How We Strive to Achieve our Mission

Collaborative for Children (CC) works to improve the quality of early care and education in our community through the following priority areas:

1. Family Engagement: Providing families with easily accessible information, educational materials and resources on how young children learn and develop and on how to select quality early care and education.

• Child Care Resource and Referral:  Choosing child care is one of the most important decisions a parent can make. The three questions parents ask when making this critical choice are: Where can I find it? Can I afford it? Can I trust it?  For over 20 years, CC’s Child Care Resource and Referral Service has helped parents find the answers to these questions and taught them how to select quality care, how to interact with child care providers and how to be an effective advocate for their children.  CC’s recognized team of Parent Educators offers consultations and child care referrals and guides parents to appropriate resources throughout the community.

• Early Connections InfoLine:  Parent Education Consultants are available to provide consultation and helpful advice and tips to parents, caregivers and the community at large on how to engage, educate and interact with children during the first six years of life.  Each individual contacting the InfoLine receives an informative parenting tip packet in addition to other age-appropriate resources and referrals.  The information is designed to help parents and others who care for children in their efforts to develop children to their full potential. 

• Faith-Based Parenting Initiative: To reach out to new parents in Houston’s East End neighborhood, CC teamed with Father Kevin Collins of Immaculate Conception Church, who has made child care, parenting and early education instruction a required part of the baptism classes he holds each month at the church.  CC educates 65 to 200 parents per month, many of whom would otherwise have nowhere to go for reliable child care and parenting information.  By basing this project inside the church, CC helps to strengthen the church as a community institution while conveying critical information about parenting in a trusted and familiar setting.

• Quality Indicator System: A great new reference tool developed to enhance a family’s ability to select a quality child care environment and for child care providers to improve their service delivery of quality early care and education, the Quality Indicator System is currently in pilot phase.   Indicators are teacher’s education and training; accreditation; child-to-teacher ratios and group sizes; parent involvement efforts; teacher tenure; licensing monitoring schedule; and school readiness status.  A rating of at least “Minimal” is given to any program that meets the state’s minimum standards. Advanced level indicators of “Good” and “Excellent” are given to show a program has exceeded standards in specific indicators.  Parents and early care and education providers may receive Quality Indicator information by speaking with a Parent Educator or by visiting our website to conduct a search of their own.

• Parent Education classes: The Parent Educators provide parenting classes, presentations and/or workshops for parents and primary caregivers in the community.  They emphasize the importance of the early years to a child’s later development, the importance of selecting quality early education, positive parenting techniques and age appropriate activities to engage children.  The Parent Educators are certified to train families using the nationally-recognized, research-based Practical Parent Education curriculum.  It is a primary prevention program designed to strengthen families and promote the healthy development of children zero to eighteen.  CC is able to deliver the class instruction to diverse populations in both English and Spanish.

• P3 Training: “Parents as Partners in Preschool” – A program that prepares parents to assist pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers in the Houston Independent School District,  P3 Training is designed to give parents an understanding of how young children grow and develop and how they learn best.  This serves as the informational foundation so they can assist with classroom management while the teacher focuses on instruction and learning.  The training consists of three parts: 1) pre-service (before the classroom experience); 2) mentoring (during classroom experience); and 3) ongoing support/technical assistance.  The trainings are customized to meet the needs of the pre-K teachers to make it a beneficial asset to their classroom experience.

2. Provider Engagement: Developing and supporting professionals in improving the quality of infant, toddler, preschool and after-school programs.

• Bright Beginnings:  CC serves as the Curriculum Training Team for the program to enhance the quality of care in centers serving the diverse needs of children and families. The project was developed and implemented by the United Way of Greater Houston, with funding from ExxonMobil.  The project addresses staff training, leadership development, curriculum, parental involvement and resources to enhance the classroom environment.  It is also the first project in this area to include wage supplementation as a strategy for recruiting and retaining staff. 

• Corporate HANDS, a collaborative managed by Collaborative for Children:  CC serves as the fiscal and managing agency for this collaborative in partnership with the American Business Collaboration.  Corporate HANDS combines the time and funds of leading Houston–area companies to continually improve the quality and accessibility of dependent care programs.  Employees of companies nominate their child care providers to receive training, educational scholarships and classroom resources. Since 1992, this collaborative has helped dozens of child care programs in Houston attain national accreditation standards.

• Neighborhood Initiative-Quality Improvement Services:  With funding from public and private funding sources, CC will work with a network of early childhood providers committed to building awareness and skills regarding the development of a healthy, nurturing and educationally stimulating environment for young children in Houston’s Sunnyside area.  CC offers a combination of leadership and classroom teacher professional development, formal educational opportunities and classroom resources to teacher and directors to increase their knowledge, skills and confidence in providing quality early learning experiences to young children.  This project will be implemented in 2008.

• Texas Early Education Model (TEEM Project):  CC serves as a lead agency and project coordinator for The Texas State Center for Early Childhood Development TEEM Project in Brazoria and Galveston Counties.  The project compares models of systems integration among public pre-K, Head Start and community child care programs.  CC provides mentoring and training in the area of early literacy development to early childhood teachers in child care, Head Start and public pre-kindergarten classrooms in the designated counties.  

• The WorkSource: CC serves as the child care provider services contractor for The WorkSource, a program operated by the Gulf Coast Workforce Development Board.  Through this contract, CC provides consultation, training and resources to child care providers.  CC also maintains the Texas Rising Star certification program.  Training is provided on the key components of quality care for infants through school-aged children to teachers in the 13-county region.  In addition, CC provides consultation and training to providers serving children with special needs.

3. Community Engagement: Increasing public awareness and community education about the importance of the early years to a child’s later development. Strengthening the overall system of early education through policy and systems development.

• Baby Basics: Baby Basics, a project managed by Collaborative for Children: CC serves as project coordinator and fiscal agent for this collaboration of health care providers, literacy and parenting programs with the goal of providing all women with the opportunity for healthy pregnancy outcomes along with acquiring the appropriate health literacy skills to be effective parents.  CC coordinates the training of health care and literacy personnel in implementing the Baby Basics curriculum, and manages the client tracking system and project evaluation process.  A Baby Basics project for incarcerated women at the Carole Young Correctional Facility in Dickinson is in the planning stage and will be implemented in 2008.

• Public Awareness Outreach: The goal is to inform parents, caregivers and the general public of the importance of the early years to a child’s future growth and development.  Through television ads, free materials, events and other media channels CC provides helpful information about the simple, everyday interactions that are most important to stimulating healthy development of young children.  CC also works with neighborhood leaders, elected officials, the medical community, the faith-based community and educational leaders to encourage various groups to embrace the critical importance of the early childhood years and work together to strengthen the existing early care and education system.

• Policy Development: Because research demonstrates that quality preschool lays the foundation for future success in school and in life, CC is working to make quality preschool more accessible for preschool-age children in the Houston region.  CC is working to help preschool (public pre-kindergarten, Head Start, and licensed child care) effectively apply resources, make the case for the need for more resources for this critical system of education, and make preschool “quality” more apparent for parents, educators, the public, and policy makers.  CC coordinates its policy development efforts for children 0-5 with Houston’s One Voice collaborative for health and human services and with the Texas Early Education Coalition (TECEC).

• AmeriCorps: CC has a planning grant from AmeriCorps to develop a system for utilizing AmeriCorps team members in early childhood education initiatives.  The goal is to expand resources to address critical early childhood needs and issues.  CC hopes to build upon this planning grant by submitting a proposal for operation of an AmeriCorps project in 2008.

• Volunteer Program:  CC has implemented a Volunteer Program to accomplish the following goals:  1) increase CC’s visibility in the community; 2) improve CC’s ability to deliver quality programs for parents, children and teachers; and 3) improve the community’s awareness of the critical importance of early childhood education.  CC plans to significantly expand its recruitment and utilization of volunteers in 2008.

4. Stewardship and Accountability: Ensuring the highest stewardship and accountability for our resources through sound financial management, developing and retaining a strong staff team, developing and supporting volunteer resources, and providing a professional work environment.

• Sound financial management
• Developing and retaining a strong staff team and volunteer opportunities
• Providing a professional work environment
• Overall administration and oversight of operations and programs
• Finance and accounting, information technology, facilities, fund development, marketing and communication.

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Many projects fall into more than one of the categories as a result of our desire to provide more comprehensive services through collaboration.