Early Care and Education Forward is a broad initiative funded by Westchester County and spearheaded by the Child Care Council of Westchester to strengthen the early care and education industry in Westchester. The initiative was developed in early 2007, in response to findings from the Westchester County 2006 Child Care Utilization Study and has included:

• Business management improvement through training, technical assistance
• Mini-grants to address program and business/administration quality
• Facilitation of collaboration with school districts on Universal Pre-K
• Quality improvement initiative: Quality Forward
• In-depth assessment of program and business/administration quality via nationally normed assessment tools
• Development of Program Improvement Plan to address key assessment findings
• Short-term targeted technical assistance
• Strategic Planning for evolution of early care and education in Westchester involving business, schools, government, philanthropy and child care providers
• Collaboration with DSS to advocate for improved policies and procedures, and provide services of subsidy specialist to enhance subsidy application and recertification process for providers and families

Although funding for ECE Forward will end in June 2009, other quality initiatives are underway.
These include:

The School Age Quality Initiative (SAQI) is funded by both the Westchester Community Foundation where the focus is on non profit programs serving low income children, and IBM Global Work/Life Fund which funds for profit programs and those programs serving IBM families. SAQI builds the business and educational management of school age programs so they can successfully compete in the marketplace and achieve financial stability.  Participating programs take part in assessments that reveal strengths and areas for improvement, and via a Program Improvement Plan, work with consultants to increase quality and content. To learn more about SAQI contact Susan Edelstein, Director ISACC at 761-3456 ext. 127 or susane@cccwny.org

Building Math, Literacy and Science Content in School Age Programs is a project funded by New York Life Foundation. In partnership with Southern Westchester BOCES, ten after school programs serving low income children receive weekly visits from BOCES educators who instruct children in fun ways of learning literacy, science and math.  Program staff assists the educators, thereby increasing their capabilities in these subjects. Programs receive a grant that is used to purchase subject specific materials.  The 2008-2009 program runs through June 2009 and culminates in a Literacy, Science and Math Fair at which programs display their work.

eCDA
The Council is excited to be offering its very first online professional development opportunity!  In partnership with Teaching Strategies, we will be the first organization in New York State to offer eCDA.  Teaching Strategies is a nationally recognized organization that specializes in publishing early childhood materials.  eCDA is an online CDA program which was created with early childhood educators in mind. It is a great tool for staff who work in early care and education  programs full time. The eCDA is the newest form of distance learning with many interactive modules.  Our model will be a hybrid version of the CDA that will include technical support from Master’s level professionals who will be conducting the in person portion of the eCDA on a monthly basis.  Our goal is to begin the first round of classes in March. For more information please contact Janine Duke at janined@cccwny.org.