The Early Childhood Development/Family Economic Success is a project, supported by a grant from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, designed to improve county services for children and their families. This early childhood development and family strengthening agenda has several goals, including to educate county officials concerning the importance of early childhood development, and to provide technical assistance to counties to improve local programs. NACo hopes to showcase early childhood programs that are successfully addressing the needs of families and children in their communities. As a result of this initiative, we hope to spur county officials into action to support such programs in their communities.
Programs under this initiative:
Technical Assistance Papers
There will be a series of papers highlighting the role of counties in early childhood development and showcasing best practices and model organizations.
Counties Care for Kids Award Program
The Counties Care for Kids awards program, held annually, will solicit nominations of county elected officials and county-based early childhood programs doing innovative and exceptional work in the field of early childhood development.
Clearinghouse
NACo will post educational information on its Web site and produce articles for County News on critical issues pertaining to early childhood development and school readiness. NACo will also post monthly updates with resources, funding and training opportunities for county officials working with early childhood issues.
Capacity Building and Leadership Development
NACo will solicit competitive proposals for planning grants. Counties will receive seed money and will be matched with a more experienced peer county with expertise in developing and/or supporting early childhood programs.
Peer-to-Peer Network
NACo will provide opportunities to network with other county elected officials to exchange information and share lessons learned.
For more information on this collaborative effort, Click Here
For additional information about NACo's early childhood development and school readiness initiative, please contact Gary Gortenburg at ggortenb@naco.org.