Symposium 2016, Health and Nutrition Funding, CYTAPP Partnership, and More

Our nation's leading voice for child care...

Symposium 2016 is Coming and We Want to Hear From You We want to make our 2016 spring symposium the best ever, but we need your help! Please take a few minutes to go through our 13 question survey and let us know your preferences on location, days for travel, topics for discussion, etc. Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QTNWJJN This survey runs best on Java 45, which was released April 14th, 2015. If you have not updated your Java since this date please navigate to https://java.com/en/download/ to update to the most recent version. CCAoA’s 2014 Annual Report is Out! 2014 was a busy year for Child Care Aware® of America, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Find out what we were able to accomplish in 2014 and see our impact on child care providers, CCR&Rs and others. Then take a look at our vision straight from some of the CCAoA board members. You can read the 2014 Child Care Aware® of America annual report at http://annualreport.usa.childcareaware.org/. Get Ready to Learn, Engage and Give! Child Care Aware® of America is getting ready to launch our new website in just a couple of weeks! The new CCAoA website has some great features and will be mobile-responsive now, to bring us up to date with the ever-changing technology landscape. Some things you’ll notice in the new design include: a scrolling, colorful homepage with more images and multiple links to areas of content, a fly out menu that also acts as an at-a-glance site map, and a streamlined information architecture. We’ve also enhanced the child care search functionality and made it more user-friendly, and better optimized the site for search engines. Here’s a quick sneak peek at the layout for part of our new homepage design to get you excited: CCAoA Announces Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) will expand its technical assistance activities in targeted states emphasizing health, nutrition, and obesity prevention, key components of Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) implementation. This two-year grant will leverage this unique opportunity to work with 6 – 8 states to integrate healthy eating, nutrition, and obesity prevention best practices in their state plans and priorities. To accomplish this, CCAoA will partner with and provide tools, resources, and on-site training and technical assistance to Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and their community-based partners in early care and education focused on moving the needle on healthy communities. Ultimately, this grant will encourage states to incorporate health and nutrition as key components of quality child care. Check back for updates and resources as part of this grant funding as we move forward. Appreciate Child Care Providers All Year Long Child Care Aware® of America is pleased to announce the new Provider of the Month program, which kicked off on May 8, 2015 – Provider Appreciation Day. With the release of a new report on the early education and child care workforce highlighting the gaps in leadership, workforce development, and public policy, the new year-long appreciation program will spotlight champions in the early childhood education and child care space from across the country. Each month a team of judges will select a nominee from the top submissions; a provider who exemplifies the best practices and behaviors of an outstanding child care provider. We have long known that adults who interact with young children have the potential to add significant value to their development and overall health and well-being. CCAoA and partner organizations launched the Provider of the Month program to honor and recognize these exceptional providers and members of the workforce for their contributions to the growth, health, and education of our next generation. Help spread the word by encouraging parents, CCR&Rs, early childhood educators and child care providers to nominate extraordinary care givers in their midst! Visit www.providerappreciationday.org for details on how to nominate an exceptional child care provider or educator in your community and help us honor those providers that go above and beyond for the children under their care. CYTAPP Partnership Individuals involved in the work of the Department of Defense Military Child Care Expansion Initiative presented a panel Enhancing Head Start Programs through Military Partnerships at the recent 42nd Head Start Annual Conference and Expo, April 1, 2015, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., to an audience of Head Start stakeholders. The panelists included members of the Military Child Care Liaison and Childcare and Youth Training and Technical Assistance Project teams along with state-level stakeholders including the Delaware Head Start State Collaboration Office Director and the Delaware National Guard Service Member and Family Support Youth Coordinator. Child Care Aware® of America provides oversight for the child care liaison component of the initiative;  the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and Penn State Extension work with state and county Extension educators to provide low cost early education professional development opportunities in specified counties in states. Targeted states and counties are selected based on a number of factors including the number of National Guard and Reserve families with young children living in the locale and the availability of quality community child care. Currently, 20 states are included in the initiative. To learn more about this DoD Expansion Initiative, visit http://extension.psu.edu/youth/cyttap. The site also provides project evaluation data compiled by the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development.