Early Childhood Programs Action Team

Ensuring early childhood programs and child care services for 100% of county residents. The 100% New Mexico action team identifies challenges, researches solutions and supports organizations in improving early childhood programs and child care services. The long-term goal is creating a countywide system of early childhood programs and child care programs with collaboration and coordination with all city government, county government and non-governmental organizations within the county’s borders.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team collects and analyzes data then identifies gaps in early childhood program services. The 100% Community survey data, including informational interviews with residents of all communities within the county’s borders, reveal which populations and communities lack easy access to early childhood program services. The survey also reveals why parent support services may be difficult to access. Difficulties may include a lack of awareness of programs, lack of transport to programs, costs, lack of easy-to-access to services because of times of service.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on identifying which organizations currently need capacity-building in order to meet the need. The team identifies partnerships to improve services. This can be done through a process of continuous quality improvement (the data-driven “assess-plan-act-evaluate” process).

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on identifying which private sector businesses can help address lack of accessible early childhood programs throughout the county. The team works to create partnerships between businesses and early childhood programs and child care support systems and programs.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on identifying how to use technology, including websites and apps, to increase awareness of parent supports, increase resources to provide services, and increase alignment of parent support services across all cities and communities within the county’s borders. The team also works to address the digital divide to increase access for all county residents to mobile devices and the Internet through community access points.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on reaching all county residents in order to mobilize community teams to address the need for early childhood program supports. The team works to engage all county residents who have free time (retirees, college students, etc.) to support early childhood programs and child care support efforts. The team also works to create opportunities for all county residents to share their ideas for problem solving.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on strengthening the capacity of all schools to increase their capacity to support early childhood programs.The team focuses on how to fund schools to adopt the “community school” model with staff who can focus on creating school-based early childhood programs and child care programs to support parents and caregiving grandparents.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on identifying which individuals and programs working with local higher education can support early childhood program development and improvement efforts. This includes identifying support for surveying, data analysis, researching solutions, and creating campus-based housing security options, along with engaging students and staff in early childhood programs support efforts.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on identifying the capacity of city and county government to strengthen their current early childhood programs and child care program efforts and expand them to meet the need. This includes a special focus on meeting the needs of the county’s most vulnerable parents and caregiving grandparents. Teams will recommend to local government the most up-to-date methods and software to accurately track early childhood programs and care program effectiveness.

The 100% New Mexico parent support action team focuses on identifying which programs the federal and state government offer to support countywide early childhood programs and child care. This process includes networking, advocating and grant writing.

The 100% New Mexico early childhood action team focuses on the long-term goal of creating a county-city “Department of Early Childhood” to focus on empowering children, addressing parent needs and preventing family challenges. This includes surveying residents on their access to early childhood programs and child care options, their need for the programs and why they might be difficult to access. This proposed department could also support ongoing research in early childhood programs and child care support programs and support local efforts to ensure timely supports across the county.