What is the Early Childhood Community of Practice?

A Community of Practice (COP) in general can be described as an affinity group or virtual community based on roles or areas of interest that provides regular opportunities to interact around common interests and build relationships that are supportive and/or task-oriented. The Community of Practice Model builds ongoing communication and collaboration among its members.

The TA Partnership is pleased to have seven early childhood system of care communities that make up this Community of Practice, which focuses on providing services and supports to infants, toddlers and children ages birth to 6. These participating communities are Allegheny County, Pennsylvania ; Sarasota, Florida; Southeastern Connecticut; Multnomah County, Oregon; Los Angeles County, California; Denver, Colorado; and the State of Rhode Island.

---

What's New?

Zero to Three Alert about NBC's "Baby Borrowers"
NBC's new reality series "Baby Borrowers" takes babies and toddlers from their parents for three days with potentially harmful consequences.

Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visitation Programs to Prevent Child Maltreatment
Applications Deadline: July 21, 2008
Funds from the Administration for Children and Families will support competitive grants to States, Tribes, and other eligible entities to support the infrastructure needed for the widespread adoption, implementation and sustaining of evidence-based home visitation programs. These funds will be used for efforts to expand and enhance home visitation programs based on proven effective models.

Exploring the Intersection of Child Development and Child Well-Being
A new Chapin Hall study explores how the general principles of child development intersect with the emerging interest in child well-being as an outcome for young people who come in contact with the child welfare system.

Impairments In Language Development Can Be Detected In Infants As Young As 3 Months Old
Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language. New studies conducted by Professor of Neuroscience April Benasich and her Infancy Studies Laboratory at Rutgers University in Newark are revealing new and exciting clues about how infant brains begin to acquire language and paving the way for correcting language difficulties at a time when the brain is most able to change.

Preschool Enrollment up Dramatically
The most recent federal statistics show that in 10 years preschool enrollment in the United States increased 63 percent to more than 1 million children. The increase, which took place between 1995 and 2005, far outpaced the 10 percent hike in regular public school enrollment. Education experts attribute the rise to more mothers in the workforce as well as states stepping up to finance preschool programs. A new study released by Rand says funding pre-K programs can actually save states money if it the need for social services later in life and produces increased tax revenue when pre-school students get higher-paying jobs.

Children's Mental Health Briefing Book (PDF)
The Briefing Book is a web-based "notebook" which contains a collection of recommendations, articles, reports and public records concerning children's mental health needs.

Risk, Resilience, and Indicators of Emotional, Social and Intellectual Functioning in Children (0-6) Exposed to Violence -- Draft (PDF)
This report presents general information that has been gleaned from available literature reviews focusing on the impact of exposure to violence among children, aged 0 to 6.

2008 Special Focus Report: Trends in Infancy/Early Childhood and Middle Childhood Well-Being, 1994-2006
This report presents the first wide-ranging picture of how children in their first decade of life are faring in the United States. It is the first report to look comprehensively at the overall health, well-being and quality of life of America's youngest children -- from birth through eleven-years-old, and to track and compare child wellbeing across three primary stages of development -- early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

The Successful Integration of Health and Health Care into Broader Early Childhood Initiatives
This Issue Brief summarizes proceedings of a 2007 Grantmakers for Children Youth & Family Annual Conference Institute entitled Multi-Sector Partnerships to Promote Children’s Healthy Development: Putting the Pieces Together, sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund (CMWF) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF).

Updated 06-27-2008

---

Previous Events:

Early Childhood Community Pre-Conference Meeting Minutes – July 31, 2007 (PDF)

March 1, 2007 Early Childhood Conference Call

Early ChildhoodPolicy Maker’s Summits
The materials, presentations and summary of discussions from all four Policy Maker’s Summits (2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006) can be found on the web site for the Center for Evidence-based Practices: Young Children with Challenging Behavior.

December 7, 2006 Early Childhood Conference Call

October 17 Early Childhood Conference Call Materials

Early Childhood Community of Practice Team Planning Meeting

Early Childhood System of Care Communities Networking Meeting at the Georgetown Training Institutes

Update on MCH Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) grants: Opportunities for Collaboration

Diagnostic Classification 0-3 (DC 0-3 R)

Following up on the National Evaluation Meeting

Discussion with Sarah Hoover, PD of Project Bloom in Colorado

Everything you always wanted to know about developing an early childhood system of care community but did not know who to ask with Charlie Biss, Vermont Children Upstream Services (CUPS)