It has been a busy year for Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership grantees! 2017 brought with it the second round Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants awarded from the Office of Head Start (OHS). The new grantees came together in DC in the springtime for a planning meeting and to launch their new (or expanded) programs. Now, there are EHS-CCP grantees well into implementation while others are making their way through the start up period. It has been exciting to watch the number of partnerships grow.
While the second round of grantees was announced in 2017, OHS didn’t release any new funding opportunities for the grant program this year. So far, we haven’t heard any indication as to whether there will or will not be new EHS-CCP grants in 2018. You might remember that the second round of EHS-CCP grants were highly competitive and with much interest from HS/EHS grantees. We hope there will be more EHS-CCP funding coming!
2017 also started out with a strong focus on fiscal monitoring. Fiscal accountability, a central focus of EHS-CCP monitoring – particularly as it relates to the EHS-CCP initiative goals – was front and center in 2017. If you’re making a priority list for 2018, this is one area you might want to put toward the top! This year, Foundations for Families launched the Six Pillars for EHS-CCP Fiscal Success to help grantees plan for an implement a robust fiscal approach.
We also spent some time this year looking at community assessment and how to leverage this grant requirement to the fullest extent to support the EHS-CCP program. EHS-CCP grantees are in a unique position to have child care partners in the community who are able to share experiences and data to get a full and rich picture of families’ and community needs. Community assessment is an opportunity to gather information, reflect, and modify your EHS-CCP program. A high quality community assessment is a valuable tool for program planning, particularly if new funding becomes available next year.
As you think about the year ahead, please feel free to reach out if your program needs consulting support. Whether it be fiscal guidance, assistance with community assessment, or one of our other areas of consulting services we would be glad to explore how we can assist your program.
We look forward to continuing the EHS-CCP journey with you! New content and insights will be coming to the blog in 2018. As always, if there are topics you’re interested to learn about we’d love to hear from you.
Happy New Year!
Thank you.