Congratulations to those of you who have received notice of award for an Early Head Start Expansion or Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grant! If you are a recent recipient of one of the grants we hear you’ll be coming together at the end of the month for a planning meeting with your fellow awardees and federal staff. This is an exciting opportunity to dive into your start up period with tools to inform your path forward. We’ll be there too, and hope to see you there!
Summer brings opportunities to re-focus and re-group, though it also comes with its challenges. Many staff – in EHS programs and child care alike – are in and out of the office/program at trainings or on vacations. (Round 2 awardees – you might remember this from last summer when you were pulling together your proposal during prime vacation season!)
Below are a few tips to navigate the start-up period in the coming summer months:
- Set timelines that are realistic and have flexibility, when needed.
- Before summer begins find out when your staff and key staff from child care partner sites will be out of the office. Make a calendar and share it among your start up planning team.
- Give program and child care partners sufficient time to provide information, data, and materials (see point above about being aware of schedules).
- Stay up to date about start up resources available to you. If you need start up assistance, engage with a planner early to allow him or her get up to speed with your planning team and best utilize the next few months.
- Take time to re-charge before the next program year begins and you’re full swing into the start up period!
We’ve not seen a list of Expansion and Partnership awardees released from the Office of Head Start yet, though when it is we will post it here. Congratulations again to those of you with recent awards! If you’ll be in DC later this month, feel free to be in touch and we’d be glad to connect.
Thank you.