Quad Counties Early Care and Education Training Project

Early care and education provider training typically has focused on helping children to grow and learn.  Too often providers focus their efforts almost extensively on the child, as if children arrived at the center without a family, neighborhood, or culture.  Recognizing that excellent early care and education programs involve families in their programs, UW-Extension educators developed "Connecting with Families" training to help providers gain new insights into helping both children and families grow.

	Connecting with Families is a 10 hour training with early care and education participating in single, two-hour sessions or the complete five-part series.  This continuum of professional development results in long-term changes benefiting children, families, and early care and education providers. Each of the trainings encourages providers to become greater resources to the families they serve, and to the larger community in which they provide their services.  As a result of the changes made by the provider, families strengthen their respect for the incredibly important child care and education services provided.
	Managing Challenging Behaviors was developed as a two-hour introductory session to help providers address common issues with proven tools, and develop a trusting connection so they would feel more comfortable signing up for the ten-hour series. Each of the trainings encourages providers to become greater resources to the families they serve, and to the larger community in which they provide their services.  As a result of the changes made by the provider, families strengthen their respect for the incredibly important child care and education services provided.
	Touchpoints in Practice - Developmental is an eight hour training that brings full circle the concept of working with families and providing support for child growth and development through the Touchpoints Approach.  When a provider completes this training, along with the Connecting with Families training, they are considered Individual Level Touchpoints Trained. Each of the trainings encourages providers to become greater resources to the families they serve, and to the larger community in which they provide their services.  As a result of the changes made by the provider, families strengthen their respect for the incredibly important child care and education services provided.

Local Partners:

• 4-C Resource and Referral serving Kenosha and Racine Counties
• 4-C Resource and Referral serving Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties
• Kenosha Early Childhood Council
• Early Childhood Interagency Council
• Region 3 of the Wisconsin Child Care Administrators Association

Number of participants completing the Connecting with Families workshops
either through monthly staff meetings or community based workshops:

Since the pilot training in Fall 2005, a total of 798 early care and education providers have taken at least one of the sessions in the Connecting with Families series within the Quad Counties.  Of this number 352 have completed the entire series. The evaluation includes a pre/post self-assessment, end-of-session evaluations, and follow-up surveys to determine short-term and long-term results.  For the first year and a half of the project, the evaluation has shown that 83% of participants reported that they were more committed to family involvement following the training; a significant increase in knowledge following the training; and consistently strong satisfaction with the quality of the training. The project evaluation has been conducted with the assistance of a UW-Extension child development specialist.