Category Archives: Resource

Visual Storytelling for Social Change

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We understand our world through stories: the heroes we aspire to be, the conflicts we identify with, the ideas that move us. Visual storytelling—whether a photo series, an online video, a long-form documentary or virtual reality—can capture our attention, generate deep empathy, and move us to take action.

The resources below are designed to help both seasoned and budding social change activists imagine and design stories that boost attention to issues, engage audiences more deeply, and increase the influence of campaigns.

Source: The Culture Lab

Available at: http://theculturelab.org/visual-storytelling-for-social-change/

Guide to Trend Mapping 

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A trend map is a visual depiction of relevant trends influencing the system around a given topic. Developing a trend map can help a group deepen their understanding of an issue through exploring related history, identifying key external factors, and tracking shifts in social and cultural norms.

This guide will walk you through a feasibility assessment as well as how to prepare for and facilitate a trend mapping activity.

View the System Tools Matrix to help determine when trend mapping is the right tool.

Source: FSG

Available at: http://www.fsg.org/tools-and-resources/guide-trend-mapping

Improving the Odds 

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5/2016

Recent research and advocacy efforts have led funders, politicians, and the business community to agree that the first years of a child’s life can determine the rest of their development. Across ideological divides, there is consensus that investing early makes sense—it helps children prepare for successful futures and creates a high return on investment of public dollars.

We have created this short guide, featuring examples and how-to’s based on our work with more than a dozen foundations working to make progress in the early care and education space. The guide highlights 7 principles to help funders understand and anticipate the challenges and opportunities of supporting early care and education, including practical advice on how to:

  • Inclusively identify and constructively connect the many actors that provide quality care and education to children and their families.
  • Navigate challenges that arise from a sector filled with different approaches and business models.
  • Balance long-term strategies and outcome measures with short-term wins and progress markers.

Source: FSG

Available at: http://fsg.org/tools-and-resources/improving-odds

CLASP Brief Examines Latino Families’ Access to Child Care Subsidies

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12/13/2016

CLASP has released a new brief titled A Closer Look at Latino Access to Child Care Subsidies. A companion piece to our original report Disparate Access: Head Start and CCDBG Data by Race and Ethnicity, this brief elaborates on the low level of access Latino children and their parents have to child care assistance through the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). CCDBG helps parents afford the high costs of child care and supports quality improvements in child care.

CLASP’s analysis found that access to child care subsidies is sharply limited for all eligible children, but even more so eligible Latino children. While 13 percent of all eligible children receive child care assistance through CCDBG, only 8 percent of eligible Latino children nationally get help. Access is even lower in 29 states. This brief takes a closer look at the data on Latino children’s access across the states and offers policy solutions to improve access to child care assistance. 

Read A Closer Look At Latino Access To Child Care Subsidies >>

Register for CLASP and diversitydatakids.org’s joint webinar, Place and Race Matter: Head Start and CCDBG Access by Race, Ethnicity, and Location >> 

Source: CLASP

Brush Up on Oral Health: December 2016

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December 2016

Choosing Healthy Drinks

  • Milk and Water Are Healthy Drink Choices
  • Many Drinks Have Added Sugar
  • Helping Parents Make Good Drink Choices

Cook’s Corner: Cheesy Snowmen  

Did You Know?

To keep children healthy, the American Heart Association recommends the following:

  • Children under age 2 should not consume foods with added sugar.
  • Children ages 2 to 18 should consume no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day.

Source: The National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness

Available at: https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/health/oral-health/PDFs/brushup-news-201612.pdf

Housing and Early Childhood Programs on the January 2017 Point-In-Time Count

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12/8/2016

About the Point-In-Time Count

The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is an annual count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in the last 10 days in January. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires its Continuum of Care (CoC) grantees[1] to conduct an annual count of sheltered homeless persons. CoCs also must conduct a count of unsheltered homeless persons every other year (odd numbered years).[2] Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally by service providers and trained volunteers. While many CoCs complete their count of unsheltered persons on the night designated for the count, given the additional challenges associated with counting people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, some CoCs conduct their unsheltered count over the seven days following the night of the count.[3] This “post-night” approach may be particularly useful for counting unsheltered families and youth with young children.

Early Childhood and Housing Working Together

Many children in the United States start life without a home: in 2013, over one million children under six were estimated to have experienced homelessness.[4]

Infants, toddlers and preschoolers who experience homelessness are at grave risk of developmental delays due to a variety of factors such as a lack of prenatal and early health care, crowded and unsanitary living conditions, poor nutrition, and the trauma caused by severe poverty and unstable living arrangements.[5]

Early childhood providers who are serving young children and families experiencing homelessness can support the CoC PIT count efforts, thereby ensuring that families with young children are more likely to be included in this important count.

Please see the new 2-page fact sheet entitled Housing and Early Childhood Programs on the January 2017 Point-In-Time Count, available at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/pit_count_2017ecefinal.pdf?nocache=1481234077 . This fact sheet, geared towards an early childhood audience, provides information about HUD’s annual Point-it-Time (PIT) count, and suggests strategies for how early childhood programs can help ensure the most comprehensive and effective count of families experiencing homelessness.

ECE involvement in PIT count planning can provide valuable insights into and help with

• selecting child/family-friendly count sites and creating a welcoming environment there,
• selecting child/family-friendly incentives[6] for count participation,
• recruiting volunteers, and
• suggesting other local service providers to assist with the count.

See the fact sheet https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/pit_count_2017ecefinal.pdf?nocache=1481234077.

In addition, on October 31, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Education (ED) issued a joint Policy Statement on Meeting the Needs of Families with Young Children Experiencing and At Risk of Homelessness. The policy statement provides research and recommendations on ways in which early childhood and housing providers at the local and, in some cases, State levels can intentionally collaborate to provide safe, stable, and nurturing environments for pregnant women and families with young children who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. See the  Policy Statement on Meeting the Needs of Families with Young Children Experiencing and At Risk of Homelessness.

See also the new infographic that shows, in the United States, infancy is the age at which individuals are most likely to enter shelter or transitional housing, followed by ages one to five, and homelessness during pregnancy and in the early years is harmful to children’s development.

Ending family and early childhood homelessness in America will require the concerted efforts of all of us.

For more information on Early Care and Education for Children Experiencing Homelessness, see here..
Read The Family Room Blog Supporting Young Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness.

[1] Continuums of Care are local or regional planning bodies that coordinate housing and services for homeless individuals, families, and youth. Visit https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/ for more information.
2 While only required by HUD during odd years, many CoCs conduct an unsheltered count every year.
3 CoCs using this approach must ensure that the persons counted are limited to people who were unsheltered on the night chosen for the PIT count and that the CoCs can properly deduplicate their data.
4  Early Childhood Homelessness in the United States: 50-State Profile. January 2016. Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
5 Perlman, S. (2015). Access to Early Childhood Programs for Young Children Experiencing Homelessness: A Survey Report. http://naehcy.org/sites/default/files/pdf/naehcy-survey-report.pdf
6 Many CoCs provide incentives to homeless people who participate in the PIT count. Incentives may include transit passes, meal gift cards, toiletries, backpacks, blankets, and items of clothing.

Source: The Administration for Children and Families

The Integration of Early Childhood Data: State Profiles and a Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education 

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12/8/2016

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (ED) announced the release of a report that will help states refine their capacity to use existing administrative data from early childhood programs to improve services for young children and families. The report covers key considerations when states integrate data and highlights progress in eight states that are actively developing and using early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDS). The report discusses technical assistance and other resources available to states as they develop their ECIDS.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education, Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families

Available at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/early-childhood-data

Children in Poverty

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12/8/2016

In 2010, more than one in five children (22 percent) lived in families with incomes below the poverty line, the highest level since 1993; by 2014, this had fallen to 21 percent. Black and Hispanic children, children living in single-mother families, and children under five are even more likely to be poor.

Importance

Since the mid-1970s, children under 18 have been much more likely than adults to be poor.[1] Being raised in poverty (defined as income of $24,008 or less in 2014, for a family of four with two children) [2] places children at higher risk for a wide range of problems. Research indicates that poor children are disproportionately exposed to factors that may impair brain development [3] and affect cognitive, social, and emotional functioning. These risks include environmental toxins, inadequate nutrition, maternal depression, parental substance abuse, trauma and abuse, violent crime, divorce, low-quality child care, and decreased cognitive stimulation (stemming in part from exposure, in infancy, to a more restricted vocabulary[4],[5],[6]

While determining causality is complex in this context, experiencing poverty is also related to increased risks of negative health outcomes for young children and adolescents. When compared with all children, poor children are more likely to have poor health and chronic health conditions.[7] Children in poor families are more likely to be born premature and at a low birth weight, and to develop later illnesses, such as respiratory diseases. As adolescents, poor youth are more likely to suffer from mental health problems, such as personality disorders and depression. Moreover, in comparison to all adolescents, those raised in poverty engage in higher rates of risky health-related behaviors, including smoking and early initiation of sexual activity.[8],[9],[10]

Aside from physical and mental health, poverty in childhood and adolescence is associated with a higher risk for poorer cognitive and academic outcomes, lower school attendance, lower reading and math test scores, increased distractibility, and higher rates of grade failure and early high school dropout.[11],[12] Poor children are also more likely than other children to have externalizing and other behavior problems, or emotional problems,[13],[14] and are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors during adolescence.[15] Finally, growing up in poverty is associated with lower occupational status and lower wages,[16],[17] poorer health,[18] and deficits in working memory[19] in adulthood.

Reporting on child poverty rates at a single point in time gives an under-estimate of its deleterious effects, since research shows that persistent poverty, as well as poverty experienced in the childhood’s early years, is most detrimental to development.[20] Nearly four in ten children are poor for one or more years before they reach age 18—nearly double the point-in-time estimate. More than one in ten are poor for half or more of their childhood years.[21]

Source: Child Trends

Available at: http://www.childtrends.org/indicators/children-in-poverty/

Opportunities to Promote Children’s Behavioral Health: Health Care Reform and Beyond: Workshop Summary 

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11/2015

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010, has several provisions that could greatly improve the behavioral health of children and adolescents in the United States. It requires that many insurance plans cover mental health and substance use disorder services, rehabilitative services to help support people with behavioral health challenges, and preventive services like behavioral assessments for children and depression screening for adults. These and other provisions provide an opportunity to confront the many behavioral health challenges facing youth in America.

To explore how the ACA and other aspects of health care reform can support innovations to improve children’s behavioral health and sustain those innovations over time, the Forum on Promoting Children’s Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a workshop on April 1-2, 2015. The workshop explicitly addressed the behavioral health needs of all children, including those with special health needs. It also took a two-generation approach, looking at the programs and services that support not only children but also parents and families. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions of this workshop.

Source: The National Academies Press

Available at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/21795/opportunities-to-promote-childrens-behavioral-health-health-care-reform-and?utm_source=NAP+Newsletter&utm_campaign=37318e693a-Final_Book_2015_11_30_21795

Infants And Toddlers In The Policy Picture: A Self-Assessment Toolkit For States

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11/2015

All infants and toddlers need good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences. Furthermore, young children benefit most from an early childhood system that is built through collaboration. These goals form the framework for a policy agenda that creates a comprehensive range of services and supports that honor the needs and choices of families for their children. This self-assessment toolkit draws on research on effective policies and best practices to help states evaluate progress toward building an effective early childhood system and set priorities for improvement.

The toolkit will guide you through a series of questions that will prompt you to collect data on how infants and toddlers are doing in your state and to analyze existing state policies and funding choices. In each section, ZERO TO THREE has provided national comparison data as well as suggested sources where you can find information for your state. Each topical section also includes optional stakeholder surveys that you may use to gather input on how existing services are meeting families’ needs. We recommend that you read Suggested Process for Using the Self-Assessment Toolkit before you begin using the toolkit.

Source: ZERO TO THREE

Available at: http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/self-assessment-toolkit.html