 Good afternoon. It's good to see all of you and all of the folks who are watching over the internet I appreciate you're being here. My name is David Gray and on behalf of the new America Foundation and Lisa Guernsey It's a pleasure to welcome you to the event today local innovations in child care and early learning As you all know child care and early learning are incredibly important topics for our country more than 11 million children under 5 Or in some kind of early care setting each day But yet too few of us as parents and as stakeholders in our country are satisfied with the quality of Care generally and the balance that parents try to achieve and placing their children in the setting that is high quality We're also having the support they need to go to work and yet We know that quality dual generational child care and early learning are critical for social mobility in our country Unfortunately though there are some strong local innovators that are making a difference at the local level that provide Examples that can be replicated and lessons that can be learned for those national policy makers Some of whom were in this room some of whom are watching to replicate And so we're grateful for your attendance here as well as for our speakers and presenters today This is an unusual kind of event in which we have some folks who are here live and some folks who are here remotely That's a great thing about the 21st century. So I'm going to introduce folks briefly and then more as we go through this event You'll hear from Lisa Guernsey the director of our early education initiative in just a moment and from Tanja Rucker from the National League of Cities We're going to talk myself Lisa and Tanja for a few minutes about Introducing both this event the topic why it's important why it's important to local communities as Tanja explains And then we're going to hear from four programs across the country Representing different parts of the country different families But have a common goal of trying to provide quality dual generational child care We're going to hear from folks as they are continuing their work even today with their local programs And have taken time out to be part of us of this event We'll hear from Aaron Gallagher and Kathy Wall of the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, Florida for Monica Barzak of the community action project in Tulsa, Oklahoma From Barbara Faber Director of child care programs at the White Earth Tribal Council in Minnesota Where it is colder today than it is in Palm Beach, Florida and from Katie Britton from Thrive in five in Boston, Massachusetts So representing different parts of our our country will have some some opportunity to hear from innovators of the local level But what is making a difference in the space in their communities? Then Tanja and Lisa and I will ask them some questions that they'll respond to and then we should have about a half hour We hope for you all to ask questions and so we'll have a microphone that will allow you to ask some questions of our speakers. All right So thanks again for being here. Let's begin with Lisa Lisa Guernsey Thanks, David very much and thanks everyone for for coming today I want to give a special thanks actually to David for really doing the lion's share of the work in organizing this and As he's described this is one of these kind of great Experimental 21st century kind of events where we're really trying to bring conversations Together across the country without having to always put everyone on an airplane to do so. So Thanks again to everybody on the phone He will be presenting in just a few minutes really appreciate that We've been talking about this as dual generational child care And I want to explain a little bit about what we mean by that the focus really is on helping parents Gaining stability in jobs and income while ensuring that children have a high quality Space in which to learn when their parents are at their jobs This is I think a critical approach to not only making sure that children are getting what they need But that their families are getting what they need as well So then we've seen some moves at the federal level for more investment in the early years such as the race to the top Early learning challenge and certainly the budget request put forward by President Obama asks for more money for child care Which is a positive development? But the reality today is that federal dollars are not rising in any dramatic way for child care And in fact there are still big concerns that debt reduction efforts also well needed Will require trimming of federal programs So while new pushes for smart federal policy and investment are certainly important We also need to look Locally for innovation and answers on the child care and the workforce front so to help us understand this I am very pleased to introduce Tanja Rucker today to to set out for us and of what the challenges are Tanja is the principal associate for early childhood at the National League of Cities in the Institute for Youth Education and Families And I have gotten to know Tanja over the years We've worked together on several projects. She always brings a really an incisive Brain to what it means for those on the ground people in the cities and communities when we talk about Collaborating when we talk about sharing data when we talk about what standards are and how to align them We talk about what this means for for families in different situations And so I'm really pleased to have her with us here from the past year or more The National League of Cities has been working on several important case studies of cities that are trying to move the needle By collaborating and sharing data and expertise among many different players on the ground in these Are in these in these communities whether it's community-based centers that are doing child care and early learning Whether it's health and services agencies within cities and many other programs as well So I'm sure she's going to tell us more about those today But I just want to stress that the National League of Cities is really an important communication point for leaders in localities Leaders who want to learn more want to innovate and need models to get it done Tanja is one of those important connection points at the National League of Cities So thank you Tanja for being here and I'll leave it to you Good afternoon everyone On behalf of the senior management team and the leadership at the National League of Cities I want to thank the New America Foundation David and Lisa in particular for the invitation and for the opportunity to talk with you for a few minutes about local innovation around early care and education The National League of Cities is the nation's largest National organization that represents the interest of cities. We have over 1600 members who are active and voting members within the National League of City And I work within the Institute for Youth Education and Families and that's a special entity designed specifically to work with mayors council members and city leaders and to help them think through and develop programs and policies and Strengthening families and improving outcomes for children and youth and over the past decade We're proud of the work that elected officials have implemented or are continuing to implement around Supporting and providing positive and great outcomes for our youth Well today Lisa and David asked that I begin my remarks by talking a little bit and Putting on my local my local hat the local lens to look through innovation around child care Through local government. What does it look like and to talk with you a little bit? Why child care and workforce development is so important to keeping cities strong and in some instances Even revitalizing those cities that are struggling a little bit So I wanted to the first to start out by talking about why this is important There are a number of factors that one can consider when thinking about a vibrant healthy community And for our members of the National League of Cities, they recognize that quality early Education and meeting the needs of young children That's a foundation on point and when folks are looking and thinking about what makes a city healthy Having a strong quality early education center is at the top of that list So for the past decade we've seen Municipal leaders roll up their sleeves and develop programs and policies that really support young children We know they're having a strong and innovative set of early care and education policies Contributes to the overall productivity of a community. It really does attract business businesses to the community It provides a strong economic base and most importantly it promotes health and well-being for young children and families So municipal leaders are committed and engaged to this work And they know that quality early add and quality child care is an important tool for success Well, what are we hearing from Main Street? You know, what's what's the pulse? What are we hearing and you know, I can't go any further without just acknowledging the challenging economic times that we're in And so we're hearing that elected officials and their staff They're really trying to find ways to preserve the work that's already underway, you know Tremendous budget cuts and layoffs. They want to preserve the work and the gains that have been made to support young children We also hear that from parents of young children There's a lot of isolation and not being connected to resources So what can look we're working with elected officials to help them think through how best to engage all parents connect Them to resources to provide us a healthy start to their to the for their young children and finally Accessing child care is just a challenge The market has priced basic basic items such as childcare above what many families can afford Local officials are trying to provide a safety net and I'm going to talk through in just a few minutes about a couple of strategies That we're seeing that are quite innovative and helping support parents access quality early education So what can city leaders do that's the question and that's what we're working with our members on a daily basis to think through innovation and strategies And one thing that we're seeing is that city leaders can play a tremendous role and improve in the quality of care That's already existing What comes to mind is cities that are really engaged in helping bring up the quality of early education And what I mean is around a lining curriculum and improving instructional practices cities such as Jacksonville, Florida are really engaged in providing professional development and training for for early Educators across the continuum and that includes partnering with the school district K through three folks to provide a strong Professional development continuum to raise the instructional practices within the classroom the city of Jacksonville Actually implements and has provided coaches for their early education centers They also connect with the school district and they provide Training throughout the year and every year they hold a very large coaches in an early ed providers Institute and during this time they provide and bring in national experts national thought leaders and very practical ways to help teachers and Educators think through how to improve instructional practices in the classroom Similarly the folks in San Antonio tax them Texas very similar They have a focus on informal caregivers recognizing that many of our young kids are not in traditional child care centers They're being cared for by mothers neighbors informal providers And so cities are recognizing the need to connect to those providers very early on and to provide training and strategies for those Providers as well and finally I just learned this past week the folks in Santa Monica, California Are really addressing the needs of the challenging behaviors that many of our three and four-year-olds are exhibiting in classrooms and in child care Settings so they've brought on mental health and behavioral specialists to to actually go into the centers to work with staff and to Also work with K through three teachers to help strengthen and shore up the quality of the instructional practice in the classroom So that's certainly one strategy that cities are really actively engaged to help ensure a strong quality early ed program Also, I find that there's a new not really new but many cities are looking for ways to Explore and implement these one-stop hubs the one place where families can go They can access information about child care child care subsidies get connected to providers and at the same time have access To other comprehensive support services in Louisville, Kentucky. They have a model called neighborhood place It's a partnership of public sector agencies that have come together to create a network hub of a one-stop shop neighborhood places led by Louisville Metro government and together with their key stakeholders They provide blended child care education employment Workforce development and human services support for children and the family members So that's another strategy that we see that you have a place where folks can go You know and what they say in Louisville is a ton just this is how we do business here There's a one-stop shop folks know they're gonna get support on terms of food stamps and housing and child care all in one Place so we see these one-stop hub these one-stop hub models Implement it throughout the country and finally we do see cities that are also helping Increase the supply of child care through CCDBG funding public housing capital grant dollars And many cities have local dedicated tax revenue to support quality early education services to build a supply So we see that cities are working towards quality They're working towards professional development and to increase the number of child care slots that are available in their local communities So these are just a couple of strategies things that we see on the ground And I want to put this in context of the NLC's work with cities to provide a smooth Continuum of services from birth from cradle actually to grave and you hear that a lot among city leaders They want to reckon they are recognizing the importance of connecting early add through post-secondary that what you start Land the foundation through early education quality programs really provide a great launching plaid to align work and more recently We're partnering and working with any Casey foundation and some key stakeholders on a great level reading campaign because we recognize the importance of the early Years quality early education and access is key to some of the latter outcomes So what can elected officials do they can certainly help set the vision and goal to certainly partner with Other key stakeholders to coordinate efforts and build political will and I'm in my closing I must say that this is all done with working with key partners and stakeholders and some of you are here today The United ways of across the country the school districts the local stakeholders and foundations are key partners in this effort So cities are looking and they're working with their key stakeholders to provide a comprehensive Program and services for young children and what we've learned is folks are on the front end of this There's a long ways to go Aligning education providing quality. It's it's very there's a lot of layers to this and city leaders know They cannot do it by themselves. So with partnering with key stakeholders We're looking to move the needle and make sure that all children and families Maximize their full potential There's just a couple of thoughts of how the National League of Cities working with city governments working with senior leaders to ensure That quality early education is on the radar of our cities across the nation and it is an important issue. Thank you Slides Thank You Tanja. I'd like to build on two things. She's the tanja mentioned First in terms of the partnerships. I like to thank our The inspiration for our work in this area is as well Largely from the Annie Casey Foundation, which has large been largely been promoting And long been a leader in thinking about the importance of dual generational quality child care Tanja mentioned both the one-stop centers and the workforce development angle for helping parents as well as the quality angle for children and that focus on dual generational Outcomes for both parents and children's is so critical to social mobility And we appreciate very much the Annie Casey Foundation's encouragement of this kind of work the second thing is is how things on the ground in cities are working so well or not working well in a resource-constrained environment and in Washington You know when we look at CCDB g reauthorization when we look at how we improve federal programs It's so critical to hear from what is going on in Programs in all parts of the country which are providing work and we have four really award-winning programs Which are moving the needle in their communities and which have some lessons I think that they've learned in successes and things hadn't gone as well that can be replicated And some information to share and so we have the opportunity here to hear from our four different programs And we're going to do that now for a moment We're going to begin with Palm Beach Erin Kathy you there We are here excellent. All right So Erin Gallagher program officer for the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, Florida And Kathy wall who's a systems director for the housing partnership a bridge bridges initiative all right, the The floor is yours as they say All right, great. Thank you Nice to speak to everyone up there. I'm sure whether the little night for I won't go into details How nice it is down here right now, but it's pretty darn nice in DC today Just explain a little bit of background on what the Children's Services Council is it's an agency we have in Florida that's a special task taxing district there are seven across the state and Within Palm Beach County, we leverage property tax dollars a small percentage that come into our office to fund programs for children We also have graded funding sources that come in through the state and federal governments that we combine it to Provide these services within the county. So that's a little bit about our agency And we're going to be talking about one of our efforts during this presentation, which is bridges of Highland Our agency is also responsible. Tanya gave a great intro for us for the quality rating improvement system within the county for Early care the quality improvement system for after school But we're going to be talking about bridges today and we're talking specifically about bridges of Highland This is one of ten of our place-based efforts within the county And this is one where we also have a federal funding stream coming in that we're going to be highlighting. I'm going to pass it over to Kathy Hi, good afternoon Bridget that Highland is excited to be a part of the full service community school Project and the pictures that you just saw were actually some of our faces from Highland if you look at Palm Beach County It's actually about a hundred and twenty square mile. It's the largest county East Geographical County East of the Mississippi We have one particular community called Lake Worth for where there is Highland elementary and this particular school is unique And that there's about 900 students 65% Hispanic which actually accounts for our Guatemalan mind community and 35% black which accounts for Asian Creole community This community is very interesting extremely humble and just a pleasure to work with Most of our families are new to the United States Most of our families we have a high undocumented population Families typically have about the parents have about a fourth grade education So having a school home or being a part of a school family is new to them Which is a very big concept for us Just like we work with families to have a medical home So when you do get sick or need treatment you have a place to go Well, we're putting that same concept in the community to have a school home When your child is ready for school, where will you go and how can you get involved with the school? ahead of time if you don't mind go to the next slide and We'll talk a little bit about our vision for the school which talks with the But they are we at the next slide there. Thank you. Thank you Which talks about really the the center of the bulls. I have probably in most of your communities is the child and Bringing the child into Our program early on Well before kindergarten. We actually want to work with the child We have outcomes that we work for and we talk about healthy but having children eager and ready to learn before they enter kindergarten decreasing abuse and neglect for our kids and having them ready for school and ready readers when they are in third grade and Obviously the child can't do that alone. So we work very closely with the family Involving parents early on having parents be a part of their child's education We actually build in with our pre-k classes parent-child involvement Activities which are often the last hour of the child school day So the parent comes an hour before pick up and joins class and that's been hugely successful and that has trickled on to many parent-child activities in the evening For our families The next ring you can see is the neighborhood and community and having parents be involved with their school having parents involved with their Neighborhood whether it's neighborhood cleanup school initiatives school activities Again, the school is their home at least four or six to eight hours of the day for many of our kids So really feeling a part of their community and their neighborhood Our strategy is to bring agencies and organizations to the school to provide services Our community is particularly a walking community transportation has historically been an issue and though having agencies work on site for us has been great Having having been a sense of society Having families invest in our outcomes. So we're not prescribing saying here are your issues You're having low birth weight babies, you know, your children aren't ready from school but having families understand the importance of Healthy babies and children ready for school and when they enter kindergarten that they do They if they've been in pre-k then they are ready for kindergarten and when they're ready for kindergarten They tend to do better on third grade assessments If we can click to the next slide Erin We're doing the tag team approach here So as we move into looking at the next slide for our success pipeline this works up and it also works across So within our bridges locations all of the pieces you see that are stacked are present within the bridges So we have family and child support. It's a place-based approach that's located directly in this like work neighborhood that Kathy described We also have quality child care This program for our early care is part of our quality improvement system Which we call quality counts and we also have a quality after school setting at this location and beyond that We have a number of services that are targeted to the individual child and family and those Services can be combined based on family needs and as Kathy discussed these are all towards our goals of having babies born healthy Children free from abuse neglect readiness for kindergarten and success by the end of third grade in particular. We're focusing on reading The amazing thing that we've been able to do at bridges because of the funding streams We have coming in as we've been able to build a pipeline in terms of education that's starting at 18 months But we can engage families in the parent-child home program And we actually recently just added a tooth classroom at the site So now we're able to serve two-year-olds three-year-olds and four which are part of our voluntary pre-k In the bridges location, which is directly next to the school for those children have a really lovely smooth transition Into the kindergarten and it's a really nice way to make that connection for them Very seamless very easy that that's been part of their educational home for a number of years. We're very very proud of that We're going to go to the next slide all of our Attempts to to work with the families one of the things we talk about is that we can have the Beautiful pre-k classroom in the world and have the best curriculum than the newest in the latest toys for the kids But the end of the day, you know the kids go home and if the families aren't engaged and The parents aren't a part of their child's learning process Then the child's day really ends at two or whenever they they leave school So part of our approach is to bring as many partners into the school to bring as many partners into the community If not physically out of the school, but to bring these partnerships to the community to provide services for the family Bridges our concept is really as as to coordinate a system of care and It was interesting We we heard a great analogy a week or so ago that the bridges was typically almost like a flight control Where we have all these flights coming in and out to service our community and how that coordinated If you can see the different partnerships that we have and with bridges in the center again coordinating those services But also one thing that we not only with our four classrooms that we have on site at the elementary school But we're very involved with our head starts in the community and our other child care providers In our five family child care providers so that again even though they're on not on site at at Highland on at Highland Elementary They're still a part of our community and when they enter kindergarten we want them to be eager and ready to learn as well So if we can go to the next slide, we're going to break down kind of the big picture of how we find the Highland bridges Right now we have funding that does come in from the Department of Education as part of a federal grant With it's a little more than 500,000 a year, which is a huge support especially to those classrooms We also have mentoring that is supported by that grant and our parents also home program in addition to a nutrition program Through CSE funding there's an additional Over half a million that comes in and our school district provides a fair amount of in kind through time services and support The other piece we have is CCC funding which is continued to care funding and those are scholarships That are provided to children so that they can attend the child care within the Highland site that we talked about and then when you put all those funds together and you start to break it down And you look at the pie graph you can see how much goes into our classrooms How much goes towards our mentoring program that serves our school age population How much goes the parent child's home which I talked about which starts at 18 months and how much goes towards our nutrition component So we're very lucky at this site that we're able to break from several sources So we can bring a number of services to the community and the last piece if we can flip to we're going to talk about some of our initial sites Highland is of all of our bridges the site that is the most mature and these were some results from our 2011 year One of the services we provide to our early learning children is that we do screen for developmental delays and last year All the children that we had identified it at risk there was a small number, but of all those children They were like the services that was that quickly all of the families who participated in our families or in our parent child's home program Excuse me increase the frequency of their positive verbal interactions and a hundred percent of the children demonstrated positive behavior traits So this was a fabulous fabulous benchmark for us And a hundred percent of the early learning classroom families came to at least three parent child activities, which was so key We really want to create that some school connection with families That school is a place that they can feel comfortable that can be a home for them That can be a place where they feel that there's trust and respect and so to have that participation for families is so key And we were particularly proud last year for bridges at highland all of the children who left the bridges of highland bpk And then went to kindergarten were tested as part of the readiness Standards that are in florida And received an overall rating to score 77.8 Why that was significant was because when we compared that against highland children who had not been in our bpk program Who entered kindergarten without it their average score was 33.1 And even when we compared against the county, which is everyone in the county, whether they went to a very affluent preschool Or a preschool like highland or something in between we outscored the county average, which was only 72.8 So working within this community and this population that was huge To have those types of types and something for us to really celebrate And that is a very brief fast overview of bridges at highland Good well erin and and cathie. Thank you very much We're looking forward to diving into some q&a a couple things that that prompted for myself But we're going to go next to Tulsa, oklahoma also probably a warm day in Tulsa And monica bars act the director of the innovation lab of the community action project Monica would you tell us about What's made a difference for your program Or where you're absolutely and it is a beautiful sunny day here. So we're very happy about that Um community action project is an anti poverty agency that works so that that children that we serve Grow up and achieve economic success so that their children are not born into poverty And what I want to focus on today is one of the pieces of this very big puzzle Called career advance So community action project has for a long time been providing high quality early childhood education To low income children from the ages of birth to five We currently serve just over 2000 children in tulsa county But several years ago we wanted to get a little bit more Um intentional about how we might help the parents and the families Um of those children Get to a more economically financially stable situation So career advance is our dual generation workforce development program That that we hope will accomplish that goal Um the the important sort of contextual pieces for us is that We worked very hard in the program design to think about barriers to parents Who want to improve their workforce skills who want to go on to training? But may not have been successful doing that in the past and so we Worked with Several experts in the field to really come up with ways to identify those barriers and think about how we might remove them and then The other important piece to us is that the end goal here is a family supporting wage And we started in the healthcare sector. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second um, so of course our hypothesis here is um That the economic success of the parents are going to help is going to help improve the educational outcomes for their children and this really stems From a project that was done in milwaukee a number of years ago called new hope a make work pay program That ended up showing some improvements in the child's Um Education and so so that's kind of where we're coming from with career advance And we're particularly hopeful that economic stability Might help counteract some of the factors that contribute to the fadeout effect of high quality early education Um, so next slide please. Oh, sorry key program elements, right? Okay. So, um Some of the things I just wanted to point out that we built into the design Is of course it's offered to Adults who already have their young children enrolled in our high quality early education By and large they are parents, but we also have a few grandparents that participate in the program It is sector based So we focus on the healthcare sector or we conducted quite a bit of research to determine which sector would be appropriate We really wanted to look at a sector where there were jobs available and projected needs for skilled employees And we do have a Someone on our staff who works with the healthcare employers in the area She visits with them on a regular basis to understand what their needs are and then to sort of market our program and our graduates to them We've built a career path training Comprised of different steps. And so what we were going for here is that While we hope the parents reach the end goal, which is an associates degree either in in nursing or in health information technology If they're not able to do that or or they don't want to do that They can get out of the program with a credential that is recognized in the marketplace and they they will be able to get employment And we also wanted to make the steps accessible again For a lot of our parents they may not have been successful in school in the past and and we wanted them to be able to attain Higher degrees of success We built in career coaching So every participant works with their own career coach on an individual and group basis And that includes soft skills development And the soft skills development and the role of the coach also is built into a peer support Model which i'll talk about more in just a minute We recognize that some of our participants may need reading or math skills upgrades and Preparation and getting ready to be a college student When we first began We in fact we we never required that a participant need a g ed to participate or a high school diploma to participate And so we will help them with that, but we found that even adults who have a diploma May not be at a sufficient level for college reading our math. So we build in That kind of support and instruction And then the last key element is performance incentives. So for good attendance for good grades for receiving your credential or Certain key milestones a participant can earn up to $3,000 per year this again was drawn out of the new hope experience Which was a make work pay trying to help parents Have sufficient economic resources to be able to provide for their families Okay, so the next slide please. I want to talk about one of the things that we've really found to be successful Um, and that is this idea of cohorts And so like probably most programs we enroll a class of say 15 at a time So every january every august we enroll 15 in our nursing track 15 in our health information technology track But we start them three to four weeks Or their classes begin to develop them as a cohort in these peer partner meetings And what they can do there is they can share with each other their experiences their struggles their successes And it is also a way for us to deliver some of the soft skills Development so we might bring in guest speakers to talk about Resume building interviewing skills the coaches might plan a session on professionalism Professional dress in the workplace conflict resolution, etc And we found that the the support that the participants build in these cohorts is really unbelievable They see their fellow participants as a family and they really understand what they're going through So if you move on to the next slide, I just pulled We do regular focus groups with our participants and I picked a few Key quotes that they had made and it's especially about the fact that The cohorts because everyone is a parent or a grandparent and they have young kids. They're going through Very similar issues In a way that may not be true if they were just working through the VOTAC or working through the community college So just that second quote in particular where all parents of young kids We understand where we're coming from with kids the same age. We understand each other's problems And even in the last focus group we we had There was quite a bit of discussion about one participant who Felt like she wanted to drop out and before the career coach even knew her her cohort Mates knew about it and three or four of them had kind of ganged up on her and called her up and said No, no, no, you can't quit. We're going to keep you in here We're going to help you get through it and and sure enough she stuck in So that's been a really I think important piece of the model On the next slide. I talk a little bit about some of the challenges. Um, and these were alluded to In some of what tanja said and and I think others have experienced which is we um We are able to match the class schedule to the schedule of the children Um to match the full day head start schedule Um, but it starts to get a little bit difficult once the parents begin thinking about employment Um, and when they have to do their clinical experiences, which is required for the class So one of the advantages of doing this through early childhood education is Our staff at the centers are so committed to the career advance program They make sure that they're building a staff to provide the before or aftercare that's needed Um, especially during the the clinical experiences, which could last a week or it could last three weeks Um, it's a little tougher when the parent now might be offered an internship or a part-time employment opportunity Or something where they really need before and after care And so for us there are certain Um, I think barriers at the state level about how we can try to help parents access Quality child care that they need outside of our regular operating hours And then of course, like i'm sure most communities have Trying to match the child care schedule To what's available to what the parents need. Um is also difficult On the next slide. I talk a little bit about Some of our partnerships We have a lot of local partners on the ground our technical college our community college a local public school district And everybody at those partner agencies is highly committed to what it is that we're doing But they operate in an institutional setting and so it's been a little bit challenging Um to try to navigate and negotiate institutional changes and trying to Um make sure that the needs of our students and and probably the needs of many other students at the community college Is considered kind of in advance and so we started instituting quarterly all partner meetings So where we could have these kinds of conversations from a more systemic level But that but that's been a little bit of a challenge for us On the next slide, um at the state level Um the grant funding the federal funding we have to support career advance requires that we partner with certain state agencies um And it's it's very interesting because you know sort of looking at it from a particular level Some of these agencies seem like they would be very natural partners in a program Dedicated to helping parents of young children Become more job ready, but there are definitely limitations regulations and requirements that that make that a little bit difficult and and from our perspective I think about this in terms of sustainability of this kind of program and scaling it up So if if federal funding disappears for this program How would the larger system in a in a city or a state Be able to provide the quality services that we believe we are going to find are are necessary for for programs to have success And the final side is just the the plug that we make for for our federal funding through department of health and human services who Who have been funding this program and and up until 2015 Great Monica. Thank you very much and I look forward to following on that in q&a as well Now I'd like to introduce Barbara Faber who's from the White Earth Reservation Ojibwe Nation in in minnesota where it is colder today But a program officer for um ccdf for a while last 20 years And as you know as a sovereign nation, there's a government-to-government relationship with the With the reservation so they receive direct ccdf funding. So it's it's We're very pleased Barbara that you are with us today your slides are up and The internet is yours the floor is yours Thank you and uh migwech for Providing me with this opportunity I can't see what um, I'm having technical difficulties. And so I can't see what's on the slide, but I'm I know they're there Yes, I I'm going to take in a little different Aspect I am from a tribal community and as david said we are a sovereign nation So we get direct block grant funding um for ccdf And so we provide many of the services that the state also provides one of um One of the things that I'm very very proud of is our program. We've been We've been in existence for about 20 years now ever since the child care development block grant became available And the next slide please Uh, we recruit and license child care providers throughout our reservation which is the 1300 square mile um service area And what we do is we we make sure that Um, we try to have child care in every community. There's 11 communities within our service area and try to have We're very rural So having uh child care high quality child care in every one of those communities is a very important Um aspect of what we do the other part is that we We are um also at early childhood program we We service children um Through ccdbg birth to 12 years old 13 however, um We really focus on zero to three Services for our area as well um our community outreach is um Exceptional I do say so myself We rely on partner to um expand our services and bring it to all areas of our service area um One of the things that uh, you know that that has baffled me over the years is that The attention or the lack of attention that child care has been um receiving and The first thing I need to say is the best thing that ever happened to child care was the ccdbg funding And um, we're very fortunate to to receive that However, it's it's still not enough. Um We You know every parent in the world has to deal with child care on when When they go to school or to work even our first lady, michelle obama had to worry about child care for her girl When she and she was very fortunate to have a wonderful um ffn provider Um her mom to care for her children Every person in this room and watching this event has has a who has a child or children Has had to deal with child care where to find it how to pay for it And to want wondering if it's quality So to have child care under fund is have it so underfunded is is really um Hurting our country and our nation, but especially our families and children We um one of the things that we do that that I think is innovative is that We're not just a child care program like I said earlier But we look at the whole family We work with our partners to um Do school alignment preschool pre-k alignment? We want to have services and child care just like any other early childhood program So that our children are receiving Assessments screening resources We provide children in child care um the same resources We work on quality rating systems um curriculum We invest in our child care teachers through professional development We work on um cda associates and bachelors We support them and work with Our local universities and colleges to make that happen We work with our our parents um on parent conferences and parent engagement Because it is true that the learning is happening in child care, but it's and we want that continuing of learning to go home um We also and I think you can go to the next slide please These are examples of our Some of the services that we provide We feel strongly that every child no matter if they are in a license Our unlicensed child care deserve the same early childhood screenings and resources Not only that that we reach out to children who are as well as reaching out to children who aren't in any kind of program In every community about one third of the children are in either a head start or preschool And about another third or more are in some form of child care And there's also a large population of kids out there that aren't in anything And they deserve to be given the same opportunities and resources That these other children receive We need you know our country needs to invest in all early childhood programs in order to reach out to all all children Um, especially children from high poverty areas Does not mean they deserve less And so programs like ours um We really take that seriously and try to reach out to all areas Our program works closely with state and local officials And especially in this day and age of shortage of funds and resources We respect our and value our partnerships because we couldn't do it without their support and guidance and many of the initiatives that you see on the screen are are All based on our partnerships and our collaboration to make these things happen for our area And next slide please Um One of the things that I think we are very fortunate here in minnesota is that our state of minnesota Is very inclusive of tribal child care programs And they're very inclusive of tribal input on its statewide initiatives My experience on my national board Helped me this isn't the case in all states but um as far as minnesota they've um, I think they've They're very um innovative They've developed the first ever tribal child care specific network and it's called min track and our program communicates On a regular basis with the state and our our colleagues In our counterpart parts in the in the counties around child care assistance And licensing so that we're all on the same page We're a multifaceted agency that may have started small but has become a multi agent Most a service agency from Providing accessible affordable and high quality child care community outreach To supporting parents who are working on getting their children back Are keeping their children We work with can of parents on child care issues And we simply support our partners and what they're trying to do because most of the time We're all dealing with the same children and families CC dbg Reauthorization needs to happen. Um What we see is that Without it our parents are struggling And I think um, you know everything That the panels my the people on the panel have said is so true in all areas But it's so critical that cc dbg get reauthorized. I think if that's one thing one message Is that that needs to happen. Um our tribal Set aside needs to be increased as well um Both states and tribes are having to either deal with um quality versus quantity and we shouldn't have to do that um, but our our Parents and our families Are depending on us to bring them the resources that They may not otherwise get So I think um by us working with our our partnering agencies such as head start school systems Our social services We are um We are only stronger in that sense They look to us for Providing that quality child care in remote areas In our neck of the woods. That's what they do um, they also Look to us to help pay for their child care um, it's hard to see parents being turned away From both counties and tribal pro child care programs because of long waiting lists and we You know, they usually end up having to quit their jobs and going on tannas are they, you know Provide or may have to select a child care. That's probably not appropriate so I think by um Us being You know working together. It's going to only make sense for for the parents next slide, please These are some more initiatives that we do Since that we received funding for ccdbg we've also recruited And applied and received other funding for early childhood initiatives The caring for kids store is something that is ongoing It's for parents and providers that attend training conferences Parent conferences Well child checks wake appointments they get points so all the partners provide Items for the store and parents They can go and um Cash in their points at this store. So it's very um, very successful here And the the things that fly off the shelves are the basic household needs of diapers and Laundry soap so those are the kinds of things, you know, our parents are are really needing Um Celebrating our children Father's festival week of the young child. Those are things that we do with the community We highlight early childhood In these events and we we get huge numbers of children and and parents coming to these So we're constantly marketing marketing marketing early childhood. What early childhood Is and child development brain development And everything we do We we work with our early childhood mental health agencies. We have a readmobile in that That goes out to remote areas and do home visiting We have an anti bullying committee And you can go to the next slide Barb I mean I um I read Barb take another just another minute here I'm going to try to to jump in here as we want to get as many questions as we can if you would okay um, the readmobile Service is something that we take out to remote areas um, I think the remoteness of our child care providers is what's really Uh, it's really something that we need to pay attention to we need to pay attention to Our child care providers and centers no matter where they are and give them the right attention next slide, please And these are just some of the things that I feel what needs to happen Thank you. Great Barb. I'm sorry to jump in there We want to get to q&a and you'd covered some of this last slide which I thought was particularly helpful to look at Yeah to look at the um What needs to happen question which has been on my mind as I've listened to all the speakers We're going to turn to katie britain here to just talk for a moment about boston and then we'll open it up for for q&a katie Sure, um, and I like barbara can't see the slides either I'm here at united way and they like us, but they don't seem to like your website. Um, so If we can just maybe I can just say next slide when I'm ready Um, so driving five is a public private partnership between united way and the city of boston We take a really holistic approach that focuses on getting all the adults in a young child's life as you can kind of see in our equation Working together to support their readiness for and then success in school So today i'm going to talk about our work to move quality and access the early aid and early learning opportunities both You know formal child care and then more informal opportunities um I'm going to start with some of our ready educators work and talk about the state environment How that's impacted our local strategies um Focused mainly on quality and professional development and then also talk about One of our sort of signature place-based initiatives called boston boston children thrive And some of our work to develop parent leadership in that So next slide Um, so a little bit of state context Uh in messachusetts, we have I think one of the first um in the country's You know state level departments focus solely on early care and education and that started back in 2005 um In 2010 our state commissioner launched our quality rating and improvement system which Is becoming more and more prevalent across the country Certainly, um And that I think is really quickly becoming one of the biggest drivers of um quality improvement in in kind of our local community And then statewide largely because both of the funding streams Um for quality and for early care and education are being More and more often are dependent on being in the the q-r-a-s. That's what we call it here Um, it has a great A great family friendly name at this point Um, so massachusetts has also received a 50 million dollar raise to the top grant as well Um, much of which is also focused on our q-r-a-s Um So right now the state offers grants to programs to implement improvements to move them forward in the q-r-a-s A lot of our local partners. We're seeing um Different state Grants to local partners to do professional development and and things like that Working specifically with providers at different levels in our q-r-a-s So you have to be at level three to participate in a particular training or something like that Um, and then starting later this summer Um, our commissioners planning to require programs who would offer Any subsidized slots or vouchers to also be in the q-r-a-s I think that's going to be an even bigger driver to get programs to enroll in that And I think the challenge is I mean, it's a great system certainly to improve quality But I think like any new system Um, particularly in the child care community you have um, you know a large group of providers who are already You know doing the best they can to meet a lot of different requirements And so it's it's new standards for an already kind of stressed community and also in our q-r-a-s We have really high professional development standards Um, which is making it really hard for providers to move beyond the first level in the system So, um, I'll touch on that a little bit more in it Uh, next slide So locally our focus has historically been on achieving accreditation And we've done really well with that about a third of our Early-act capacity in Boston is accredited Um, so it's taken some time I think for the local early-act community to shift from accreditation to q-r-a-s As the main driver of quality We've had a lot of conversations with local partners about You know, okay, so what's our goal here? Is it to, you know, move programs forward in the q-r-a-s or is it to continue to pursue accreditation? Because in our state those two aren't exactly aligned Um And we have now settled on moving forward with the q-r-a-s So Thrive 5 and our local partners including Head Start our local public school district which offers Pre-K services for three and four and five-year-olds And several of our major early-act providers and some of our accreditation technical assistance providers Have all come together to develop a plan to bring more programs into and up the q-r-a-s Through a couple of different strategies. I mean the first is Information systems just to help providers better understand. What is it? You know, what's my incentive for being a part of this? Um, what do I need to do and kind of what's the process? I think shifting some of the accreditation coaches and the technical assistance work that we have There to focus more on moving into and up the q-r-a-s and then also similar to what the state has done Looking for private funders to Support mini grants to programs to do some quality improvements to move them into and up q-r-a-s as well Um So and since the accreditation has been a focus for so long. I think another big Focus locally is helping providers kind of Align, you know, what what where are we with accreditation and then what does that mean for the q-r-a-s? So helping them Kind of coordinate between those two different standards And the goal is you know with all of this is to keep the different state resources in our local community And hopefully increase that funding over time So I think this has been a great example of where Now all the local partners kind of at the table many of which receive state funding and federal funding have come together to develop Kind of a local strategy that really looks at kind of the individual needs of our community To address sort of the new standards that the state has put out Next slide So alongside quality professional development has also been a major focus in our kind of early ed and care work Um We are fortunate to have a group in Boston called Boston Eclipse the early childhood quality improvement project That's a local um policy and research initiative solely focused on the child care community Um that regularly does some different studies about What does quality look like what do providers need in terms of professional development? Um all sorts of different things so they they provide us with sort of a goldmine of research Um and their latest research around professional development shows that we really need um More targeted professional development on instructional support curriculum language and literacy And screening and assessment stuff Um So and we also know that anecdotally We hear that providers really need more support translating the coursework into practice in the classroom with children Um and as I said before I think the q r s has really highlighted our professional development needs So to move beyond the first level, which is the basic licensing standards All the staff in a program have to have a high school diploma or g e d All the all the educators so all the teachers must have college credit Um and half of the classrooms have to have an educator with a bachelor's degree or higher Um and it's certainly what we want Um and what we know really makes a difference for kids But it's not it's just not where we are in boston right now um So some of our strategies here are to test out new professional development models That focus on the content areas where we know that providers need additional support And that also provide the Credential and training that help them move up the q r s Um all well focused on doing this through models that and that kind of commuter computer literacy into that Since we know that that's becoming more and more of a challenge For many of our programs to sort of get online and and start to fill out, you know state applications and things like that So some of the activities that we're doing around that are the first is really simple It's just helping providers better navigate the opportunities that are out there Because we do have a lot of professional development that's happening But often we're hearing from providers that you know, they're sort of taking the same course Over and over again, but with a slightly different name So they're not really kind of moving forward with a degree program Um The second is just incorporating coaching and mentoring into classes To really help providers incorporate what they're learning in the classroom into their actual practice with young children And then a third um is scaling up and kind of expanding a pilot that we've done with family child care providers Which i'm going to talk about next um so next slide Um, okay, so our family child care pilot started last spring The goal was to develop professional development opportunities that specifically meet the needs of family child care providers, which in boston is a really diverse community So we started out with hosting Summit for providers from the field And we did really specific and intensive outreach. I would say to um five major language groups in boston So english, spanish Chinese Haitian and portuguese To cover our Cape Verdean population Um, and they came back and and had some good recommendations. Um, the first is obviously you can't have like a one size fits all solution They really were looking for multiple pathways to higher education Um, the second given the diversity of this community is to focus on you know, kind of the skills and content while promoting english language acquisition and literacy Um Many of our providers are Are challenged just by not not having a good grasp of the english language at this point. So um, you know offering courses in native language, but also offering specific vocational esl programs Um for the early ed community would be helpful to them as well And then also supporting um their computer literacy and business management skills So since the summit, um We've partnered with a couple of our higher ed institutions Um to develop new curricula and also offer a few different courses have following um What the recommendations? Following the recommendations that we heard from providers. So we do we are now offering a vocational esl class for um our family child care providers Um, mainly spanish speakers. I believe at this point Um, we're also offering a financial literacy course for providers And that one, you know come also kind of takes into account another recommendation is to have a a really sort of um Condensed schedule. So that I think that course meets um for three full days and then three evenings Um, and that's the whole course. Um, sort of to better accommodate the busy schedules of our providers and then um the third is a um A course focused on promoting children's language and literacy development And it's offered in spanish and has a that coaching and mentoring part of it um So we're looking forward to seeing the results of those courses as they start to wrap up later in the spring Um, and this is something, you know, I think um You know based on the results of this is something that we might want to expand to our center-based providers as well or look at other models. Um, that may be successful and kind of um Helping expand the professional development opportunities that our providers Um can access in the community So next slide Um So that's been the major focus of our work with formal early education and care And I thought I'd just touch briefly on some of our work on kind of mother informal early Early learning opportunities and also connecting families to resources in the community Um, and most of this work has fallen Into our Boston Children Thrive initiative and that's a neighborhood based effort to engage families and their children's learning and development starting at birth Um that grew out of the reality that in Boston we have a ton of early childhood resources Um, Boston is known for being resource rich resource rich and coordination poor Um, so while we have a lot of different things happening We kept hearing from families over and over that they didn't they couldn't access them They didn't know where they were or they weren't at the right time or they weren't in the right language or Just you know multiple barriers to actually taking advantage of these opportunities particularly for our most vulnerable families So in 2009 we launched Boston Children Thrive in five neighborhoods Um, each neighborhood is led by a hub agency that has a strong group of core partners kind of across different fields everywhere from Early ed to the business community to health care to family support providers And these um partners come together Um regularly through a group that they call the school readiness round table In each community and that's the hub agency all their partners, but also parents and other community members And they are really charged with planning and carrying out the neighborhood strategies to connect families Particularly focusing on families Are kind of most vulnerable families and those most at risk for falling into the achievement gap Once children enter school with um the various resources and supports that the community has to offer And we've found so far. This has been a really um It's not an insignificant cost on our budget. Certainly. It's about a million dollar initiative every year Um, so it's a but still a fairly low financial investment for a high impact in reaching families and connecting with them in a really real way Um Next slide So I would say that even though the model is very neighborhood directive Thrive in five provides the outcomes, but the communities Through the school readiness round tables really decide on the strategies that they used to meet those outcomes Um, it does look different in each neighborhood, but a couple of core strategies have emerged That we see as really promising practices to expand Um, so in each community we have 23, um across across the city at this point Um parent ambassadors or parent partners who are there specifically to reach out to and engage families right where they are So these parents hang out at the laundry mat. They hang out at the bus stop They hang out at the playground and we found that it's been really helpful particularly in Um, most of the neighborhoods most of the Boston Children's Drive neighborhoods have a high immigrant population So we have parent partners from Costa Rica, brazil, cape verde, Haiti, mexico, el Salvador, guatemala Um and more countries who I think are really sort of a cultural bridge between a lot of the programs in the community and Families who may not feel as comfortable with kind of our Customs and traditions and and services here But another Common strategy that we've really encouraged is partnerships with local businesses So at this point we have about 40 businesses engaged to give out information to families They give out family fun kits to families with young children They display information About early childhood resources This is an example in our um, Dudley Children's Drive neighborhood A local market owner also runs a Cape Verdean radio station So they become really taken with this and now make regular announcements about events and opportunities in Cape Verdean I think they have a weekly radio show about early childhood issues So it's just another way to kind of get the word out and um ways that really connect with different cultural communities Um a third strategy that's it take one more minute take one more minute Sure. Yeah So there's just the other two major strategies are just mini grants to support new and expanded programming and then Also neighborhood-wide activities and field trips We found that a lot of families haven't even come to our children's museum Which I can see from my office window, but is is you know pretty far removed when you you know, maybe don't have great public transportation or Just the time in your schedule. So that's been a really successful Um thing is to bring families kind of out of the neighborhood and bring resources directly into the neighborhood when possible Um next slide and this is my last one promise. Um I think one big part of this um one of our big goals with Boston Children's Drive is around parent leadership So in um to achieve that goal, we've sponsored um so far the first Um session of a an initiative called the parent leadership exchange, which is a 10 week course on leadership skills Um and from that course so far we have 12 graduates who um Are leading projects in their own communities to engage more families Um and I think this has been one of those really like the most impactful thing that we've done Um in terms of getting families um involved in their children's education, but also involved in bettering their whole community um So much that we had we had a parent from our east boston neighborhood who You know said that she really didn't know that she was a leader She was afraid to get up and speak in front of other people and just last week She came and presented with us to a group of um a local education funders group and you know It's talking to some of the heads of our major foundations and business leaders in the area About you know the success of this and how it's impacted her life. So it's just been really great. It's created a lot of um real positive change so far in the community and I think is the beginning of It's just so much easier to engage parents right there in the beginning And then to to see those parents grow into you know leaders in their child schools And leaders in their community later on I think is going to be really exciting. So That's our janny. Thank you You can see the diversity of the experience and the success and folks have had I want to ask And we're going to have claire go around with the microphone lisa and tanja can join in the questions as well I'm going to ask each of you to list um If there's a single thing in reauthorization the biggest problem that each of you face you're going to take Uh Don't explain it all but just list it Um You're in a room of folks here who were interested in ccdbg reauthorization Is it more resources the lack of quality? Connecting parents professional developer teachers. What is the single biggest problem that you face at the local level? Uh, if washington could do something to help Aaron and uh, Aaron and kathy. What would be your single biggest need? Um, our single biggest biggest need. I think we're really um doing quite well with improving quality and the movements We're having for we're starting to see some nice results in our data for us It's really increasing capacity and the numbers we can serve great. Um, we I'm going to be ruthless on the time here. So so so on the the biggest need there, monica What's your biggest need that we could could help? I would say it's uh flexibility in the in the use of funds. Um, and increased capacity Okay, thanks barb It would be in increased capacity and child care assistant funding Okay, katie I would say for us it's a professional development Very good very interesting All right folks in the room. What pressing questions do you have for our panel? Sir Very good Okay, good. We're gonna we're gonna Pack a couple questions any let's see other questions and we'll open it up for the group here There are other questions from folks in the house Lisa tanja And just learning a little bit more about um whether There are barriers to having some of this was touched on by tulsa the barriers to having parents involved in These kind of community college programs that might be out there And if if there's just no capacity even among child care centers to do that extra work It's kind of amazing that tulsa is taking that on but i'd like to learn about What are the barriers to making that connection to higher education institutions for the parents not just for the providers Okay, tanja. Do you have something on your mind? Something related to the the parents as well. I mean the very diverse communities being served and I was just interested in One of two specific strategies for engaging very culturally diverse parents went to hear however they were Connecting to those folks. All right, so we've got three questions here for now Let's just take those three for from we'll get to the last one in a second here So for the folks on the phone, here's what we're gonna do you've got three questions and for um So the first one's on fathers for Katie era Built on something barb is already doing but Why don't you each answer one of the following questions? So the one is is there a way to connect fathers more specifically to your projects? Secondly on community colleges and higher education How are there strategies such as monica talked about that are connecting to higher education? And the third one is diverse communities of parents So let's go down again. We're going to go an opposite door starting with katie this time And touch on One of those three questions About fathers community colleges higher education and diverse community of parents Is there anything that you have to contribute that has been experiential? On on one of those three questions Sure. Well, I'll I'll stick with the um diverse communities of parents because we we have a lot of diversity in boston Um, so that's something that we deal with every day. I think there, you know, we found that to really engage parents You have to you have to plan everything around them Everything from the time of the meeting to you know, the agenda and the way that you Facilitate, you know parents being involved in being part of a discussion I think specifically to reach out to our different cultural communities We've really found, you know having people on staff particularly In our boston children thrive neighborhoods who you know are from those communities And sort of understand the barriers And can kind of be the the you know transition point between um, you know kind of our Programs and services and and that cultural community Have been really successful I think it adds a lot of legitimacy to the work that we're doing when there's someone, you know Who looks like you who you know Understands your background and where you come from and speaks your language who can talk about it and and speak about it from their own experience So I think I think having that Those parents there. I would say the other thing that's been um, I think it's it's small but I think it has a big impact in a lot of our neighborhoods is all of our school readiness round tables. They generally meet They all have parents On those groups and they generally meet at times when parents can be there And they generally have food that is specific to the cultural community that's most dominant in that neighborhood So, you know, I'll go to one meeting and it's all vietnamese food And then I'll go to another meeting and it's all You know kind of keep very in and north african food And for me it's wonderful because I get great food every sounds great But I think it just shows some acceptance. Um, that's a real you know effort to reach out. So thank you katie barb um, I think with uh a community communities and colleges It especially in rural areas. It's hard to for our child care providers and center staff To get a day off to go to college So we have to think outside the box and look at our partners to find out how we can map this out So that it's user friendly for our providers To either get a cda to start with the cda or go on to their associates and bachelors. So we're looking at hybrid Classes for those providers As well as offering those classes to head start Pre-k's and para's out of the school district. So we're bringing everybody together to say this is what early childhood People want so how can you serve us? We're gonna before uh, monica speaks here. We're gonna go one more round of questions So we'll stay another five or ten minutes, but because it's 130 and folks may be leaving Uh, I'll just put a plug both and thanks for the kasey foundation Also, linda smith from the office of child care will be here. Our next event will be may 16th with linda And some other folks talking about the federal efforts and quality in particular All right with that plug monica Yeah, i'm gonna tackle lisa's question, but I will just note that the engaging fathers has been a challenge We had hoped that our health information technology track would be a little bit more attractive Um to the fathers and uh, we're still kind of working through that, but it definitely is a challenge So the way we I think successfully connect our parents to the community college and our local um technology Votex system. I think really is through our career coach um The career coaches really help first of all they have to understand the path and all the steps to getting into the school And they help the participants navigate it Um, we also for the first step in the training ladder We buy a full class So the participants first class is only going to be with career advanced participants Although it is at the college. So they are at the college. They feel like they're college students They're wearing their scrubs. They have their books and etc Um, and then as they move along they progress a little bit more individually on their own And then we also try really hard to connect our participants to whatever support services The college or the votex offers for their students. So We don't want to try to Hold their hand too much. Um, we want them to learn how to navigate that system on their own But there definitely is some coaching and and assistance on the front end Very good Aaron and Kathy Um, we would like to to speak to um, tackling the cultural diversity and and each of our can Bridges sites they're each very culturally different and um, I think each one really has to get the pulse and the flavor And by bringing the community into the development of that site Um, brings the culture to the site as well Um, so we offer as many volunteer opportunities as possible parent engagement But also something that we've seen that's worked is to involve adult literacy Uh, with classes both day and night. Um, again to cater to, you know, the the needs of families working families um, and one particular program that is is Working very well as our family literacy program Which is a component of east hall and g e d and for those parents that have three and four year olds That are not in child care settings They bring their children as well and they are Part of a parents and child together program where the children are in a pre-k type setting Uh, the parents are in separate classrooms learning and we get together once a week to do, uh, family Family education programming Yeah, very cool very good. We had a question here All right, good. We'll talk more then Are there any other questions? Will you join me in thanking our, uh, guests for taking time being on the phone? Tanya, thank you very much for, uh, being here today and providing your insight It's so great to think about the diversity of our country in terms of of, um Programs at the local level providing, uh, innovative opportunities for children Everyone here is committed to the outcome of social mobility and dual generational, uh, quality child care We really appreciate you all being here today. So, uh, thank you for that Thanks for all the folks who've watched, um, online and we are adjourned Thank you friends. Take care