Initiative targets improving early childhood education, care

By Deborah Gertz Husar, original article appeared in the Herald-Whig

A new initiative hopes to improve quality, equity and access to early childhood education and care programs and services across Illinois.

Birth to Five Illinois works to build regional early child infrastructure that will amplify family, provider and community voices in the state policy-making process while giving local and state leaders a more accurate understanding of early childhood gaps.

“Right now there’s a lot that doesn’t work for our families,” said Jacqui Jones, Birth to Five Illinois Area 3 Coordinator covering 20 counties including Adams, Brown, Hancock and Pike.

Concerns across the state range from “daycare deserts,” or areas with no or severely limited daycare options, to transportation and lack of early childhood classroom space.

The Bloomington-based initiative divides Illinois into 39 regions — each with a regional council manager, a family council and an action council.

“Our action councils, our family councils are going to meet, identify those gaps, those needs and also identify what is really working well,” Jones said. “They will be your region’s voice, a direct pipeline to the state to advocate for what you need — the funding, the resources.”

Bridget English, hired in mid-July, serves as the regional council manager covering Adams, Brown, Cass, Morgan, Pike and Scott counties.

“The hope for Birth to Five Illinois Region 1 is to use a strengths-based approach to build a collaborative network of families, providers, educators and community stakeholders who will identify the unique early childhood needs of our area,” English said.

“Through our work, we hope to create opportunities that give voice to those who may feel unheard and an equal opportunity for quality early childhood education and care regardless of class, race, developmental stage or geographic locales.”

Excitement is brewing statewide about the initiative, Jones said, but its different approach to early childhood issues drew pushback at the outset.

“It’s working the opposite direction from what things were working before. The big guys were telling local daycare, local communities what works for them when it really didn’t,” Jones said. “Now it’s the people on the ground every day telling the big guys up in Chicago or down in Springfield what we need.”

Jones expects “really great things” to happen when the councils are seated and ready to go within the next month or two.

In Region 26 — covering Fulton, Hancock, McDonough and Schuyler counties — work is underway to identify anecdotal gaps and services in the community as well as to establish rapport with organizations across the region.

“We have begun networking and identifying possible Birth to Five Action Council and Birth to Five Family Council members,” said Paul Larson, regional council manager in Region 26, who was hired in mid-May. “This outreach is helping us establish critical relationships with families and area service providers and determine interested community members to serve on our region’s councils.”

Birth to Five Illinois officially launched in February to fulfill a recommendation from the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding Report that the state build an equity-driven regional system.

Jones said early childhood education and care are issues that should be important to everyone — whether they have a child of their own or live in a community with a state-funded early childhood program.

“We want to make sure families and communities are at the center of our decision-making,” Jones said. “We hope for big things.”