Learn More about Early Childhood Needs in DeKalb County at Upcoming Town Hall

July 23, 2023

Original coverage by Megann Horstead with Shaw Local News Network

DeKALB – Birth to Five Illinois, a local council part of a statewide regional infrastructure for early childhood education and care, is preparing to host a town hall in DeKalb in August.

The town hall, which will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8 at the DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St. in DeKalb, is meant to help with identifying service needs for early childhood education and care in DeKalb County.

The event will provide a chance for people to learn more about the results of Birth to Five Illinois’ early childhood regional needs assessment for DeKalb County, hear from providers and families, and take part in a Q&A session, organizers said.

Gretchen Sprinkle, family and community engagement specialist for Birth to Five Illinois – Region 16, said she’s found that DeKalb County is affected by the child care crisis, but it’s no different than anywhere else in the nation.

“DeKalb County is feeling the child care crisis like every other part of the state and the nation,” Sprinkle said. “We do not have enough space to serve our young children here to allow parents and caregivers to go work if they choose that. We don’t have enough qualified staff to make more spots available.”

Sprinkle said there are many benefits to having a Birth to Five Illinois council operating locally.

“The benefit of Birth to Five Illinois is that we have infrastructure and staff to spend time to collect community voice so it can be heard in unison at the state level by state decision-makers,” Sprinkle said. “These are big problems that parents, caregivers and early childhood educators know very well. So they also know what the best solutions will be.

“Having Birth to Five Illinois be able to take the time to coherently and cohesively collect that and amplify that is really beneficial because it sends a clear message of what people in our community need.”

Birth to Five Illinois was born in 2022 out of a larger nonprofit called the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to create access to more local community-level councils and information promoting equitable access for parents, families and caregivers.

One thing that Sprinkle said sets apart DeKalb County and its local Birth to Five Illinois council from other regions is its partnership with the DeKalb County Collaborative for Young Children.

“DeKalb County is very lucky in the fact that DCCYC was already beginning a lot of the work that Birth to Five Illinois is now doing prior to our inception as a department,” Sprinkle said. “Most places in the state did not have that. DCCYC has a broader vision and mission for early learning. Birth to Five worked in partnership with them to dig down deeper in the arena of early childhood education and care specifically.

“We’re able to provide more resources in the way of finances and staff time to support the mission of DCCYC. So we have a [memorandum of understanding] with them, and we have from the start. We’re very grateful for the foundation they laid for this work.”

Sprinkle said Birth to Five Illinois is excited for more intentional collaboration with community partners such as DCCYC.

“More intentional collaboration could help draw down state and federal funding to this area,” she said. “We may be able to improve problems with access to early childhood services when we work together. By laying out the needs and the strengths that we already have as a community, we can be very targeted in how we use our resources.”

Sprinkle acknowledged that some collaboration has already been going on in the community, but she said Birth to Five Illinois is hoping to bring new energy to the conversation around early childhood education and care.

“DCCYC was already in existence when Birth to Five began as a department, and they started a lot of those conversations,” she said. “Birth to Five Illinois has the added benefit of being able to just dedicate more direct time.

“We’re really hoping after this town hall it reenergizes some older conversations, and we start connecting the agencies and the people that can make changes.”