Birth to Five Illinois Shares Findings, Needs and Recommendations from Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment

August 24, 2023

Original coverage by Carla Waters for Iroquois County’s Times-Republic.

Birth to Five Illinois is sharing the findings, needs and recommendations from its Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment.

Liz Gibson, regional council manager, Region 32: Kankakee & Iroquois Counties, said, “Birth to Five is an organization that essentially works in every community across the state. Each of our different areas have a local office that was determined based on the regional office of education boundaries. My office covers Kankakee and Iroquois counties.

“Our goal over the last year has been essentially to provide a platform so that our communities and our families, as well as our early childhood experts and our community members have an opportunity share the celebrations about early childhood education and care that is going well, but more importantly, be vulnerable with us and share their personal stories as well as barriers and challenges they are experiencing in accessing these opportunities for their little ones.

“Every one of our Birth to Five offices have created action council groups, which are staffed by members of our community, and we’ve also created family council groups, which encompass family members who have children between the ages of birth to eight.”

Gibson said the family and action councils meet two times a month each. “We’re reviewing local data,” she said. “We’re looking at the information. We’re seeing if the information is current and valid. We’re discussing the information to see if it’s a reflection of our community, but most importantly, based on the data, what needs to be changed at a local level and a state level to begin overcoming these obstacles and barriers that we are experiencing.”

She said over the last year Birth to Five has also had focus groups, conducted surveys and had interviews with community members to hear from parents and caregivers who are utilizing the services. She said they want to hear about what is going well as well as what may not be going well.

All 40 offices across the state conducted an Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment. “This was a huge undertaking in the last year,” she said.

Getting that information out in to the community is the next step, she said, so that business members, local and state elected officials, parents and caregivers can all hear the information.

“We also want to go a little bit further,” she said. “We know that all of our offices had different amounts of times to complete the needs assessment. My office actually only had about six to eight months because our office opened a little bit later than some of the other offices across the state. So we know that we did not have a chance to review all the data that was out there, nor did we have an opportunity to hear from all the voices that make up our community. One of the things we are trying to do by sharing this information and sharing the report findings is to have the community help us identify who did we miss? Whose voices are missing in this information and what else do we need to be aware of that we’re not already aware of? And secondly, is there any data that we do not have in our report that would be beneficial for us to know?

“In addition to finding out those missing pieces and working on an addendum to our report that we’ve done over the last year, we want to start bringing the right people to the table to help us brainstorm and start bringing about change at the local level. We know that report findings are great, but it’s what do we do with that information next. We know we have community members, we have businesses, we have organizations right here in Kankakee and Iroquois counties that can help start making a change and bringing about that difference when it comes to our workforce, when it comes to our daycare centers, when it comes to meeting the needs of our families and our little ones.”

Gibson said Kankakee and Iroquois counties are different. “That’s one of the things we’ve really focused on and has been a personal mission for us is looking at the rural communities and how we know that we are experiencing childcare deserts. How we know that transportation is a huge barrier, and especially for our area as well as across the state, the increase in mental health that’s been going on.”

She said those who view the report will see five key findings and recommendations for each of those five findings. It is hoped that those will spark conversation and bring about local and state level change.

The three biggest needs, she said, are quality workforce, which includes recruitment and retainment of the workforce; mental health and wrap around services, which includes not only for the children, but the families, the educators and staff who support the children; and transportation. The other two findings are having more slots for children in daycare and preschool programs, and having a “one stop shop” for increased communication opportunities for families.

She said the transportation is not just public transportation, but also school district transportation and personal transportation. “We know not everybody has access to vehicles,” she said, noting that families have to travel as much as an hour away to get the services they need and getting to those appointments can be difficult because of transportation issues. It can be challenging for families with little ones who have to wait an extended time to get to those appointments.

She said the top three findings for Iroquois County look different than the top three findings for Kankakee County. She said they try to personalize the key findings to the specific areas.

Gibson said the next steps include identifying the voices and data that are missing from the report, sharing the data from the report with community, and also problem solve at the local level how local community members, organizations, businesses, and officials “can make a difference in some of the needs that we’re bringing in and highlighting based on our needs assessment.”

She said she has been making presentations in the Iroquois County area and some others are also coming up. On Aug. 28 an ECDA board meeting with Angel Crawford, elected officials, and child care providers and community members will allow those individuals to hear the information. Aug. 29 will be a virtual town hall, where anybody can scan the QR code to get the link to join. The local chapter of N.A.A.C.P will host a forum 11:30 a.m. Sept. 8 for families, caregivers and community givers. Sept. 21, Kankakee County States Attorney Jim Rowe will host an in person town hall from 10-11:30 a.m. that day at the Kankakee County Public Library.

She said there is also a QR code to give feedback as well. The group has a Facebook page “Birth to Give Illinois; Region 32” with all the flyers and updates and other information available. There is also a website www.birthtofiveil.com/region32/#report

She said the Facebook page has a lot of information.

The Birth to Five Region 32 Office is at Kankakee Community Center North Extension Center, 450 N. Kenzie, Bradley, which is where the action council meetings, family council meetings, and focus groups. She said KCC has also offered access to the Watseka campus for meetings, such as the Aug. 28 ECDA meeting.

There is a team of three people in each office. Gibson is the regional council member for Region 32. The family and community engagement specialist is Kennilyn Hickory. The admin support is Jessica Johnson. The three team members work together and network within the community.

Gibson said her hope is that people will share this information with their networks, organizations and anyone in their scope of influence. “We know that there are so many powerful people in our local communities and they have the strategies, the resources and hopefully the shared passion to bring about the change to make a difference in this obstacles we are faced with specifically to Kankakee and Iroquois counties.”

She said those who have ideas, funding and ways to begin problems solving, “we would love for the to reach out to our office and see how we can support that and connect with our state team for next steps,” she said.