Mini Module 18: Kids Matter: Improving Outcomes for Children in Washington State 2005

A framework for building an early childhood system in Washington State
www.earlylearning.org/kidsmatter.html

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Kids Matter is a collaborative and comprehensive strategic framework for building the early childhood system in Washington State in order to improve outcomes for children. The current reality is that services, policies and systems that serve young children are inadequate to meet the needs of children and families. This plan offers a framework that supports the efforts of local and state stakeholders to coordinate, collaborate and integrate efforts that will lead to children being healthy and ready for school. This plan identifies specific achievable outcomes within four goal areas:

access to health insurance and medical homes;
mental health and social-emotional development;
early care and education/child care
parenting information and support.

Cutting across and integrated within each of these is a family support approach to achieving outcomes within the four goal areas.

Kids Matter was developed with the participation of early childhood stakeholders at the community, local and state levels. Three system-building initiatives, the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant in the Department of Health, the Build Initiative and the Head Start–State Collaboration Office, are committed to supporting and guiding its implementation, so that it becomes a living, active plan in Washington State. Kids Matter belongs to all interested stakeholder groups and organizations who believe that working collaboratively toward common goals and outcomes will lead to greater success than is possible by working alone. It is intended to guide the actions of public and private stakeholders at the community, local and state levels.

HALLMARKS OF THE PLAN

• Approaches early childhood systems as a collaborative effort
• Serves as an over-arching bridge for a comprehensive and integrated framework
• Defines common goals and outcomes
• utlines specific strategies and partners
• Focuses on accountability and evaluation of progress

INTENTIONS OF THE PLAN
Rather than being a detailed list of all work on behalf of young children, The Plan assumes that state and local agencies and communities are pursuing their specific missions and priority goals. The plan builds upon existing and emerging efforts and identifies opportunities for working together in more strategic, integrated and collaborative ways toward commonly-agreed upon outcomes.

By offering a common vision, opportunity for integration, defined high priority common outcomes and a way to assess progress, partners in early childhood efforts can collectively change the health, well-being and school readiness of children in Washington State.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Rather than a specific program or service, Family Support describes an overall approach to strengthening and empowering families and communities to foster the optimal development of all family members. Ideally, Family Support principles and approaches would guide every aspect of service provision and decision-making in an early childhood system. Therefore, aspects of Family Support appear as resources such as the guiding principals, communications with parents and parent leadership, in strategies like those that increase practitioner’s family support skills or increase families’ access to needed resources as well as in outcomes that demonstrate the belief that a system which supports and strengthens the knowledge, skills and resources of families is a system that promotes the optimal development of young children.

MISSION
The Kids Matter Plan focuses efforts to create sustainable, integrated and accessible early childhood pathways so that parents, caregivers and communities throughout Washington State have the information, support and services they need to help young children achieve their greatest potential.

KIDS MATTER WAS DEVELOPED UNDER THE FOLLOWING TENETS:

• Joint systems-building efforts built upon existing work
• Cross-system state agency participation
• Participatory community input from a broad constituency to prioritize and intentionally rank outcomes

SO THAT as a state we could develop a framework (i.e., Kids Matter) with prioritized outcomes for systems serving children and families.

EARLY LEARNING OCCURS IN THE CONTEXT OF FAMILY AND COMMUNITY, ENCOMPASSING:

• Physical Health and Access to Comprehensive
• Health Care
• Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health
• Early Care and Education/ Child Care
• Parenting Information and Support

SYSTEM STRENGTHS AND GAPS
Strengths in the system include:

• Progress in increasing access to health care and medical homes for children and families
• Powerful resources and promising local initiatives addressing mental health and social/emotional development
• Washington Early Learning and Development Benchmarks
• The movement toward linkages between early childhood education and K-12
• The Early Learning Council
• Numerous local agendas around school readiness
• Commitment to the concepts of Family Support and programs devoted to or significantly incorporating Family Support

Now take this short true/false quiz on the material you just read:

Thoughts on what you've just read? Go to our discussion board now.