By Kelly Causey and Katie Creedon
Life during the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for meaningful connections – to each other, to community resources, and to the institutions that will help us weather this storm. For young children and their families, these connections are especially vital.
That’s because babies and young children are also experiencing another type of connection: The first five years are the period of the most sensitive brain development, with more than 1 million new neural connections formed every second during the first few years. It’s no wonder that the experiences and relationships a child has during the early years often leave an indelible mark.
To support their children, parents and families need support – and connection – with a variety of systems including early child care, health care, mental health, and others. Yet many families struggle to navigate and access the services they need under normal circumstances. Now, as child care and other early childhood programs struggle with the financial fallout from the pandemic, these delicate connections could be severed by program reductions and closures, and thinning resources.
This will have a real and negative impact on Colorado families who rely on child care, mental health, developmental support, and other distinct but overlapping systems.
How do we weather the current crises and prolonged period of limited resources without jeopardizing critical support for Colorado children and their families? Colorado’s Early Childhood Councils are a big part of the answer.
Colorado’s 34 Early Childhood Councils facilitate the sharing of services, funding and knowledge in the communities they serve. Many of them have been working in local communities for over two decades, aligning and coordinating local early childhood efforts and resources to meet families’ needs.
Early Childhood Councils are not usually the entities providing services directly to families. Instead, Councils coordinate services and funding across dozens of local partners and providers and act as local super connectors. Early Childhood Councils connect disparate systems to maximize taxpayer dollars and ensure families get the support they need.
Colorado’s geographic and cultural diversity requires a mix of state and local systems. Early Childhood Councils work across public systems and serve as the intermediary between children, families, and providers, playing an important role in facilitating the local conversation and solving problems at the community level.
A new report, produced with support from the Buell Foundation, a statewide leader in supporting early childhood development and education, highlights the impact of Colorado’s Early Childhood Councils. It also sheds light on how Councils can be tapped to help our communities overcome daunting new challenges brought on by COVID-19.
For child care in particular, Early Childhood Councils are an essential lifeline as so many providers struggle to stay afloat. Since the onset of the pandemic, Councils have worked to connect local providers with emergency supplies; help child care businesses to apply for available stimulus funds; and counsel program directors on safe reopening and operations.
As the academic year continues, many Councils are helping school district leaders assess families’ needs which may have changed or increased during the pandemic; inventory the community resources available; and plan a response with available resources to better support local families. Councils are well-positioned for this response because their community investment has led to partnerships that span every sector. State and local leaders are able to use Councils as an invaluable source of local information and implementation support.
Despite the hard work of our state leaders and careful allocation of federal stimulus funds last summer, Colorado needs additional resources to shore up the vital systems and programs that support families with young children, including child care, home visitation, mental health care, nutrition and basic needs. These systems have never been more important to families’ well-being than during the pandemic, yet budget cuts and declining revenue forecasts may threaten access for Colorado’s youngest children.
Next month, as the state legislative session begins on January 13 in Denver, and a new administration takes over in Washington, D.C., there is certainly hope that additional needed resources may become available.
In the meantime, Early Childhood Councils are the super connectors in local communities that ensure the resilience of local systems – even in times of limited resources – and alignment with families’ changing needs. By investing in Early Childhood Councils and the local partnerships that they have built and sustained, we can help Colorado families get through this challenging time.
Kelly Causey is the President and CEO and Katie Creedon is the It’s About Kids Network Manager for the Colorado Children’s Campaign.