Child Care Aware of Missouri

Referral, Resources and Training - Families received referrals to child care programs through email, online searches, and/or by phone. Online chat connects families with a resource specialist for additional assistance when they are online. Consumer educational materials are provided and include information to help families identify types of child care, indicators of quality care, and questions to ask when they call and visit child care programs. Child care providers received support and technical assistance with business questions, program updates, and links to other resources to support high-quality early childhood education. CCAMO also educates employers, economic development partners, and community leaders about strategies for building child care supply in their communities. (continued on Sch O)Professional development for the early learning workforce is delivered across the state at no cost to participants. Training is delivered by CCAMO Training Partners via online in real time formats. Child care educators have access to quality professional development covering a multitude of topics, such as social and emotional development in young children, basic knowledge curricula for infants, toddlers and preschoolers and developmentally appropriate supervision of young children.CCAMO maintains and develops the Missouri Workshop Calendar for early childhood and youth development professionals, which is an integral part of the Missouri professional development system for early childhood and youth educators. The Calendar is the online portal for State approval of training for clock hours toward child care licensure and session scheduling and entering attendance by trainers. All attendance data is shared with the Missouri Professional Development Registry and available for participant review.

Wellness Projects - Emotional Foundations for Early Learning Plus (EFFEC+) is an early learning collaborative designed to assist child care educators increase their understanding and application of social and emotional development in young children. Through training and technical assistance, educators create action plans and goals to implement in the classroom. Child care educators examine their own practices and create changes to help young children strengthen their emotional intelligence and resilience. EFFEC+ fosters a classroom environment where children can express their stress in healthy ways, while strengthening their ability to cope and self-manage emotions. Child Care Aware of Missouri (CCAMO) served 81 child care educators in the Kansas City area through a grant from the Kauffman Foundation from 2020 - 2022.Go NAPSACC is a technical assistance project funded by the Department of Health and Senior Services. The project works with child care programs to enhance the health of young children through practices, policies, and environments that instill habits supporting lifelong health and well-being. Learning modules cover key topics such as healthy eating, physical activity, and oral health for young children. CCAMO worked with 25 licensed or licensed-exempt child care centers, group homes and family child care programs.

Scholarships - The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Missouri Scholarship Program provides scholarships to child care educators seeking to further their early childhood education through credentials, certificates, and college degrees. The goal of T.E.A.C.H. MISSOURI is to increase the quality of child care delivered by educating and empowering child care educators. This is the only national scholarship designed to serve child care professionals who work full time and are part time college students. T.E.A.C.H. MISSOURI works with the scholarship recipient and sponsoring employer to support annual college credit hours and makes available a Scholarship Counselor to assist in navigating the higher education process. The scholarship enables the child care workforce to increase compensation and retention through education. Success is measured by completion of education, an increase in annual wages, and increased retention in sponsoring child care programs. In FY2021-2022, T.E.A.C.H. MISSOURI supported 318 scholarship recipients in earning more than 1,500 college credit hours at Missouri colleges and universities while increasing their wages an average of 15% and retaining 95% in child care.The Child Care Aware of Missouri CDA Scholarship Project assists child care educators in earning their National Child Development Credential (CDA) at no cost. Child care educators in licensed, license-exempt, and Six or Fewer child care programs are eligible for this scholarship. Whether earning a CDA through training clock hours or college credit hours in early childhood education, this unique project is designed to support a participant through the entire CDA process of educational hours, portfolio creation, application, verification visit and testing, and credential attainment. Upon earning the National CDA Credential, the participant is awarded a completion bonus. The CDA Scholarship Project increases the quality of child care provided through education, compensation, and retention of child care educators. In 2021-2022, the CDA Scholarship Project has assisted more than 390 child care educators as they earn their national credential over an 18-month process.

Show Me Business and Leadership Services - A newer business line for Child Care Aware of Missouri, Show Me Business and Leadership Services, is broadening the lens of leadership development and strengthening business operations through training and technical assistance to Missouri businesses and community leaders both within early childhood education and other industries.Products and services include:- Show Me Child Care Resources - A membership resource website designed to assist child care professionals. Forms, templates, and resources focused on early childhood are available to members. These are focused resources and discounts that are child care specific to assist programs in saving time and money.- Live2Lead - A leadership development event licensed through The John Maxwell Enterprise. Public and private personal growth events are delivered using a recorded version of the live Live2Lead event. A certified coach replays the content and engages the audience to maximize learning. Missouri child care clock hours, SHRM hours, and CEU's can be earned by attending this series.- Consulting and Technical Assistance - For child care grants and business operations as well as consulting at a state/national level to strengthen the voice of child care in discussion. Depending on the partner and contract, CCAMO has delivered this type of technical assistance or been involved in a variety of planning groups. One type, grant technical assistance, were group sessions to help child care businesses apply for the state/federal funds that were available. More than 200 child care businesses applied and were awarded more than $10 million.