Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads

Filing Period

Oct 1, 2009 to Sep 30, 2010

Signed

Jan 10, 2011

Return Version

2009v1.4

Gross Receipts

$234,742

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Community Planning and Support:Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads is funding four initiatives to help children in South Hampton Roads arrive at school prepared for success. These initiatives will help communities implement their Collaborative Action Plans, improve the quality of early education in 78 child care centers and 10 family child care homes and link families of newborn children to needed services. The Batten Educational Fund of The Hampton Roads Community Foundation and The Hampton Roads Community Foundation's unrestricted funds will provide support for the following initiatives: Early Education Quality Improvement Initiative - Local data and national research indicates that higher quality child care results in greater school readiness. Virginia's Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS), a market-based solution providing clear information to consumers about the quality of available care is an important part of this initiative. Participating centers and family child care homes can access scholarships for staff to complete credentials or degrees, training to improve teacher quality, mentorship for quality improvement, early learning materials, curriculum and facility upgrades. A program and child outcomes evaluation is being conducted by the University of Virginia's Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) to identify what investments make the greatest impact on overall program quality and children's readiness for success in school and inform the implementation of QRIS statewide. 2010 accomplishments include: - 78 centers participating in the Quality Rating Improvement System, impacting over 8,000 children. - 6 four-star rated programs in South Hampton Roads, the highest Star Rating level in the state to date. - Improved program Star Ratings after mentorship and improvements on average from 2.2 to 3.8 on the Star Rating scale. - Built demand and interest in the QRIS steadily over the past 3 years, with more than 30% of the childcare centers in our region having applied for participation. - 20 additional centers have applied and are on a waitlist for participation. - Provided early childhood teacher scholarships to 156 early education teachers. Early Learning Challenge Grants - The five communities of South Hampton Roads developed collaborative action plans to ensure that all children arrive at school prepared for success. Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads offered the opportunity for each community to apply for $500,000 to address their unique challenges and to incubate the innovative solutions mapped out in their action plans. Grants will be awarded over a five-year period and will require an increasing local match investment. To date: - Four out of five communities are formulating proposals, developing outcomes and forming Early Learning Policy Boards for the first year of the five-year grant cycle. - Technical assistance will be provided to each community in organizing high-level policy boards, improving their early childhood systems and supporting and sustaining the goals and objectives in their action plans.- Cities will begin working on Year 2 proposals in September 2010. Newborn and Family Screening and Referral - Each community's plan identified the importance of reaching parents at the time of their child's birth with information, resources and referrals to services. Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads is leading a regional effort to develop a single newborn and family screening and referral service to ensure that each family with a newborn baby has access to the services they need. In 2009, SBSHR entered into a contract with EVMS (Eastern Virginia Medical School) and CINCH (Consortium for Infant and Child Health) to analyze local data, make recommendations for moving forward and research policy implications for such a regional system of initial contact, screening, referral and follow-up for every family with a new baby in South Hampton Roads. 2010 Accomplishments include: - Conducte

Activity 3

*See Schedule O for Program Milestones*

Filer

EIN

20-4308794