Child Care Aware of Minnesota

Child Care system support:provide leadership and influence across the Child Care Aware system. Focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism (dei-ar) issues within the Child Care Aware of Minnesota system and beyond:o we continue to meet quarterly with district and regional leadership to clarify roles and develop a shared vision. O we supported each district and region in developing and implementing an equity plan, which received financial support from dcyf. O the anti-racism workgroup at the ccaomn coordinating office (co) met twice a month to identify challenges that continue racism in the coordinating office and the system and to take action to address those challenges. They led a conflict engagement effort with the co staff, which included the development of a conflict engagement toolkit and a two-day training. Convened function-specific field staff and overall coordination/leadership staff to support and guide project work and provide updates and support as needed. Led a system-wide strategies work for shared strategic vision and strategies across all program areas. Led a system-wide advocacy Network, which convenes quarterly to learn, educate, and share advocacy initiatives for early childhood issues statewide.coordinate and deliver a system of early childhood education professional development continued to serve as the primary delivery system to deliver Child Care Aware training from both Child Care Aware staff and contracted trainers. O collectively (with our local agency partners), we delivered 829 training events with 48,084 attendees. Each attendee may have attended multiple training events and may be included more than once in the attendee number. Provide advising in cda to 400 educators support the workforce and re-launch mncda program.coordinate implementation of the parent Aware (pa) quality rating and improvement program we work with 21 coach champions to ensure broad support for the 59 parent Aware quality coaches and to gain insight into the resources and support those coaches need. This past year, we expanded on the support given to our bilingual coaches. In september, the quality improvement team facilitated a community of practice that focused on key areas essential for early education. The sessions included discussions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (dei), refreshers on the knowledge and competency frameworks (kcfs), and provided quality coaching. This initiative aimed to enhance educators' skills and promote inclusive practices within the community. Our staff participated in various workgroups as part of the state's ongoing parent Aware redesign effort. Provide all families with the resources and support they need to make an informed Child Care choice. The Child Care information services (ccis) team completed 330 referrals this past fiscal year, 1,538 additional calls (over 10,000 minutes of call time), and 370 online chats covering various topics and requests for assistance. The use of our parent Aware marketing material increased substantially this past year, with double the number of print orders and a 15% increase in visits to the website to over 135,000 visits. 10,000 views, 2,000+ downloads of the guide, 5,600 brochures distributed, and 63,000 completed searches on parentaware.org outreach efforts have continued to grow. Presentations, specifically at the avivo Resource fair, yielded many successful connections and information sharing. Provide technical assistance and other support to the Child Care sector. Child Care Aware of Minnesota once again provided technical assistance for the great start compensation support payment program (gscspp). We started a new gscspp ta contract in january 2025. Supported individuals in joining the early childhood workforce. Empower to educate is a workforce recruitment program launched on july 21, 2022. The program provides early childhood workforce advising and relationship-based professional development, wraparound services and support, job skills training and job placement support, two program stipends, a mentorship program, data and program evaluation, and marketing and outreach. 16 workforce advisors statewide have served 866 participants since the program began. 649 empower to educate stipends given in fy 25 the empower to educate program continued a mentorship program to provide further guidance and support for its participants. The mentors received mentorship training and stipends for their time and expertise as part of this program. Supported early educators to navigate existing processes to establish, sustain, and expand licensed Child Care programs. Child Care wayfinder assistance Network is a capacity-building program designed to increase family access to Child Care by maintaining or increasing the number of licensed spaces for children by supporting early educators to navigate existing processes to establish, sustain, and expand licensed Child Care programs. Wayfinder has 33 Child Care startup and retention navigators who have worked with 1,404 potential and currently licensed early Child Care programs. Our team supports the navigators with training, program management, and process improvement. A vital aspect of the wayfinder program is the strength of partnerships with community organizations. These key partnerships have built our organizational capacity to serve diverse communities more effectively.

Eager-to-learn: eager-to-learn (etl) is an innovative, community-based e-learning program. Its online courses are designed to provide quality, accessible educational opportunities for people who Care for children. A leader in the field, eager-to-learn is built upon several decades of research supporting the effectiveness and universal reach of the online learning model. Trained professionals offer courses covering various topics on children from birth to age 12.

Direct financial supports: high-quality Child Care requires substantial investments in certification, education, and retention of early educators. Our scholarship and grant programs focus on retaining early childhood educators and supporting their professional development. Our financial supports team has recently begun using a new salesforce data system. -t.e.a.c.h. Early childhood Minnesota (t.e.a.c.h.) Is a scholarship program that helps early childhood and school-age educators increase their levels of education, compensation, and commitment to the field by earning college credits and degrees. -awarded 220 teach scholarships of these, 81 (36%) self-identified as bipoc, and 95 (43%) of teach recipients are considered rural. -recipients completed an average of 14-17 credits per contract. -recipients in Minnesota completed more than 2,551 credit hours. -our teach team piloted an apprenticeship program in partnership with the teach national office. This program supports apprentices with employment, on-the-job training, college coursework, individualized mentoring, and additional support in earning industry-recognized credentials and degrees and applying early childhood best practices in their programs. The teach apprenticeship program engaged 30 apprentices who worked with 22 mentors in fy25. A proposal to implement a corresponding family Child Care apprenticeship is awaiting final approval.-reetain bonuses help supplement income for early childhood educators who have attained a certificate or higher education degree as they work to establish a career in the field. Reetain bonuses can be used for program supplies, training, or personal expenses. We awarded 934 early childhood educators reetain grants, totaling $1,837,000.-cda awards help early educators pay for the required training, application, and renewal of the nationally recognized Child development associate credential (cda). Applications are accepted at any time. Awards are distributed quarterly. We awarded cda training, assessment or renewal scholarships, and professional development specialist stipends to 77 early childhood educators.-foreign credential evaluation scholarships are used to evaluate recipients' foreign early childhood credentials. -we awarded these scholarships to 16 recipients, the most we have awarded in one year. One of five partners completes the evaluations and helps recipients identify and increase their career lattice steps within the pd system.

Parent Aware rating:the coordinating office receives funding through a separate contract with the Minnesota department of children, youth & families (dcyf) to manage the parent Aware rating team that provides final review and scoring for the quality documentation portfolios submitted by early educators pursuing a star rating. This work includes rigorous processes to ensure reliability and consistency in scoring. This team reviews and recommends star rating levels to the Minnesota department of human services for all parent Aware applicants, including those pursuing a full rating, an accelerated rating, or an expedited rating. The ratings team has also been providing input for the upcoming one-star rating changes and has continued to collaborate with parent Aware for standards and indicator updates and the parent Aware redesign.

Other projects:sheltering arms foundation grantthis grant funds a lobbying contract for the work of "transforming Minnesota's early childhood workforce birth through eight." Child Care Aware of Minnesota serves as the pass-through entity for payment. The work includes increasing access to ongoing professional development and degree attainment opportunities for the early childhood workforce and strategies for increasing compensation.the Child Care advocates ready to emerge (Care) fellowshipthis funding from the hopkins early learning center (as part of their dissolution as a nonprofit) was earmarked for the continuation of the Care fellowship. An mou was signed to direct the use of the funding. A budget was created to extend this initial funding across 2021-2025. The Care fellowship brings together a diverse group of enthusiastic and curious participants to improve their advocacy knowledge and skills. This project is a collaborative effort across multiple organizations, with Child Care Aware serving as the fiscal host.naeyc grant this grant includes pass-through funds to mnaeyc for outreach and promotion of the unifying framework and support for the policy work of transforming Minnesota's ece workforce policy development. Minnesota department of labor and industrythis includes funding to supplement the outreach and mentorship work for the t.ea.c.h. Apprenticeship program and to support development of a licensed family Child Care apprenticeship model.