THE CHILD CARE ACTION COUNCIL OF THURSTON COUNTY

GOAL 1: Increase accessibility of services and resources available to families.
GOAL 2: Promote a skilled early learning educator workforce through coaching, training, and other
professional development opportunities.
GOAL 3: Maintain and expand collaboration with early learning partners and community organizations.
GOAL 4: Achieve long-term organization and financial vitality.
GOAL 5: Advocate to influence state and local policies and funding, educate the community at large, and
serve as a voice for those that CCAC represents.

Strategy 1A: Reach out to parents and families with innovative ways of connecting them to quality child care, especially underserved populations, including non-English speakers.

Strategy 1B: Help families keep their children safe by promoting child health, safety and prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Strategy 1C: Provide early learning opportunities for families and children to encourage school readiness.

Strategy 1D: Develop and regularly update a comprehensive Family Engagement Plan (with Board approval).

Strategy 2A: Align all professional development and consultation efforts with statewide quality improvement policy and practice initiatives.

Strategy 2B: Develop professional development infrastructure region wide.

Strategy 2C: Offer high quality professional development programs to help providers understand child development and offer safe, enriched learning environments.

Strategy 2D: Provide on-site consultation services as needed and funding allows.

Strategy 2E: Create additional networking opportunities among providers for mentoring and support.

Strategy 2F: Develop and regularly update a comprehensive Professional Development Plan (with Board approval).

Strategy 3A: Maintain strong Board capacity and functions.

Strategy 3B: Resource Development – Diversify and strengthen funding base to assure the long-term sustainability of Child Care Action Council.

Strategy 3C: Develop agency infrastructure throughout six-county region.

Strategy 3D: Strengthen CCAC's data capacity to support service planning, evaluation, and advocacy.

Strategy 4A: Lead and participate in advocacy activities.

Strategy 4B: Maintain current community partnerships and look for additional collaborative opportunities to optimize services and sustain funding.

Strategy 4C: Establish mutual partnerships with local businesses and community leaders.

Strategy 4D: Collaborate with Child Care Aware Washington (state network) to develop and regularly update a comprehensive Annual Advocacy Plan (with Board approval).

Help families keep children safe by promoting child health, safety and prevention of child abuse and
neglect:
-Provide access to crisis child care with regional phone line and contracts with child care facilities for
emergency child care
-Ensure kids are safe by providing Safe Kids information at local fairs and during provider classes;
expanding partnerships and funding opportunitiesProvide early learning opportunities for families and children to support school readiness:
-Early literacy training to parents and providers including rotation home of books and book bags through
Raising a Reader
-Events to connect parents with child care and early learning services, tailoring outreach to under-served
and diverse populations
-Offer parent education and support opportunities by offering Play and Learn groups to promote early
childhood development and stimulating care environments among Family, Friends, and Neighbor caregivers
-Partnering with agencies and coalitions to plan and implement activities promoting early learning,
parent education, and support

Diversify and strengthen funding base to assure the long-term sustainability of CCAC:
-Improve donor cultivation and stewardship
-Develop a strategy for identifying and engaging potential, especially young, donors, improve our social
network capacity
-Solicit and increase contributions from Board and staff
-Foster community building to promote awareness and fund development
-Participate in United Way and Combined Fund Drive campaigns throughout service area
-Seek private and corporate foundation grants to support current programs and enable expansion
-Increase use of social media for messaging
-Engage donors through website

Play & Learn year-end survey, participants reported increased frequency of positive behaviorial
interaction with children as a result of things they learned, including:

-understanding what to expect from children at different ages
-noticing times they could help the child in their care throughout the day
-understanding the relationships between play and school readiness and their role as caregiver in helping
-children be ready for kindergarten
-talking about numbers, shapes and sizes with children

Raising a Reader:

Thirty percent of participating families completed a questionnaire about their literacy activities at home
at the end of the program year:
-89% reported a great likelihood of having a reading routine at home
-Parents also reported their children read more often (87%) and read longer (91%)
-84% of parents indicated they were a little or a lot more interested in reading with their child
-68% of parents said their children asked questions about the books they are reading

Early Educator Training:

-Between 89% to 100% of feedback surveys agreed or strongly agreed: that they had increased their
knowledge and/or skills as a result of attending the workshop; and that they could think of ways to enhance
their work with children and families as a result of attending the workshop
-90% to 100% agreed or strongly agreed that they could apply the information they learned to the
diversity of families they serve

Early Achievers - Quality Improvement:

-74% of providers in the region enrolled
-1476 trainings completed
-93 out of 94 rated level 3 or better (the standard of quality)