IHSA Advisor
May, 2017
Donna Emmons
Associate Head Start State Collaboration Director
I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s
Day this month whether you celebrate it with
your own mom or with your children or with
family.
Anika Todd
The HS State Collaboration Director from DHS resigned her position as of March 31 and has
taken a job with DCFS. She formerly worked with DCFS. The job is being re-posted soon and
we hope to have someone hired this summer.
Early Childhood Block Grant Re-Competition Delayed until FY 2019
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has announced that a revised plan for the Early
Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) funding for FY 2018 is being put in place to allow predictability
and stability for currently funded grantees while also allowing for program expansion
opportunities. Due to delays in the release of the Requests for Proposals, the full re-competition
of the ECBG is being delayed until FY 2019, pending final Board approval. Currently funded
Preschool for All (PFA), Preschool for All Expansion (PFAE), and Prevention Initiative (PI)
grantees will receive continuation funding for FY 2018 and will complete continuation
applications. For FY 2018, there will be two RFPs, one for PFAE and one for PI, released in
May 2017 that will be open to new applicants and continuing programs. Awards for these
two RFPs will be based on additional funding being appropriated to the ECBG.
For the full re-competition for FY 2019, there will be three RFPs: 1) Preschool for All, 2)
Preschool for All Expansion, and 3) Prevention Initiative. The anticipated release date for these
RFPs is fall/winter 2017. Information will continue to be posted on the Early Childhood RFP
webpage.
There are currently RFP’s released for Child Find, Early Choices, Starnet, and Professional
Development for PFA. All are due in May 2017.
New Illinois EHS-Child Care Partnership (CCP) grantees
The new Illinois EHS-CCP and EHS Expansion grantees have just been awarded. Illinois has
two. They are the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago for 164 slots (new grantee for EHS-CCP)
and Chicago Commons with 72 expansion slots. Former grantees for EHS-CCP are the City of
Chicago, CCRR in Joliet, Proviso Leyden Council for Community Action in Maywood, and the
City of Rockford Human Services.
DCFS Encrypted Lists
Donna has made phone calls to Brady Cox who is the Information Technology person who was
working on the encrypted list of DCFS children in care. He said the program is up and running.
We just need to match files with programs. He is sending Donna some files to assist him in
matching programs with kids. Probably zip codes will be the solution. Keep tuned! We will get
this solved.
New Committee--The Committee on Early Childcare and Education (COECE) is a new
committee which was set up by the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
(ICAAP). They held their first meeting last month. The facilitator from the ICAAP offered the
following goals for the committee: Provide professional development opportunities for the
community; discuss proposed legislation and policy for early learning and care and provide
recommendations and feedback to ICAAP; share resources available to pediatricians and
families, etc. This group is just forming. If you are interested in being a part of the group, let
Donna know and she will get you the information. Their next meeting is July 19, 2017.
Toolkits
“Building Supportive Communities with Libraries, Museums and Early Childhood Systems.”
file:///C:/Users/IHSA/Documents/635978901213461933BuildIMLSToolkit.pdf
“Building Resilience in Young Children: a Guide for Parents”
http://www.beststart.org/resources/hlthy_chld_dev/pdf/BSRC_Resilience_English_fnl.pdf
“1-2-3 Care: a Trauma Sensitive Toolkit for Caregivers of Young Children”
http://srhd.org/documents/123Care/1-2-3%20Care%20Toolkit.pdf
Multi-Media on Resiliency
These three videos from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University provide an
overview of why resilience matters, how it develops, and how to strengthen it in children.
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-resilience-series/
Play this interactive game from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard Universtiy to
learn how the choices we make can help children, and the community as a whole, become more
resilient in the face of serious challenges.
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/resilience-game/