The Avoyelles Parish Early Childhood Network is a partnership between all local early childhood education providers including childcare centers, head start centers, and public Pre-K providers. All partners are equally dedicated to the education and development of all children. The Avoyelles Parish Network has made great strides over the past two years to come together and build collaborative relationships in order to ensure that we are reaching the most vulnerable, at risk children in our community and that these children enter school prepared for success.
Since it’s establishment in 2015, the Avoyelles Parish Network has steadliy increased the quality of early childhood programs in the community. From the 2015-16 school year to the 2018-19 both our toddler and Pre-K classrooms have demonstrated continuous quality improvement, with site scores steadliy improving in each level of Louisiana’s early childhood classroom assessment tool. For the first time in the existance of the Network, we had a site score in the excellent range of the assessment tool. We are very proud of this accomplishment and all of the hard work it took to achieve this. Our intense one on one coaching, curriculum resources, developmentally appropriate classroom materials and continued professioanl development throughout this region, has been the driving force in our ability to provide high-quality learning environments for the children that we serve. With continued supports and resources, we are hoping that more of our sites accomplish this goal.
Although we are very proud of the work that has been done and the success that we have had in the past few years, we know that there are many at risk children who are not being served in our community. In Avoyelles Parish there are over 1200 at risk children that are not being served in the birth to five population. Families in our community who cannot afford high quality early childcare are falling through the cracks. The Avoyelles Parish Early Childhood Community Network wants to close these gaps. This is a monumental task that will require the cooperation of all network partners. In order for us to bridge these gaps we need to identify the families not being served and expand our outreach.
Guiding Statements
Vision:
All children served by the Avoyelles Parish Early Childhood Community Network will enter Kindergarten with all the tools necessary to be sucessful from the beginning of their educational journey.
Mission:
The Avoyelles Parish Early Childhood Community Network will work to achieve greater success by continuing to improve the quality of early childcare in our parish as well as establishing a plan that will streghthen our outreach in the community to those at risk families seeking high quality childcare who are not currently being served.
In order to help us achieve the afore mentioned mission, we have set the following goals—
- Increase access to high quality early childhood education
Strategies to accomplish this goal:
More thoroughly assess the current number of available slots in the early childhood programs in the parish to determine the capacity in which we are able to sustain the need. Develop a plan to increase the number of birth to three year old seats through the B-3 grant opportunity. Research the capacity of each provider in the network to maximize the seats requested by the network across all age groups. - Increase community outreach to help bridge the gap in services
Strategies to accomplish this goal:
Create an outreach committee within the network to help identify the unserved, at risk children in each of their communitees. Develop a plan for engaging local businesses throughout the parish who work with the at risk families in other capacities. Build on their relationships with these families to understand their needs and to help educate them on the services provided in our parish. - Increase the quality of education in the classroom by working to obtain and retain high-quality early childhood educators
Strategies to accomplish this goal: Develop a plan to recognize as well as provide incentives to high-performing teachers in the community Provide high quality continuing education opportunities by gathering ongoing feedback from high-performing teachers regarding their needs for supports
- Create a comprehensive electronic coordinated enrollment application. This one tool will be used to register for any and all early childhood programs in the parish
Strategies to accomplish this goal: Continue working with the website developer to create an entirely electronic coordinated enrollment process Create a more user friendly application that provides all of the necessary information and resources to families when applying/registering for early childhood programs in the parish
Apply filters that will route the applications to the programs in the order in which they were chosen by the family
- Develop a marketing strategy to increase community awareness and support
Strategies to accomplish this goal: Create a committee through the Avoyelles Parish Early Childhood Network to head a marketing campaign in our community to increase the knowledge of the importance of high quality early childhood education and the resources available in the parish Increase advertising in the community to promote engagement and support from local businesses