Page 13 - Creating a Community of Resiliency

Training Workshops
CCRC held 11 training workshops across 99 ZIP codes in one month for 250 early care and education providers. The training toolkit was designed based on the review of available toolkits as well as expertise from the R&R agencies and from the Staff Analyst at the Department of Public Health. Most of the attendees were family child care providers (59.6%), while 11.6% were license-exempt staff, 4.0% were center-based providers, and 2.8% were R&R agency staff. Most were Hispanic/Latino (53.9%), 15.4% were African American, 5.7% were Asian American, and 4.8% were White/Caucasian. Many (43.9%) spoke Spanish and 32.5% spoke English; the remaining reported other languages or did not specify. Most (91.2% or more) reported an increase in knowledge in 10 areas related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. When asked what they plan to do based on what they learned, providers’ most common responses were to obtain supplies, begin to connect/collaborate with others, update parent/child information, practice drills, and create an emergency plan and/or a reunification plan. Some of the suggestions to improve the training were to hold more training workshops, schedule more time for the training workshops, and include more videos/activities in the training workshops.
R&R Agency Staff Working Sessions
Working sessions convened by Save the Children provided R&R agency staff an opportunity to flesh out of many general discussions that had occurred almost a year prior in the R&R focus group. For example, an increase in R&R agency staff knowledge was found in the areas of preparedness, response, and recovery. Knowledge of available partners also grew between the focus group and the working sessions. Areas for further development include how to begin collaborations, convening of partners, or emergency preparedness advisory groups and how to advocate for child safety during an emergency. Some challenges cited by the R&R agencies include constraints on staff time, resources (including funding), provider language, helping providers put all of this into practice (not just learning it), and agency policies around sharing information (particularly provider information).
Conclusions and Recommendations
The Creating a Community of Resiliency project established that early childhood educators have important feedback regarding information and supplies and that it is important to bring together community agencies. More information is needed to help R&R agencies support the child care community in emergency preparation, response, and recovery. The project highlighted the importance of on-going meetings for both R&R agencies and individual providers. Based on the results of the Creating a Community of Resiliency project, CCRC recommends the following:
Executive Summary
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