Page 72 - Creating a Community of Resiliency

Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions
The main purpose of both the 2011 pilot project and the Creating a Community of Resiliency project is to strengthen the preparation for and response to public health emergencies. The specific target is the R&R agencies and the child care provider community in Los Angeles County. A great deal of information has been synthesized in the Creating a Community of Resiliency project that can be immediately applied— and in some cases already has been. In determining the current requirements for emergency preparedness, this project has been able to provide greater clarity to early childhood educators regarding regulatory statute. This information was incorporated into the training toolkit that is available to R&R agencies for training workshops. By considering the feedback from the early care educators in their own languages, CCRC was able to ensure the information in the toolkit was presented in a way that is relevant to them.
The Creating a Community of Resiliency project led to the understanding that early childhood educators have important feedback regarding information and supplies. Information should be in their native language, in simple language (without jargon), in a format that is easily accessible (DVD is preferred), and relevant to their circumstances. Center-based and family child care homes have different needs. Centers, for example, can more easily store larger kits than can a family child care home. Including the population of interest in designing materials and supplies is vital to ensuring its success and use.
The importance of gathering community agencies became apparent during the project. In the focus group with the R&R agencies (prior to the working sessions with Save the Children), there was a general awareness that more information is needed to help R&R agencies support the child care community in emergency preparation, response, and recovery. After the working sessions, the R&R agencies learned more about many ways to support the child care community. However, after three sessions, there were still gaps in knowledge and an uncertainty as to how to begin—how to create an early care and education emergency response collaboration in each R&R service area. This highlights the importance of on-going meetings rather than a one-time series that needs to be refreshed and built upon. Not only do early childhood educators need to keep their information alive, current, and relevant; R&R agencies need to do so as well.
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