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Connections
Building Connections: A Cross-State Topical
Meeting
The Build Initiative and the Smart Start
National Technical Assistance Center are co-sponsoring a meeting
called Building Connections on June 27-29, 2006 in Minneapolis.
The meeting will focus on the valuable role that communities
can play in building and managing an early childhood system
and the respective roles and relationships between state and
community planning and governance structures. State teams
will share lessons learned about building structures and relationships
at the state and community levels that contribute to system
building. Topics will include:
Community Assessment. What resources are available
at the local level? What gaps exist? What tools exist for
conducting an assessment?
Flexibility. How can system design promote community
opportunities to develop programs and systems that best fit
the needs and realities of families?
Diversity and Cultural Congruence. How can community
planning and governance help ensure that effective learning
systems are created that respect the many different cultures
and ethnicities of families and children in each community?
Collaboration. What role can community leaders play
in promoting and implementing cross-sector collaboration?
Voluntary Support Networks. What kinds of voluntary
support networks are critical to young children and families
and how can they be engaged in building ready communities?
Community-level Infrastructure. Volunteers cannot do
it all. How can you build and fund the infrastructure necessary
to make the collaboration and system-building efforts successful?
Measuring Success. When and how should communities
set performance goals?
State Policy. How can state-level policies and mechanisms
support or thwart community-level early childhood system building?
What mechanisms can be put in place so that community guidance
can be provide to the state on how to effectively manage resources
and ensure quality?
Public Awareness. How can you enhance local awareness
of the importance of early learning, foster community energy,
and change the early learning culture?
Advocacy. What is the role of community leaders in
promoting state-level reforms and increased investments?
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