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Rebecca Berg, MA OTR/L

Rebecca's passion for understanding social, emotional, and cognitive development first emerged in the field of education, with students ranging from preschool and early elementary special education to undergraduate theatre students. Since earning her master's degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2008, Rebecca has continued to nurture this passion through training and mentorship in sensory processing and infant mental health, including certification in the DIR-FCD Model through Profectum and Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) model.

Rebecca's professional home is Cooper House, an infant mental health clinic in Seattle, where occupational therapists and mental health therapists work in close collaboration and transdisciplinary practice to serve children 0-5 and their families. Her clinical work is characterized by a deep understanding of a child's developmental capacities and close partnership with caregivers to understand the many moving parts of development within the caregiver/child relationship, their family system, and the community in which they live.

In additional to her clinical work, Rebecca is drawn to individual and organization-level advocacy for trauma-informed, developmentally minded, relationship-based practices. She is a writer and has been an active member of several professional groups and committees, including Profectum's Communication and Engagement Committee and WA State's TIC Legislative Advisory Board.

Rebecca continues to enjoy teaching; in recent years, she has taught occupational therapy students at Lake Washington Institute of Technology, presented for WOTA state conferences and Profectum' national conferences and training program, and presents locally on topics related to the development of play and relationship-based, developmentally minded work for parents, early childhood educators, and other professionals.

Marian Birch is a retired clinical psychologist and infant mental health specialist who lives in Port Angeles, WA. She received a Doctorate in Mental Health from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco in 1983. Her teachers included Erik Erikson and Mary Main. Dr. Birch spent several years as a post-graduate trainee at the Infant-Parent Program founded by Selma Fraiberg at UCSF. Her supervisors there included Jeree Pawl and Alicia Lieberman. Dr. Birch practiced for 12 years in San Francisco, where she taught and supervised in numerous clinical training schemes. Dr. Birch also served as the Clinical Director of the IMH Certificate Program at the UW School of nursing from 2001-2004. From there she has engaged in a variety of projects to support families with young children including developing a dyadic intervention called BabyLink and intensive home-visiting program called the CARE Project. Since her retirement, she has learned to play the harp, studied Chinese, and done lots of kayaking, snowshoeing, gardening, yoga and cooking in the home she and her husband built in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains.

Abigail Bocanegra, MA, LMFT, Mental Health Consultant

Bio to come.

Gloria Castro, PsyD

Gloria Castro is a clinical psychologist and Certified Sexual Assault Counselor. Dr. Castro was granted the Fraiberg-Harris Fellowship to complete her postdoctoral training at the Infant-Parent Program, UCSF. Dr. Castro's clinical work has focused on infant mental health and mental health daycare consultation. She has experience conducting comprehensive psychological assessments and developmental neuropsychological assessments for children ranging in age from infancy to adolescence. Dr. Castro is currently working at Child Trauma Research Program on the implementation of Child-parent Psychotherapy during pregnancy and the perinatal period. Dr. Castro provides psychotherapy to pregnant women with history of traumatic experiences throughout pregnancy, labor, delivery and post-partum at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH), UCSF. She provides infant mental health services to families and newborns at the NICU and has provided mental health services at the High Risk Pediatric Kempe clinic at ZSFGH. She has worked with children, adolescents, and families in various clinical venues including Rape Trauma Services and North Peninsula Family Alternatives (YMCA), in San Mateo County where she developed and implemented a mental health program for immigrant families. She consults, supervises, and trains mental health providers who work with immigrant families and their children who have experienced significant trauma. Dr. Castro has a strong interest on the impact of immigration on family systems, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the impact of trauma on children?s development. Prior to the Infant-Parent Program and Child Trauma Research Program, she worked at the Children's Hospital, National Medical Center in Mexico City and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has presented on national and international conferences, and forums on the topics of parenting in a different culture and on the impact of immigration on the sense of self and motherhood identity. In addition to her work at UCSF, Dr. Castro has taught at Argosy University, American School of Professional Psychology. She also served on the Advisory Board.

Helen Egger, PhD

Bio to come.

Lauren Hipp, MPA

Lauren brings nearly a decade of experience in the field of early childhood, where she has worked to advance racial equity through large-scale grassroots organizing and mobilization campaigns, policy development, advocacy, and implementation. Working both across Washington State and at the national level, Lauren has aimed to ensure that policy and programmatic solutions are driven by those communities who are furthest from justice -- by using collaborative leadership strategies, capacity-building training, transparent and accessible communication approaches, and inclusive strategic planning methodologies. Lauren directed a cross-issue policy and advocacy portfolio to advance early childhood mental health and perinatal mental health at the state and national level, led state and national early learning campaigns for MomsRising and led the Policy and Community Partnership efforts for a state-wide public-private partnership focused on early childhood. She holds a Masters of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Lauren also serves on the the Board of Directors for the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, and is a founding member of the Womxn of Color in Education Committee.

Lee Johnson III, PhD

Lee Johnson III, Ph.D., CHES®, IMH-E® is Senior Policy Analyst for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health at ZERO TO THREE (ZTT). Before joining ZTT, Dr. Johnson served as a director at the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, extending leadership to early childhood mental health and federal and state-funded home visiting efforts. Dr. Johnson is a former early childhood educator, health educator by training, and a newly minted public health Ph.D. His dissertation focused on the impact of early adverse experiences on the mental & physical health outcomes of Black boys & men and the power of relationships, solidified his selection for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Scholars Dissertation Fellowship (2019-2020). In the same year, he became a National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) Policy Fellow (2019-2020). Dr. Johnson's NBCDI Policy Fellowship project, Supporting Resilience in Black Families: Advancing Racial Equity in Early Childhood Mental Health Policy (2021), acknowledges the developmental threat our society poses to the health and mental health of Black children and recognizes the need for racially equitable policies and approaches that empower Black families. Lee holds his B.S. in early childhood education, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in public health from The University of Alabama.

Keoki Kauanoe is a native Hawaiian single-father of 4, the Director of Father Engagement at Family Education and Support Services, where he is a Master Trainer for the nationally recognized Nurturing Fathers Program, holds certifications in multiple parenting curricula and is a certified trainer for the QPR Gatekeeper Program. He also sits on the Washington State Interagency Fatherhood Council, The Board of the Equity in Education Coalition and The Thurston Asset Building Coalition.

When not at work or volunteering in his community, Keoki enjoys volunteering at his youngest son's elementary school, light saber duels and Minecraft and Lego builds with his youngest.

Connie Lillas is the Director of the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF) Research To Resilience Institute (www.nrfr2r.com) with a background in high-risk maternal-child nursing, family systems, developmental psychoanalysis, early intervention, infant mental health, and is a National Graduate ZERO TO THREE Leadership Fellow. Connie has a private practice, specializing in dual diagnosis across both developmental delays and mental health concerns for infants, children, teens, and their families. In addition, she trains locally, nationally, and internationally on the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF, 2009) based upon her co-authored book -Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A NeuroRelational Framework (NRF) for Interdisciplinary Practice, which is a part of W. W. Norton's Interpersonal Neurobiology Series (www.the-nrf.com). While there are currently four active NRF communities in the US and one in Canada, her work in Los Angeles County focus' on the largest child welfare system in the US wherein the NRF's curriculum on toxic stress is being used to train Dept of Child and Family Social Workers. She currently specializes in training cross-disciplinary teams in national and international communities, wherein a common language and shared approach using the NRF can be used for holistic health care outcomes.

Lisa Mennet, PhD, LMHC, IMH-E® (IV)

Lisa Mennet is the Cooper House owner and clinical director emeritus. She began her clinical career at Ryther Child Center, then studied at the Center on Infant Mental Health at the UW, and was later a clinical instructor there. She's taught infant mental health principles at the UW schools of Social Work and Nursing, and for the Washington DSHS. Lisa earned a certificate in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy from SPSI, and a doctorate in Infant Mental Health from UW. Her particular area of interest is the impact of trauma on early relationships. Lisa provides reflective consultation and supervision to professionals and is trainer for the FAN model.

Ayannakai Nalo, LCSW

Ayannakai Nalo is a CPP rostered licensed clinical social worker and has been working with children and families for 30 years. Ms Nalo is an early childhood mental health consultant and provides training, technical assistance, and consultation to public health systems, hospitals, and community, state, and national organizations in the areas of infant mental health, early intervention, mental health consultation, reflective supervision and issues of diversity and inclusion.

Additionally, The California Center for Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health has endorsed Ms. Nalo as an Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health Reflective Practice Facilitator Mentor. As a member of the Harris Foundation TENETS Work Group, Ms. Nalo also trains organizations and mentors individuals in the implementation of the TENETS across infant and early-childhood mental health providers and public health fields. She integrates diversity-informed principles from TENETS and other sources into reflective supervision and infant mental health services.

Carmen Rosa Noroña, LCSW, MSEd, CEIS

Bio to come.

Anne Stone is the Early Childhood Innovation Director at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Economic Services Administration. A central part of that role is as the director of the Washington Interagency Fatherhood Council which launched in 2018.

Anne has 30 plus years of experience in the child and family services field as an innovator and change agent in youth and family crisis, child healthcare transformation, early childhood systems, poverty reduction, and fatherhood inclusion, as a funder, non-profit executive director, community consultant, crisis counselor, and state agency innovator.

She has a strong value around affecting root causes of family struggle such as racism, poverty and bias, using human centered design grounded in early brain science to inform system and policy change. She works to reduce burdens of families needing to be "empowered" to survive toward fixing broken systems so that families can access what they need to flourish.

As the Washington State First 1,000 Days Initiative founder she works with a variety of broad based community coalitions to walk with them as they seek ways to find families experiencing high levels of stress as early as possible after the birth of a child, triage their need and resiliency, and seek to create a coordinated community response that reduces that stress we know is so detrimental to developing young brains.

When not working her focus is on her family with a new grandbaby on the way, gardening during COVID 19 to grow food and sooth the soul, paddling and hiking with her partner of 35 years.

Arietta Slade is Professor of Clinical Child Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center. An internationally recognized theoretician, clinician, researcher, and teacher, she has written widely on the development of parental reflective functioning, as well as the implications of attachment and mentalization theory for child and adult psychotherapy, and for relationship-based infant mental health practice. She is a Co-Founder and Director of Training of Minding the Baby®, an evidence-based interdisciplinary reflective home visiting program for high-risk mothers, infants, and their families, at the Yale Child Study Center and School of Nursing. Dr. Slade is a winner of the Bowlby-Ainsworth Award from the New York Attachment Consortium, and author, with Jeremy Holmes, of Attachment in Therapeutic Practice (Holmes & Slade, SAGE Publications, 2018), and editor of the six volume set, Major Work on Attachment (Slade & Holmes, SAGE Publications, 2014), of Mind to Mind: Infant Research, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis (Jurist, Slade, & Bergner, Other Press, 2008), and Children at Play (Slade & Wolf, Oxford University Press, 1994). Currently, she and her Minding the Baby® colleagues are writing a book on reflective parenting (Forthcoming, Guilford, 2021). She has also been in private practice for nearly 40 years, working with individuals of all ages.

Kandace Thomas, PhD, MPP

Bio to come.

Gil Tippy, author of Respecting Autism with Stanley Greenspan, MD, offers Evaluations, Direct Services, and Consulting to private individuals and organizations. He is the Clinical Director Emeritus of Shrub Oak International School, in Westchester County, NY. He is a Clinical Psychologist, licensed in the State of New York, with his Psychology license in California in process. He is the Chief Clinical Advisor of the Envision Center in Verona, NJ and is an Expert DIR/Floortime Provider and Teacher. He lives and has a private practice, Respectrum Developmental Services, as well as a not-for-profit, Dirty Hands Developmental Alliance, in Sonoma County, California.

Lindsay Usry, MPH

Lindsay Usry is the Director of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) at ZERO TO THREE. She guides ZERO TO THREE's policy agenda on infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) and leads related technical assistance projects and collaborations, working at the state and federal levels to increase access to and utilization of high-quality mental health services for young children and their caregivers. She formerly served as Director of Special Projects for the Institute of IECMH at Tulane University School of Medicine, where she is on faculty. She also served as the Louisiana Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Coordinator for the LA Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health. Her work has focused primarily on the translation and dissemination of research on IECMH and development to inform policy and programming decisions.

Ms. Usry received her BS in Neuroscience from the College of William and Mary and her Master of Public Health from Tulane University. She is a member of the board of the Maryland-DC Association of Infant Mental Health, and formerly sat on the Louisiana Governor's Children's Cabinet Advisory Board. She has previously worked with the U.S. Government Secretariat for Children in Adversity at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as The World Bank. She has worked on international and domestic public health initiatives and also taught elementary special education.

Martina Whelshula is a member of the Arrow Lakes Nation of the Colville Indian Reservation. Her educational and experiential background is diverse and focuses primarily in the fields of education and behavioral health. She possesses a doctoral degree in Traditional Knowledge, a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies, with an additional certification for Chemical Dependency Professional. Dr. Whelshula has worked extensively with Native American communities nation-wide in the areas of local and national policy development, education, and behavioral health. Dr. Whelshula's professional experience has ranged from Research Director for national Indian health policy development for Congressional review, P-12 tribal language instructor in the public-school system, Head Start Director for the Colville Tribe to Tribal College President. She is an educator, trainer, and consultant specializing in education and intergenerational trauma impacting indigenous communities. Dr. Whelshula's most recent work is the development of integrative cultural therapeutic model addressing trauma, mental health and substance use disorders for tribes. Dr. Whelshula served for nearly seven years as the Executive Director of a Native American inpatient treatment program for drug and alcohol addicted youth. Her successes during her tenure include: National iAward for revolutionary behavioral health care (honorable mention), Washington State Co-Occurring Disorders and Treatment Conference's Innovative Program of the Year, Potlatch Foundation's Educational Leadership Award, Washington State Public Health's 2013 Health Champion for Empowering Healthy Communities, Harvard University Medical School's online BASIS Editorial Board, and the Spokane Regional 2014 AGORA Business Award for the Large Nonprofit Category. In addition to her work experience, Dr. Whelshula served on Gonzaga University's Indian Education Advisory Board, as Chair of Spokane's NAACP Education Committee, the Chair pro-tem for the Washington State Native American Education Advisory Committee with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, a member of the Washington State Native American Think Tank, member of the Washington State Multi-Ethnic Think Tank, and formerly with the Washington State Board of Education's Equity Committee.

Kristin has more than 20 years experience in government affairs, strategic advising, and policy analysis. Her lobbying work focuses predominantly on early learning, children's behavioral health, and issues that impact children, youth, and families. Due to her multi-dimensional experience as legislative staff, non-profit leadership, a teacher (including working with special needs populations) and education advisor, and a mental health peer support worker she has a strong comprehension of the levers of change at the community, budget, and policy levels. Kristin is a volunteer in her children's public schools and enjoys outdoor adventures with her family, fitness, and gardening.

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Rebecca Berg, MA OTR/L Rebecca's passion for understanding social, emotional, and cognitive development first emerged in the field of education, with students ranging from preschool and early elementary special education to undergraduate theatre students.

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Advanced Clinical Training Program - Presentation Slides

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Advanced Clinical Training Program - Presentation Slides

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Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children, and Families – Irving Harris Foundation

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Overview - Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children, and Families – Irving Harris Foundation

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Overview of the Tenets A Tool, a Stance, a Life-Long Journey Developed and disseminated by the Tenets Initiative, the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families (Tenets) are a set of ten strategies and tools for strengthening the commitment and capacity of professionals,…

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Overview

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Filipino Americans are the second-largest Asian American group in the nation and the third-largest ethnic group in California, after Latinas/os and African Americans. The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on October 18, 1587, when "Luzones Indios" came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed at what is now Morro Bay, California. In 2009, U.S. Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States. Various states, counties, and cities in the U.S. have established proclamations and resolutions declaring observance of Filipino American History Month. The late Dr. Fred Cordova, along with his wife, FANHS Founder Dr. Dorothy Laigo Cordova, first introduced October as Filipino American History Month in 1992 with a resolution from the FANHS National Board of Trustees.

Across the nation, FANHS Chapters, colleges and universities, museums, and community groups will be commemorating Filipino American History Month with various activities and events to bring awareness of the significant role Filipinos have played in American history.

October 1992 was the first time that Filipino American History Month (FAHM) was celebrated in the United States - a year after FANHS passed a proclamation (spearheaded by Fred Cordova). Since then, FAHM has been celebrated annually all over the country - with initiatives by FANHS chapters, local community nonprofit groups, government organizations, and college student organizations. In 2009, U.S. Congress declared October as FAHM, and in 2015, President Obama celebrated the first FAHM at the White House.

Possible activities to participate in:

Read Filipino American Studies books of the past and present. For example, 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the edited text Filipino Americans: Transformation and Identity, (edited by Maria P. P. Root) - regarded as a foundational comprehensive text in Filipino American Studies.

Support arts and media that advance Filipino American Studies, such as Lumpia with a Vengeance (film) or Larry: The Musical (theater).

Learn about the history of the Luzones Indios who first set foot in California on October 18, 1587 (435 years ago), as well as the historical oppression and resilience of Indigenous Peoples from the Philippines in both the motherland and in the United States.

Conduct and share oral histories that highlight regional experiences of Filipino American history. For example, our newer FANHS chapters in Ohio and Georgia have uncovered untold stories of migrants, pensionados, and laborers in their states.

Curate a panel of Filipino American artists to describe their contributions to the arts (e.g., music, dance, theater, hip hop).

Given the push for a more formalized Filipino American curriculum in higher education and K-12 schools - as well as the public critique on Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory - the month could be used to reflect on historical context while also inspiring advocacy for Filipino American Studies courses and programs, as well as for more initiatives focusing on the preservation and dissemination of Filipino American history. For instance, in 2019, the Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies was launched at UC Davis, and in 2020, a new minor in Pilipino Studies was established at UCLA. More recently, the youth-led Filipino Curriculum Project in Hawai'i lobbied for their state legislators to pass a resolution to implement an elective social studies course on Filipino Americans, while organizers in Seattle successfully lobbied for the development of FAS curricula in K-12 schools. We hope that talking about the many ways that Filipino Americans have advocated for the telling of our histories - through classroom curriculum, FANHS conferences and workshops, or FAHM celebrations - will encourage future generations to be active in teaching and instituting Filipino American history too.

We also recognize the many ways that Filipino Americans have created spaces and programs to better enhance our communities - hence maintaining long-lasting legacies for future generations. For example, 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the first Tagalog course taught at the University of Hawai'i and the 50th anniversary of SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans) - the oldest existing nonprofit organization serving Filipino Americans in Los Angeles. Both set precedents for establishing similar programs or organizations across the country. In acknowledging the many legacies created by Filipino Americans across the United States, we encourage our community members to brainstorm ways to create a more sustainable impact for future generations of Filipino American communities too.

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About Filipino American History Month - FANHS

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Filipino Americans are the second-largest Asian American group in the nation and the third-largest ethnic group in California, after Latinas/os and African Americans. The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on October 18, 1587, when "Luzones Indios" came ashore...

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In Washington state and across the country, the financial realities of child care are like mismatched puzzle pieces jammed together

Mary Curry has run a child care business from her two-story home on a quiet street in South Tacoma for nine years. Before the pandemic, the business ran at capacity, with a few employees helping care for a dozen children. Now it's just her, taking care of four kids. The finances were never very good, but during the pandemic Curry has been losing money operating her business in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. She said she has kept her doors open out of a sense of mission to help her community and "my families."

Child care in Washington state and in the U.S. is a broken economic system, according to providers and other experts. The pieces just don't fit, despite small and large efforts to fix the problem.

Even care that meets only minimum licensing standards is too expensive for many parents, yet child care providers cannot pay their workers a living wage. The providers cannot raise prices because if they do, they will lose customers. They cannot reduce their work force - which makes up 60% or more of their budget - because laws and the realities of caring for small children mean that they must keep ratios of workers to children low. So the parents struggle, many child care workers do not make enough money to take care of their own families without government assistance, and providers are scraping by or closing their doors.

A lot of attention has been paid to the problem recently, in both Washington state and Washington, D.C., but many experts think the changes are still not enough. They look to places like Finland, where quality child care is heavily subsidized and generous paid parental leave is available. The results: high enrollment in preschool and strong educational outcomes.

In contrast, states in the U.S. provide far less funding and face other constraints, forcing difficult trade-offs related to child care: "Do you give money to the single mom working, or the parent looking for training? Do you have lower-quality care for more children, or better quality for fewer children?" asked Gina Adams, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization.

Experts say that while the profit/loss margins are still razor-thin in the child care industry, there are things that can be done within the current system to help, like shared business services for child care providers, free or subsidized use of real estate, and subsidized health insurance for child care workers.

Can the public and private sectors do enough to " reinvent " the current market, or will federal and state governments have to radically shift how and to what extent they fund child care?

The costs of delivering care

The primary reason child care costs so much is that teacher-to-child ratios are kept low for infants and toddlers in order to provide safe, nurturing environments. In Washington state, those ratios are one care worker to four infants, one worker to seven toddlers, and one worker to 10 preschoolers. Thus, labor costs make up 60% to 80% of a child care provider's budget, even though child care and preschool teachers here typically earn a little less than $16 per hour - below the median pay of fast-food cooks.

In Washington state, the prices families pay for care far exceed neighboring Idaho and Oregon. And the true costs to providers for high-quality, center-based care surpass the national average by several thousand dollars.

Louise Stoney is an independent consultant and co-founder of both the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance and Opportunities Exchange, a nonprofit consulting group focused on early care and education. She argues that most people who are good at finance can run a large, high-quality preschool care program with decent wages. It's the finances behind caring for infants and toddlers at a center that pose the greater challenge: "I don't see how you do it for less than $25,000 per year," she said - that is $25,000 per year, per child.

Stoney and her associate Libbie Poppick developed a concept they call the " iron triangle " of minimum prerequisites for early childhood education providers to turn a dependable profit: full enrollment, full fee collection and revenues that cover per-child cost ("accurate pricing"). For example, some providers still accept cash and checks from parents, instead of automatically billing their bank accounts, resulting in late and uncollectible payments that quickly add up in a business with such slim margins.

The iron triangle also assumes that providers can take advantage of technology such as child care management software, and/or shared services to manage their businesses more efficiently.

Shared services alliances refer to providers that pool resources to share systems and people for accounting, human resources, regulatory compliance and other administrative work. In Oregon, child care providers are piloting a shared services alliance in several regions after promising results from a smaller pilot in two rural counties. Washington's Fair Start for Kids Act, signed into law in May 2021, authorized creation of a "shared services business hub," and recently awarded a grant for the pilot project.

Seattle already has a pilot program along those lines to help family providers participate in the city's preschool program.

Stoney sees economies of scale and shared services as making room for higher teacher wages. "What shared services is really about is shifting dollars from administration into the classroom," she said. "Providers have to either get bigger or network bigger. No one has ever pushed the field to do this. We've made administrative costs too high. And we don't make efficiency a value."

In the Seattle area, Sound Child Care Solutions is a nonprofit that shares administrative services and fundraising across eight separate child care centers that have common values and goals. Emily Adams, director of development and communications, said they see shared services as a way to enable center directors to focus on programming and invest more in supporting teachers to deliver high-quality care. Given the large number of immigrant and refugee families at some centers, those directors and teaching staff need extra time to incorporate different languages and cultures into their programming, as well as to receive training to address traumatic experiences within families. As a "value driven" organization, it also prioritizes equitable pay and comprehensive benefits for center directors and teaching staff, she said.

Some experts suggest that child care centers must have at least 100 full-time slots to make administrative overhead manageable, and that 300 slots are better. But most child care centers and school-age kid programs are small and thus unable to benefit from any economies of scale.

Family providers - that is, care based in a provider's home - can care for infants and toddlers at lower costs, but Stoney said states need to stop regulating them as though they were tiny child care centers.

Guadalupe Magallan of Kennewick had been working 10-hour days taking care of kids in her home and then working evenings and weekends on administrative tasks. She recently hired an assistant to help with the office work.

"I can't work all these hours with the children and still do all the administrative stuff to make sure I'm sticking to all the regulations and managing the paperwork, IRS, quarterly taxes, salary and more," she said. Like Curry, she is currently losing money.

States are buying into the idea of helping providers buy and run software to assist with their management needs. New Mexico recently partnered with Wonderschool to use its technology platform to assist child care providers, especially small centers and family providers.

In addition to staff ratios and scale, Washington state providers told InvestigateWest about other ways that governments could further assist them:

To help with what one child care company executive called "astronomically unaffordable" real estate prices, cities or counties could designate some commercial locations as low-rent, highly subsidized properties for nonprofit child care providers.

The state's Early Learning Facilities program already offers grants or very low-interest loans to providers seeking to open or expand their facilities. These providers must serve low-income families that use state subsidies to pay for child care. In the next few years, about $40 million will be available, including money to help providers apply.

The state could streamline its 90-day approval process for new child care sites, so that providers are not paying rent for several months before a center can open and begin making money.

The state could create a shared risk pool for small providers to buy health insurance for their workers and workers' families. A new program funded by the state will provide free health insurance for child care workers whose households earn less than 300% of the federal poverty level. But it will not cover all workers, nor any dependents.

And finally, providers face the high costs of low-wage jobs in the form of worker training and turnover expenses. They want to figure out how to pay child care workers more, with wages and benefits that adequately value their work, in part so that workers will stay longer and providers won't have to continuously train replacements.

State and federal support is already a key factor in the labyrinthine world of child care finance. Regional and state entities, such as Washington state's Educational Service Districts ( ESDs), help deliver and add to federal aid for providers and parents. The service districts are public entities that "provide cooperative services" across public, tribal and some private schools offering K-12 education.

In south-central Washington, for instance, ESD 105's early learning program serves kids as a contractor for the federal Head Start program and for the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which provide free preschool and supportive services for low-income families.

Stacie Marez, director of ECEAP and community partnerships at ESD 105, said the high rate of turnover due to low wages and lack of benefits means ECEAP programs at child care centers are constantly having to train new workers. When the three-year professional development cycle finishes, she said, "it's just about the time we lose them to the school district."

The school district can run state-funded ECEAP programs with better pay and benefits because of the district's diversified funding sources, centralized administration (like shared services) and absorption of some ECEAP programs' expenses such as utilities and classroom space.

The prices we pay for care

Child care providers bill what they think community families can pay, not what it costs to run a financially stable business. But those "private pay" rates, also known as market rates, aren't always high enough to keep providers in business.

The state sets Working Connections Child Care subsidy rates based on surveys that show what providers are charging in a particular area of the state. Working Connections is a program for low-income families with children up to 12 years old. The process to set rates for ECEAP-funded slots is more complicated.

Families that are eligible for subsidies find a participating provider to accept their children. The state then pays the provider. With ECEAP, parents pay nothing; with Working Connections, parents pay a share of that rate as a co-payment, from zero to $215 per month, depending on their income.

Even if the subsidy rates were 100% of market rate, they would underpay many providers. The Fair Start for Kids Act just increased Working Connections subsidies from 65% to 85% of market rate and raised ECEAP rates by 10%.

That should help. But as Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP, said, "Maybe we can get the subsidy rate high enough that it's not terrible, but it doesn't offset the real costs of child care." Many providers will still face a loss from the state's rates, and most families will continue to pay full price.

Mary Curry estimated that, for this past spring, her costs per child per month were about $1,200, but the state subsidy rate was about $750-$800. Curry had been making it work, in part, by reluctantly keeping staff expenses low, like so many providers do. "Funding was so low, but I could make it work because my children were grown and I didn't have to support them at home anymore," she said. "My husband is the one who gives me this opportunity to do this, because he carries the overhead."

The city of Seattle is planning a cost-of-quality-care study, as is Washington state. The state's report isn't due until November 2022. The text of the Fair Start for Kids Act says the Legislature's intent is to increase subsidy rates gradually, until they cover the full cost of high-quality care. Only a few states are doing this.

According to a model developed by the Center for American Progress, a policy institute that supports "progressive ideas," the Washington subsidy rate covers just 45%-71% of "high quality" care costs, depending on the age of the child and the type of facility. The calculator estimates that the average annual cost in Washington, per child for "base" quality care - that is care that meets minimum state regulations - in a family child care setting is $13,800. Investments to improve quality more than double that number, to $33,700.

Much of this increased cost goes to salaries and benefits for child care workers, whose training, planning time and retention rate are critical components of high-quality care. A few years ago, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment found that 39% of child care workers in Washington relied on at least one public income support program, at a cost of nearly $35 million. Some refer to this as the high public cost of low-wage jobs.

The road ahead

The pandemic has made clear to some people that child care is a core part of keeping our entire economy running, akin to electricity and roads. At the federal level, Congress is considering multiple proposals that would infuse billions of dollars into the child care system. Yet with one exception, that has always been a largely private system delivering a valuable public good.

During World War II, through the Lanham Act, Congress established subsidized child care services to support the families whose adult factory workers or members of the military were not able to care for kids. Family income did not factor into eligibility.

A substantial body of research indicates that a society's investment in early childhood programs gives a strong return. In Boston, quality preschool led to higher rates of high school graduation and college attendance, as well as lower rates of juvenile incarceration. But many payoffs from early learning investments are long-term, while state budgets are hammered out every two years.

Governments can see one quick return on investment in the short term: from better-paid workers. "A high-quality child care system costs money, but a lot goes into the pockets of child care workers," said Simon Workman, a national expert on child care finance and founder of the consulting firm Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies. "They spend it. It circles through the economy."

And yet these programs are not adequately funded in this country, according to providers and policy experts. For now, many families, particularly those with young children, remain stuck.

To that end, the parent ambassador program offered by the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP (WSA), has trained about 300 parents to advocate, educate and organize for quality early learning for all children. The 2021 legislative session felt like an exceptionally big win for advocates like WSA. But the goal of a well-funded, well-supported system is still a long way off. And advocates wonder if they can repeat that success.

Some local providers and policy experts are cautiously optimistic that the state and national debate could shift permanently, to valuing quality child care from birth to age 12 as an essential need for everyone. But for now, Gina Adams of the Urban Institute said, "We have a market system that does not support good quality. ... Our public system only deals with a small part of the problem, with inadequate funding and inadequate public support."
Next: How the lack of access to quality, affordable child care affects families and communities. Do you work or have you recently worked at a child care center? Please call us at 1-425-954-7169 or email us at childcare@invw.org and tell us how to get in touch. We want to hear your story. Feature image: Carlos Rodriguez, ECEAP lead teacher, leads a session at Blossoms Early Learning Center on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Mike Kane/InvestigateWest

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The Real Costs of Child Care in America - InvestigateWest

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Mary Curry has run a child care business from her two-story home on a quiet street in South Tacoma for nine years. Before the pandemic, the business ran at capacity, with a few employees helping care for a dozen children. Now it's just her, taking care of four kids.

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Leslie Dozono, Interim Executive Director

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Leslie Dozono, Interim Executive Director

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The early childhood systems we build now in Washington state will impact generations of children and their families. These systems must be designed to eliminate racial disparities.

We believe a key lever in this work is ensuring that more leaders of color, particularly those from communities who are furthest from justice, drive and shape the design of these policies.

Transforming the

decision-making table.

OUR DESIGN PROCESS

We are engaged in a process to develop and build this new fellowship program. We are exploring a range of questions, from structure and content, anti-racism training, management, alumni support, and more. As we continue our outreach we are prioritizing input from leaders of color and prospective placement organizations.

OUR INITIAL COMMITMENTS

Racial Equity

Compensation

Two Years

Employment + Learning

Mid-Career Focus

Cohort Model

State-Wide

Engaged Alumni

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Fellowship | WA Early Childhood Policy Fellowship | United States

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The early childhood systems we build now in Washington state will impact generations of children and their families. These systems must be designed to eliminate racial disparities. We believe a key lever in this work is ensuring that more leaders of color, particularly those from communities who

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COVID Vaccines for kids age 5-11? where? when?

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COVID Vaccines for kids age 5-11? where? when?

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Health Provider Outreach Action Team - Presentation Slides

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Health Provider Outreach Action Team - Presentation Slides

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Health Provider Outreach Action Team - Presentation Recording

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Health Provider Outreach Action Team - Presentation Recording

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Who is eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine?

Where can I take my child age 5-11 to get vaccinated?

The Pfizer vaccine that is given to adults and adolescents cannot be used for children ages 5-11. The following locations are offering the COVID-19 vaccine to children within this age range. YHD's mobile vaccine clinics are also offering the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone 5 and older. See table under "Community COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics" for a list of available clinics.

Youth under 18 years need parent or guardian consent to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Find more information about COVID-19 vaccines for children and teens on the CDCandDOH websites.

Where can I get a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine?

Several sites are offering booster doses to eligible individuals. Click here for a list of COVID-19 vaccine locations in Yakima County. YHD Community vaccine clinics are also offering Pfizer booster doses to anyone 16 and older. Please take your vaccine card to your appointment.

Community COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics

Community COVID-19 vaccine clinics are currently providing first and second doses of Pfizer vaccine to anyone 5 and older. Pfizer booster doses are also available to anyone 12 and older. Appointments are not required. Youth under 18 years need parent or guardian consent to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Times and locations may change.
Private Clinic Registration for Business/Organization

If you are a business or organization and would like to set up a clinic for employees or members, please email yakimavaccinemobileteam@gmail.com with the following information:

Name of business/organization

Point of contact Name-Email-Phone Number

Date you want the team to come

Time frame you would like the team to come (Ex. 11am-12pm)

Number of appointments required

Location you'd like to host the clinic
Location should have access to bathrooms, chairs, and plenty of space for people to wait for 15-30 minutes.

Once we have received this information we will send you a link to the Private Clinic for you to register your employees, members, etc. Please provide all information for registration prior to the mobile vaccine event for faster processing and screening.

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covid -19 vaccinations questions covid-19 vaccine faq's

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The Pfizer vaccine that is given to adults and adolescents cannot be used for children ages 5-11. The following locations are offering the COVID-19 vaccine to children within this age range. YHD's mobile vaccine clinics are also offering the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone 5 and older.

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Please follow this link to sign in for today's meeting!

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Please follow this link to sign in for today's meeting!

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November 2021 Investing in Children Coalition Meeting

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Please sign in for today’s Coalition meeting! Questions? Please contact us at forthekids@yakimavalleycf.org.

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC), is a program that helps pregnant women, new parents or guardians, and young children eat well, learn about nutrition, and stay healthy. WIC provides nutrition education and counseling, breastfeeding support, nutritious foods, and help to access health care. Nutrition education is the cornerstone of the WIC Program.

Call to see if you qualify

For Washington, callFor Oregon, call (855) 942-9420

Applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for WIC:

Live in Washington or Oregon.

Be a pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding individual, an infant, or a child under 5 years old.

Meet income requirements.

Learn more about WIC eligibility and your rights to the program: See if you Qualify

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC), is a program that helps pregnant women, new parents or guardians, and young children eat well, learn about nutrition, and stay healthy. WIC provides nutrition education and counseling, breastfeeding support, nutritious foods, and help to access health care.

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Comments from Ryan Pricco regarding capital gains excise tax

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Comments from Ryan Pricco regarding capital gains excise tax

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Comments from Ryan Pricco regarding capital gains excise tax

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National Equity Project: Liberatory Design Training

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National Equity Project: Liberatory Design Training

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borrowed from ESD 105

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Help Me Grow State wide Action Team Meeting-11/17

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Help Me Grow State wide Action Team Meeting-11/17

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Why Liberatory Design?
We are all living in challenging times that our past experience and training has not sufficiently prepared us for. Too often, well intentioned equity efforts do not succeed-and even produce unintended consequences. This can lead to frustration, hopelessness and cynicism.
It's important to consider why so many equity efforts stall or fail to achieve intended outcomes:

They do not employ a deep enough equity lens-for example, a diversity and inclusion focus as opposed to interrogating deeper causes produced by systemic oppression.

They take the form of traditional linear, hierarchical plans that focus on strategies, goals, timelines, metrics and accountability. These efforts don't recognize the messiness and complexity of the challenge, so they often are ineffective and, sometimes, even backfire.

They are created in the context of dominant white culture, in traditional structures (e.g. committees, task forces), or in teams that don't have an effective approach to the work. Common problems include:

group members unable to engage in authentic critical dialogue;

lack of trust, especially across role/power and identity difference, that undermines team efficacy;

the process doesn't bring forward sufficiently creative thinking;

urgency leads to hasty, misguided decisions;

creative and potentially powerful solutions are not accepted by leadership.

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Liberatory Design - National Equity Project

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Addressing equity challenges and change efforts in complex systems with liberatory design. Learn more about this process or register for an upcoming course.

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Cecilia Gonzalez - Early Learning and Parent Education Manager (La Casa Hogar)

Julia Kagochi - State Equity Specialist (Help Me Grow Washington)

Lindsay Boswell - Director of Grants and Community Impact

Marina Medrano - Bilingual Coalition Coordinator (YVCF)

Michele Cawley - Program Manager (Kittitas Early Learning Coalition)

Minerva Pardo - Schools, Family and Community Engagement Coordinator (WVSD)

Trissa Schiffner - Parents as Teachers Program Manager (Catholic Charities)

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Regional Coalition & Washington Communities for Children (WCFC) Updates

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Regional Coalition & Washington Communities for Children (WCFC) Updates

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Questions, comments, concerns? Write away! 

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Questions, comments, concerns? Write away! 

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We encourage you to use the comment section below to write any questions, comments, or concerns that you have about the meeting. Feel free to also leave questions for the speaker or meeting facilitators.

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Why Early Learning is Important:

Research has shown that children who are able to participate in early learning programs perform better throughout their years of schooling. Early learning programs focus on six areas of kindergarten readiness:

Social-Emotional - Children do better in school when they can regulate their emotions, establish positive relationships with others, and constructively participate in group settings.

Physical - The early years are important for the development of fundamental gross-motor and fine-motor skills needed to be active learners.

Language - Children need to understand increasingly complex language and use language to express their thoughts, ideas, needs, and feelings.

Cognitive - Children are more successful in school when they have positive approaches to learning, and are able to attend, engage, and persist to solve problems.

Literacy - A child's progress in reading and writing is one of the best predictors of whether the child will function competently in school and in life.

Math - Research shows that math is the number one predictor of future success in reading and math.*

*Duncan, Greg. University of California, 2007. Early Childhood Longitudinal studies. "The strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. Early math skills have the greatest predictive power."

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Research has shown that children who are able to participate in early learning programs perform better throughout their years of schooling. Early learning programs focus on six areas of kindergarten readiness: Social-Emotional - Children do better in school when they can regulate their emotions, establish positive relationships with others, and constructively participate in group settings.

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Our Workgroup's Shared Understanding of Equity

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Our Workgroup's Shared Understanding of Equity

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A process and an outcome:

Equity is a process.

Outcomes are individual - an outcome doesn't have to be the same for every person.

You must ask and learn:

Equity should be assessment and community feedback based.

Ask first. Look at answers. Assess. And then implement.

The system does not define the need, the people do.

Equity happens when the induvial is centralized.

Equity is to provide or give resources in the way they are needed, when they are needed, and how they are needed.

It's not just about the kind of resources. It's about how they're distributed and how accessible they are.

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Deepak Chopra's Go-To 3-Minute Meditation To Stay Focused

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Reconocimiento de Tierra
"Nos gustaría reconocer que venimos a ustedes desde las tierras tradicionales de los primeros habitantes de nuestro valle, las 14 Tribus y Bandas Confederadas de la Nación Yakama, y honramos con gratitud a la tierra misma y a la Tribu Yakama.”

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https://www.facebook.com/investinginchildrenwa

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It looks like you were misusing this feature by going too fast. You've been temporarily blocked from using it. If you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards let us know.

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Agenda Planning Tool

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In partnership with Lindsay Boswell, Marina Medrano, and Julia Kagochi (state equity specialist), the Investing in Children Coalition (South Central WA) will be creating a workgroup dedicated to equity conversations. This subgroup will have two main functions:

1) creating a shared regional needs assessment and

2) putting together a template for creating county-specific equity statements and action plans.

We hope that the participants of this work group are representative of the two different counties in the south central region. The initial meeting will be a two-hour session, and the time commitment will be dependent on how the workgroup decides to proceed. There is no cap to how many folks can join the workgroup, just as long as each of the counties have equal voice in the process.

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Joint ELAC and PAG Meeting Material Continued...

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Joint ELAC and PAG Meeting Material Continued...

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81586444596

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@forthekidswa

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Julia Kagochi, Kagochi Consulting | EQUITY

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Julia Kagochi, Kagochi Consulting | EQUITY

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Many individuals and partners contribute to Help Me Grow Washington, and many more are working in the day-to-day efforts to improve systems for our communities. This is not an exhaustive list of Help Me Grow contacts, but a chance to see some active participants.

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Many individuals and partners contribute to Help Me Grow Washington, and many more are working in the day-to-day efforts to improve systems for our communities. This is not an exhaustive list of Help Me Grow contacts, but a chance to see some active participants.

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The Sunnyside community COVID-19 testing center will reopen Wednesday because of rising coronavirus case numbers.

The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday through Thursday at the Sunnyside Community Center, 1521 S. First St., according to a news release from the Yakima Health District.

"With the rise of COVID-19 cases in the community, we knew how important it was to open the community-based testing site in Sunnyside again," said Nathan Johnson, local emergency response coordinator for the health district. "Individuals will now have another option to get tested that is free, low-barrier and accessible. Please get tested if you experience COVID-19 symptoms."

Individuals will park and walk up to a trailer to be tested. Appointments are not required, but people can preregister ahead of time.

The COVID-19 testing center at State Fair Park in Yakima was closed Tuesday because of wildfire smoke, and is scheduled to resume operations Wednesday.

Cases continue to rise in Yakima County because of the more contagious delta variant. From June 1 to Aug. 17, the case rate increased from 120 to 508 per 100,000 the hospitalization rate increased from 2.7 to 7.0 per 100,000. Twenty three people have died, the health district reported Friday.

The health district encourages people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccination locations are listed at YakimaVaccines.org.

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Community COVID testing center to reopen Wednesday in Sunnyside

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The Sunnyside community COVID-19 testing center will reopen Wednesday because of rising coronavirus case numbers. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday through Thursday at the Sunnyside Community Center, 1521 S. First St., according to a news release from the Yakima Health District.

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The Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) was created by the Legislature in 2007.

ELAC representatives from around the state meet regularly to provide input and recommendations to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) so our strategies and actions are well informed and broadly supported by parents, child care providers, health and safety experts and interested members of the public.

Governor Jay Inslee holds final authority for policy decisions.

The council has adopted a Racial Equity Framework through which it conducts its business as an advisory board to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.

Members

The Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) members are a diverse group of people whose role is to provide DCYF with input and recommendations to inform DCYF's work.

ELAC includes parents, child care providers, health and safety experts, legislators, representatives of Tribal Nations, independent schools, K-12 and higher education, and others who are interested in creating a statewide early learning system that helps all children realize their full potential.

Some ELAC members are appointed by the Governor. Others are appointed by various entities as required in the legislation that created ELAC.

Meetings

The Early Learning Advisory Council has six regular meetings each year, held on the first Tuesday of odd months. At each meeting, ELAC members get updates on DCYF's work and provide input and recommendations to DCYF.

Members of the public are welcome to attend ELAC meetings. Public comment periods are offered throughout each meeting. The locations and times vary for each meeting.

2022
December 6, 2022 August 2, 2022 October 4, 2022 June 7, 2022 April 12, 2022 February 1, 2022
At the time of the meeting, please join the Zoom meeting via the link below.

9:00am-3:00pm

Meeting number (access code): 824 9183 1069
Meeting password: 904723

Join by phone: 1 253 215 8782 US Toll
Passcode: 904723

2021
December 7, 2021 October 5, 2021 - Joint Early Learning Advisory Council, Provider Supports Subcommittee, and Parent Advisory Group Meeting August 3, 2021 June 1, 2021 - Joint Provider Supports Subcommittee Meeting March 30, 2021 - Joint PAG Meeting February 2, 2021

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Department of Children, Youth & Families

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The Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) was created by the Legislature in 2007. Read the statutory language ELAC representatives from around the state meet regularly to provide input and recommendations to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) so our strategies and actions are well informed and broadly supported by parents, child care providers, health and safety experts and interested members of the public.