Accessible Child Care Training
Is Goal of Conference
By Amanda Deason

On November 15-18, the Alabama Head Start Association, in collaboration with Alabama Child Care Consortium, sponsored a training conference for Head Start, Early Head Start and infant and toddler care providers, entitled "Building Coalitions for Children and Families". The conference held at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center was the first collaborative effort between Head Start and the Consortium.

One of the goals of the Consortium is to make training available and accessible to all child care providers in Alabama. To this end, the Consortium sponsored 45 family day care and relative care providers to attend the training conference.

In Alabama, a family day care home is defined as being a residential facility in which no more than six children receive care during the day. Relative care is provided to a child by a grandparent, sibling or other family member. Family day care providers and relative care providers are generally not as connected to the child care community as providers at child care centers. Because of this isolation they often do not know about or have the opportunity to take advantage of training opportunities. Monetary concerns and finding substitute care are also barriers to these providers receiving training.

The focus of this conference, for those caregivers sponsored by the Consortium, was caring for infants and toddlers. The Consortium engaged several speakers who conducted infant and toddler sessions such as, "Developmentally Appropriate Practices with Infants", "Working with Parents of Infants and Toddlers," and "The ABC’s of Early Brain Development".

Many sessions, such as "Partnering for Extended Day," and "Transportation Issues and Regulations," addressed the importance of collaboration among organizations who serve children in Alabama. Whether it is a caregiver partnering with a parent for the good of an individual child, or organizations such as the Alabama Child Care Consortium collaborating with the Alabama Head Start Association, it is clear that in pooling our wisdom, experience, and resources we can positively impact children’s lives in a way that would not be possible through isolated efforts. We thank the Alabama Head Start Association for giving us the opportunity to be a part of the conference, and hope that this will be the first of many collaborative efforts.

Conference Participants Received Training Certificates