The Early Childhood Alliance, an Onondaga County childhood care foundation, has updated the Women’s Fund of Central New York on the progress they have made on the Alliance’s new program, Help Me Grow Onondaga.
Last year, the Women’s Fund gave a $7,500 grant to the Alliance, which they used to hire a consultant from the Syracuse University School of Education. With the consultant, the Early Childhood Alliance decided to launch a branch of the affiliate Help Me Grow National Center.
The Alliance estimates that less than 50% of children in Onondaga County entering kindergarten are fully ready. Due to this, the Early Childhood Alliance decided to focus their fund specifically on early childhood development.
“It’s a program that help parents identify developmental milestones for their children, zero to five.”, says Laurie Black, the director of The Early Childhood Alliance.
Throughout the past year, the Alliance has used their Syracuse University consultant and other factors to get Help Me Grow Onondaga prepare for launch, and it looks like it will very soon.
“So now, because of this planning grant, we’ve done the legwork of preparing to bring Help Me Grow. So our vision is that we will be launching Help Me Grow in January of 2019,” says Black.
The Early Childhood Alliance also plans to help hire a permanent child care consultant for 211CNY, a number that can be dialed to get help on a variety of issues, ranging from mental health, food, and family. It is in this family section on 211CNY’s website where child care is, but the Alliance wants the site to put more emphasis on it.
More information on The Early Childhood Alliance on their website http://ecaonondaga.org as they continue their efforts to improve early childhood care.
“The Early Childhood Alliance is focused on making sure all children enter kindergarten ready”, says Black about this goal.
