Early Childhood Workforce

Programs share best practices among early childhood education providers in the state by expanding efforts to increase collaboration and efficiency of services, including improving transitions that happen across all age spans in early childhood. Furthermore, these programs provide interdisciplinary professional development to build shared understanding and connections across Early Childhood Education, health, and human services providers that serve families with young children. 

Specific Activities and Organizational Leads

Workforce Commission Implementation

Workforce Commission Implementation aims to develop and implement an infrastructure to support continued collaboration and communication across sectors and to build on existing relationships and efforts statewide to fulfill the vision of elevating Early Childhood professionals to a priority profession.  View the Commission Report.

Coaching Collaboration

The Coaching Collaboration seeks to improve Early Child Care Education quality and reduce staff turnover by providing coach training, reflective practice, and technical assistance.

Step Up to Quality

Step Up to Quality offers Early Childhood Education Providers the support and resources necessary for quality child care and connects families to high quality care providers. 

Center on Reflective Practice

The Center on Reflective Practice assists in mitigating the effects of the emotionally intrusive nature of the work by helping individuals examine their current and past actions, emotions, experiences, and responses in order to evaluate their work performance and learn to improve in the future. 

Social Emotional Support Infrastructure

Social Emotional Support Infrastructure gathers information to ascertain current efforts underway and identify opportunities to address early childhood social emotional community needs so as to assist the community in focusing on priorities and gaps and begin the process of identifying an infrastructure and model to address these needs in a systemic way through collaboration and partnership.

Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME)

Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME), created by University of Nebraska Extension, seeks to support and enhance the well-being of EC educators. The program provides education and guidance on how to incorporate mindfulness and reflective practice into daily routines, teaching and care-giving. Benefits for the health and well-being of both providers and young children include reduced stress, improved emotion management, better sleep quality, increased focus and attention, and enhanced relationships.

All Our Kin Expansion

All Our Kin Expansion:  Provides a model that includes training on business practices for family child care providers that promotes sustainable operations, maintaining necessary licenses, and continuing focus on teaching and learning.

Wonderschool

Wonderschool is a platform designed to provide business training and mentorship for family child care providers, which helps providers set their rates, market their program, bill and collect, and communicate with parents.