Early Learning Coalition Of Manatee County Inc

Programs: School readiness - the early learning coalition of manatee county, inc. (elc) served 3,710 school readiness children and 1,994 families in 2012/2013 by providing high quality school readiness opportunities. The elc monitored compliance with licensing and regulatory requirements. Individual monitoring reports from dcf child care licensing were reviewed for non-compliance reports for safety reasons made on registered family day care homes, license-exempt accredited programs and non-licensed programs. The elc provided on-site technical assistance to providers, on-site provider environmental rating scale training, curriculum trainings, florida child care professional credential (fccpc) scholarships, director's credentials scholarships, scholarships for providers seeking a college degree in early childhood education, and hosted an annual early childhood conference for providers. The elc provided professional development activities such as the naeyc (national association for the education of young children) training "developmentally appropriate practice: training program for teaching staff," early science workshops based on publications such as naeyc's "ramps and pathways, florida early learning and development standards for birth through five, teaching strategies gold training, and presentations of workshops on intentional teaching, communicating with parents and enhancing classrooms with homemade materials at the one goal conference in tampa. The elc collaborated with the safe kids coalition of manatee to implement the safety day conference that included workshops on child passenger safety, fire safety, poison prevention and water safety. Parents were educated on how to identify quality care, informed about different types of care and encouraged to continue to look for quality once their children were placed in a child care facility. The elc's quality department published and posted an on-line parent newsletter which included information on literacy, math and science. The elc staff provided technical assistance and on- site in-service training sessions to assist providers in developing these skills in the children they serve. The elc distributed over 3,200 developmentally and age appropriate children's books to the families who came in for new enrollments and certificates. Through the scholastic literacy partnership, the elc donated over 5,000 books to law enforcement agencies in manatee county for distribution to children being removed from the home during protective service investigations. The elc has a designated inclusion contact and offered at least two large group training sessions quarterly, along with many additional on-site training sessions that were provider specific and elc staff members actively participated with providers, parents and the community at large to promote inclusive early childhood settings. The elc also participated in the "learn the signs - act early" grant from the florida department of health, offering materials for families served by nine family child care home providers on developmental milestones, including how to identify signs that a child may benefit from evaluation and early intervention. The elc conducted comprehensive consumer education by providing literature in the lobby, provided one-on-one education in the office, and participated in community children's events such as the children's summit, health fair and children's parade. The elc continued to look for revenue sources to enhance the programs funded through florida's office of early learning. The elc offered vision and hearing screening for school readiness children. The elc partnered with the kiwanis club of bradenton for the third annual "every child a reader" program. 116 volunteers in 112 classrooms read to 1,727 children who received a copy of the book to take home. The elc distributed more than 10,000 books during the 2012 holidays to each child in each of the contracted programs as part of the literacy for the holidays project.

voluntary pre-k - the early learning coalition of manatee county, inc. (elc) served 3,199vpk children in 2012/2013 by providing the state of florida's voluntary pre-kindergarden education program for four year-olds in manatee county. The elc oversaw the application and enrollment process of children in the vpk program and provided orientation sessions for parents and child care providers. Through its outreach and awareness activities, the elc advertised the vpk program by airing vpk public servi

helios - in partnership with the early learning coalitions of sarasota and polk counties, the coalition assisted in implementing the family providers focus on literacy (fpfl) program that provides literacy, training and coaching services for family child care providers. Funded by the helios foundation, fpfl participants also received $500 worth of literacy materials and a $500 stipend.

shared services - collaborative effort between other early learning coaltions to share services other early learning coaltions to share services