BELL Listens To Parents 
 
BELL held focus groups for early education providers, housing providers, and parents who are experiencing homelessness d uring the week of October 17th . 

In partnership with The Cloudburst Consulting Group, t he goal of the groups was to better understand what challenges and barriers currently exist that hinder families' enrollment of their young children into high quality early childhood education and care. 

BELL wanted to get a sense of the barriers in play from both the families' perspectives and the perspectives of those providing the early education.

We also wanted to better understand housing providers' roles in this process and if there were opportunities for connection between early education providers and housing providers.
Facilitating this connection would help to decrease barriers for parents system wide and open more lines of communication across different social service factions.

As always, our primary goal is to increase enrollment of young children experiencing homelessness into high quality early education programs. 

Overall, 33 families and 19 early education and housing providers participated. 

We are extremely grateful to all those who participated in helping us better understand the present climate regarding this endeavor.

We would like to thank our community partners from PHMC , Drueding Center , PEC Rowan House , Salvation Army Red Shield , and CHOP Karabots for being such accommodating and gracious hosts. 

We expect findings from all the focus groups within the coming months and are excited to share with the community once the data are ready to be disseminated.
New Federal Policy Announcement 


The statement recommends ways early childhood and housing providers at the local and state levels can collaborate to better meet the needs of pregnant women and families with young children who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The statement is being released due to the importance of addressing early childhood homelessness, as this infographic shows. 

In the United States, infancy is the age at which individuals are most likely to enter shelter or transitional housing, followed by ages one to five, and homelessness during pregnancy and in the early years can be harmful to children's development.

L. to R., Grace Whitney, Will Curran-Groome, Marsha Basloe, Amanda Atkinson.
BELL Attends NAEHCY Conference

More than 1,300 leaders from throughout the United States attended the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, including BELL leaders Amanda Atkinson,  Will Curran-Groome,  Janette Herbers , J.J. Cutuli , Joe Willard , and . 

Multiple workshops discussed the new regulations that benefit young children to improve access to Head Start and child care. 

U.S. Administration of Children and Families'  Marsha Basloe  and Connecticut's Head Start director  Grace Whitney  explained the new regulations. Both Basloe and Whitney are advisers to the BELL project. 

Janette Herbers and JJ Cutuli present workshop on risk and resiliency at NAEHCY Conference

Workshop on new Head Start and Child Care regulations benefiting young homeless children 

The Children's Work Group Early Childhood Committee is hosting a workshop to show what local leaders need to consider to implement the new regulations. 

Mark your calendar for Friday, November 18, 9:25 AM to 11:00 AM. The workshop will be held at Children's Hospital at 3535 Market Street, 16th floor, Room D. 

The workshop will feature several leaders. Amanda Atkinson, Senior Director, Early Childhood Initiatives at PHMC, and Abigail McMahon, School District of Philadelphia, will present on the new Head Start regulations.  

Norma Finkelstein and Lillie Guytonwallace will discuss the new child care regulations. Norma is the Director of the Child Care Information Services of NE Philadelphia, and Lillie is the Regional Subsidy Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). 

To register for this workshop, click here, then click the link on the calendar. 

BELL is s upported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation. 
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region through efforts that increase educational opportunities for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. In partnership with others, the Foundation works to advance opportunity, ensure sustainability, and enable effective solutions. Since inception, the Foundation has made nearly 10,000 grants totaling over $1.6 billion.
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