Child Care Keeps California Working and Children Learning
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHILD CARE ALLIANCE 

P lease enjoy this Spring 2017 edition of our Newsletter.  The month of March began with the celebration of Dr Seuss's birthday.  In these trying times, I'd like to remind us that our commitment to our children is more important than ever.  So, to quote Dr. Seuss:  "A person's a person, no matter how small."

We're also continuing our individual introductions of our partners in our   Meet the Alliance Agencies section of this newsletter.  This edition features Child Care Resource Center and its CEO, Dr. Michael Olenick, who was recently appointed as a Commissioner on Assembly Speaker Rendon's Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education.

Thanks for reading,

Cristina Alvarado
Executive Director
Michael Olenick, Ph.D., Selected for Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education (ECE)

Michael Olenick, Ph.D., President & CEO of the Child Care Resource Center, and Vice Chair of Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles (CCALA), was selected by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to serve on the newly created Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education. 

Congratulations, Dr. Olenick!

We applaud Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for his vision and support of the Early Childhood Education field by creating this policy driven body tasked with developing strategic solutions to improve outcomes for some of California's youngest learners and their families.


Meet the Alliance Agencies:


Since 1976, the Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) has been dedicated to furthering its vision of "healthy and strong children and families living in thriving communities."  The agency manages a variety of programs and services that help parents access child care, go to work and attend school, contribute to the economy, and strengthen their families and the community.

With a team of over 700 professionals in more than 25 locations, the agency serves more than 35,000 clients in a 22,500 mile service area covering northern Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties each month.

Programs include:
  • Alternative Payment Program
  • CalWORKs Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3
  • Family Child Care Home Network
  • Head Start and Early Head Start
  • Early Head Start - Child Care Partnership
  • Home Visiting
  • Quality Start LA & Quality Start San Bernardino 
CCRC offers online and in person child care professional development training and technical support, and many free or low cost resources. High quality trainings are available to those who work with young children and families through the agency's Academy. Topics include special needs identifications and services, guiding behavior, program development and CPR/First aid training and certification.

"Over the years, we have weathered many challenges, both positive and negative, and each time we have emerged stronger, more secure, and more resolute. In our communities, more than 20% of adults over age 25 have less than a high school diploma. One in five residents are living in poverty. We will continue to advocate for children and families to ensure that all have the opportunity to achieve their dreams. We will continue to find ways to grow our influence and to support our staff so that they can support our customers. I am certain that we thrive because what we do matters not just to us, but to all those we serve," says Dr. Michael Olenick, President & CEO.

As the agency's top executive for almost 15 years, he is recognized at the local, state and national level as a leader in research, public policy and advocacy.  Dr. Olenick has received appointments to Governor Brown's State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care as well as Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon's Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education. He and his staff have developed a state of the art Research & Evaluation Division that provides internal and external stakeholders with useful tools and information for program evaluation, forecasting and strategic planning, contract compliance, and advocacy.

CCRC also has a robust Government Relations program working in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, Sacramento and Washington DC.  In a service area that covers 11 Congressional Districts, nine State Senate Districts, and 14 State Assembly Districts, CCRC  strives to be engaged and aware of policy decisions and to participate in policy discussions to inform those decisions.

The Communications and Creative Bridge teams work together with internal and external clients to create innovative and high impact solutions through marketing, design and printing. Their one stop shop approach delivers top notch communications to bring stories to life digitally and in print. Their social enterprise ventures provide an additional benefit to the children and families they serve.

CCRC's mission is to cultivate child, family and community well-being. The agency has been an active member of the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles since its inception.



Gateways for Early Educators - Final Report
Training Program

The Gateways for Early Educators™ (Gateways)  professional development system includes a training program for early childhood education professionals across the county.  Offered through the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles (CCALA) member agencies, hundreds of workshops provide valuable information on topics such as child development & learning and health and nutrition, every year.  Between 2011 and 2016 over 3,300 Gateways training workshops helped over 10,000 early childhood education (ECE) professionals get information they need to provide high quality child care and serve children and families.

In 2016, Gateways successfully partnered with the California Early Care and Education Workforce Registry (the Registry) to offer all training workshops.  This enables all training participants with a Registry profile to sign up and track all their training accomplishments.  In addition, participants can also track their progress towards completing a Gateways Passport.  The Passport is a professional development pathway with 12 topic areas aligned with the California ECE Competencies.  A Passport is completed when a participant attends at least two trainings in each topic area.


Coaching Report

The Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles (CCALA), together with its ten member agencies completed its  coaching portion of the Gateways for Early Educators™ Program (Gateways). 
 
Offered by CCALA from 2012-2016 as a partner of the Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Consortium funded by First 5 Los Angeles, the coaching program successfully helped 3,382 child care providers improve the quality of their child care practice and work towards their professional development and educational goals.
 
Below is an overview  of our accomplishments:






Public Policy Update
As of the publication of this newsletter, the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles (CCALA) has taken the following positions on proposed State legislation. 

CCALA supports the following bills:

AB 60  (Santiago & Gonzalez): Establishes initial or ongoing eligibility of not less than 12 months for subsidized child care, except as provided also eliminates time limits on CPS and "at risk". Increases the income eligibility level for services (SMI) to 85% at current market level.

AB 273  (Aguiar-Curry): Adds ESL and High School Equivalency (HSE) certification prep courses to the existing eligibility requirements for subsidized child care.

AB 1164  (Thurmond): Relates to bridge funding for child care subsidies for foster children.

SB 78  (Leyva): Beginning with FY 2017-18 and each year thereafter, appropriates $99.3M in additional funding to CDE for the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program as a result of the minimum wage increase. Requires DOF to annually adjust the program funding as the minimum wage increases using a specified calculation.

CCALA opposes the following bills:

AB 278 (Arambula),  AB 300 (Caballero)  AB 37 7(Frazier), A B 435 (Thurmond). These bills would authorize the development of individualized County child care subsidy plan pilots for several different counties.  We believe it is critical to address the full system for all California rather than introducing pilot solutions county by county.






Meet CCALA's new Staff

W e have new staff members at CCALA.  We are pleased to welcome Anthony Gomez, ECE Registry Outreach Coordinator,  Terja Gibson, QRIS Program Assistant, and Lileana Cepeda, Coaching Specialist, 
 
Anthony does outreach for the ECE Registry to encourage and assist providers enroll in the ECE Registry.  Terja Gibson provides valuable support to our QRIS program. Lileana joins Zenaida, our Professional Development Coordinator in developing the Coaching Model for the QRIS program.



Left to right:  Anthony Gomez, Terja Gibson, and Lileana Cepeda


 
Job Announcements at CCALA
Currently, we have three open positions posted at our website:   www.ccala.net   



For more information,  http://www.ccala.net/about/employment/  



CCALA IS AN ALLIANCE OF TEN AGENCIES
Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles  |  (323) 274-1380  |  www.ccala.net