Showing posts with label Head Start. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Head Start. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

The National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness: Healthy Active Living Learning Collaborative

The National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness (NCECHW) is now accepting applications from programs to participate in a Learning Collaborative process. This professional development initiative will give 10 teams the chance to implement healthy active living interventions in their program.

About the Learning Collaborative: The Learning Collaborative will include 3 separate in-person learning sessions to provide opportunities to build fundamental knowledge and skills as well as team building and peer to peer learning for healthy active living initiatives within: staff wellness, nutrition education, physical activity, and family engagement. Virtual training and technical assistance will be held quarterly between learning sessions. Most of these virtual trainings will include a peer-to-peer component, where participating programs will share their successes and challenges. Other virtual opportunities will include training for specific staff members in the program such as menu development for food service staff. Teams will make systematic changes to improve their program and measure progress. An evaluator will assist teams to capture meaningful data and outcomes. The teams will participate in a final in-person session in order to document successes, best practices, barriers, and implementation strategies; teams should be prepared to share the outcomes of their action plans at this meeting.

Who should apply? 
Early Head Start, Head Start, child care, family child care, and preschool programs are eligible to apply. This opportunity is open to programs with previous experience in implementing healthy active living related policies and programs as well as those seeking to begin this work. 

The Application Process: 
Teams will have until 3:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 to submit their applications. Selected programs will receive $3,000 each to assist with the costs of facilitating activities that focus on programmatic and policy interventions. This support will be awarded in installments. 

The first installment will be released following attendance at the first in-person learning session with the final installment provided after completion of the third learning session. Acceptable expenses include securing meeting space, staff time to facilitate collaboration, general meeting supplies, etc. Applicants are asked to provide a brief budget narrative using the budget template provided.  


Important Dates and Deadlines

Applications are due no later than 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. This includes the Online Application and completed Budget Template. Applicants will be notified of an award decision the week of Nov. 21, 2016. For all other dates, review the full Call for Application Guidelines.

If you have any questions, please contact Florence Rivera, MPH at frivera@aap.org or 847/434-4790. 

I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles/blogs on my site. Your feedback is important to us....and we wish you the very best!

+KJC

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K. JEVON CHAMBERS, Th.D.
CHAMBERS CONSULTING GROUP
"Taking You Beyond Where You Are"

Email: consultchambersgrp@ymail.com



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Thursday, June 23, 2016

EHS Expansion and EHS-CC Partnership Funding Opportunity Announcements

Early Head Start Expansion
Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership
Funding Opportunity Announcements


The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces approximately $135 million in funding available to expand access to high-quality, comprehensive services for low-income infants and toddlers and their families. This funding will support the creation of Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships and the expansion of Early Head Start (EHS) services to children and families. ACF solicits applications from public entities, including states, or private non-profit organizations, including community-based or faith-based organizations, or for-profit agencies that meet eligibility for applying as stated in section 645A of the Head Start Act.

Find the Funding Opportunity Announcements
Monday June 27, 2016 2-3pm (EST)

On June 27, ACF will host a pre-application webinar for interested parties. It will provide details about EHS Expansion and EHS-CC Partnership grants.

The recorded webinar will be available to watch on-demand immediately after the presentation on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) Grant Application Toolkit under EHS-CC Partnerships.

I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles/blogs on my site. Your feedback is important to us....and we wish you the very best!

+KJC

PS. You can now download "
Taking You Beyond Where You Are Blogspot" on your Android Device; download the app today. 

K. JEVON CHAMBERS, Th.D.
CHAMBERS CONSULTING GROUP
"Taking You Beyond Where You Are"

Email: consultchambersgrp@ymail.com



Visit our Other Links

Monday, February 10, 2014

FY 2014 Head Start Funding Increase

President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 on January 17, 2014. This Act includes $8,598,095,000 for programs under the Head Start Act, representing an increase of approximately $1.025 billion over the fiscal year (FY) 2013 funding level.

The approximately $1.025 billion increase restores the 5.27 percent reduction from sequestration and provides all grantees with a 1.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The FY 2014 funding level also includes $500 million for expansion through the Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnership to support communities in expanding high-quality early learning and development opportunities for infants and toddlers.

This Program Instruction provides information about the additional funds that are available to Head Start and Early Head Start grantees in FY 2014 and describes the requirements for applying for the portion of these funds that are available for restoring operational funds reduced by sequestration and providing the COLA. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is developing a separate announcement about the EHS-CC Partnership funds and will be providing more information in the coming weeks about how to apply for these funds.

Grantees that already received partial funding for FY 2014 are eligible to receive a supplemental award to reflect the increased appropriation. Grantees that successfully competed for funds and received reduced awards due to sequestration are also eligible to receive these increases. All grantees are required to request these funds through a grant application.

Restoring Sequestration
The FY 2014 appropriation restores the 5.27 percent reduction grantees received in FY 2013 due to sequestration. The expectation is that grantees will use these funds to restore the number of funded enrollment slots, the number of days or weeks in the program year, or the other cuts programs made to absorb the reduction. If there are any circumstances that make full restoration of services or slots challenging, grantees should work with their Regional Office.

FY 2014 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA)
Each grantee may apply for a COLA increase of 1.3 percent of the FY 2012 base funding level. Base funding excludes training and technical assistance funds and any one-time funding grantees may have received in FY 2012. COLA funds are to be used to increase staff salaries and fringe benefits and to pay for higher operating costs.

Programs that use COLA funds to increase staff salaries should increase the hourly rate of pay and permanently increase the Head Start pay scale rather than only increase the salaries of current employees. Sections 653 and 640(j) of the Head Start Act provide further guidance on the uses and limitations of the COLA funds. Section 653 of the Act restricts compensation to a Head Start employee that is higher than the average rate of compensation paid for substantially comparable services in the area where the program is operating. Section 640(j) of the Act requires that the compensation of Head Start employees must be improved regardless of whether the agency has the ability to improve the compensation of staff employed by the agency that do not provide Head Start services.

Each grantee, as specified in 45 CFR 1301.31, is required to have personnel policies that specify salary rates and fringe benefits. Any grantee proposing differential COLA increases to staff or delegates must justify its rationale in its budget narrative.

Application Requirements
Grantees must submit a grant application or application amendment in the Head Start Enterprise System (HSES) that includes the Grant Application Budget Instrument (GABI), SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance, board and Policy Council approvals, program narrative, and budget narrative. Information on the increased amount of funds available to your agency for the restoration of operational funds reduced by sequestration and for the COLA will be available in HSES. Due dates for amended applications will also be available in HSES. Grantees that may need an extension of the due date for their grant application should contact their Regional Office.


As always, grantees encountering one-time needs, especially related to health and safety concerns, should contact their Regional Office throughout the year.


Please direct any questions regarding this Program Instruction to your Regional Office...and if your organization has a need for our services, feel free to reach out, we're here and very capable of "Taking You Beyond Where You Are..."

Thank you for your work on behalf of children and families.
+KJC

K. JEVON CHAMBERS, Th.D.
CHAMBERS CONSULTING GROUP
"Taking You Beyond Where You Are"

Email: consultchambersgrp@ymail.com


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Fulfill Head Start Hearing Screening Performance Standards

Attention All Head Start Providers:

Since 2001, the Office of Head Start has funded the ECHO Initiative to provide Early Head Start grantees and delegates with training and technical Child Being Screened assistance to implement up-to-date hearing screening and follow-up practices with children 0 - 3 years of age. One aspect of that is helping staff to become aware of relevant Head Start Performance Standards, including:

Grantees or delegate agencies must provide for hearing screening of all children within 45 days of a child's entry into the program, (45 CFR 1304.2), and...

The disabilities coordinator at each program must arrange for further, formal evaluation of a child who has been identified through screening as possibly having a disability (45 CFR 1308.6).

Additional policy clarifications suggest that:
A sensory screening tool must be used to identify potential hearing concerns rather than a paper screening tool (OHS-PC-B-025).

Also, because objective hearing screenings are rarely conducted by health care providers, it may be more:

Efficient and effective for programs to provide uniform screening for all children using objective screening instruments (OHS-PC-B-038).
OAE screening is recognized by the Office of Head Start as satisfying the Performance Standards and as the appropriate tool to use with children under three years of age being served in early childhood care settings. Watch a short, 5-minute video to learn more....and always, Chambers Consulting Group, LLC, is always here to assist your needs, so allow us to Take You Beyond Where you Are....

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Call for Reviewers


HSBS 2011 Grant Award Program


Each year Head Start Body Start expects to receive hundreds of proposals for Play Space Grant Awards. Select reviewers will score the proposals to ensure they are complete and align with the expectations of Head Start Body Start.  

They are looking for volunteers with experience in the fields of early childhood education and movement, playgrounds and facilities, and other related fields. Reviews will be conducted in June every year through 2012. 

If you are interested in reviewing proposals, e-mail us; subject line: "Play Space Reviewer."