Date: February 9, 2021
Contact: The Early Childhood Resource Center - Sandy Turner (330) 491-3272
MEDIA ADVISORY: Audrey Nelson Community Development Certificate of Distinction Award awarded to the Early Childhood Resource Center of Canton
The Early Childhood Resource Center received a 2021 National Community Development Association (NCDA) Audrey Nelson Community Development Certificate of Distinction Award.
The award is named in honor of Audrey Nelson, who was the first Deputy Executive Secretary of NCDA. She grew up in an inner-city Chicago neighborhood which was a target area for the local Model Cities Program, a precursor to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program.
The City of Canton awarded the Early Childhood Resource Center $40,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for a year-long program that helped Canton residents start their own family child care businesses.
The program, which began in August 2018, paved a career path for the participants while increasing the amount of high-quality child care that is available in the Southeast and Northeast areas of Canton.
An Early Childhood Specialist worked with each participant to create an individual plan. Weekly monitoring and coaching was provided that included physical set up of each location, starting a personal business and training that included Health & Safety and Family Child Care Business Practices.
All of the participants have worked to complete their Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential, a national credential for early childhood. To achieve this, the participant must attend classes, acquire 480 working hours, produce a required portfolio, be observed and take the credential test. The Early Childhood Specialist led the class and coached the participants. The credential is required for the state qualification of Step Up to Quality rating that all child care providers must receive to enter into a contract to provide child care with the state.
The grant also provided environmental materials and developmentally appropriate toys for each participant to use in their new family child care businesses.
With these new family child care businesses open seven days a week, they could impact 90 children!