At ChildSavers, we believe ALL children can be safe, happy, healthy, and ready to learn.
Our Child Development Services (CDS) team is a critical part of ChildSavers and through this program, our team of child development experts provide free or low-cost training, technical assistance, and resources for child care providers to deliver quality care. We support child care providers with a broad range of training and professional development opportunities that include credentialing, mentoring, and nutrition education.
The CDS team has done some impressive work since July, and read below to see each program’s highlights!
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What our Child Development Services team has accomplished since July:
Did you know that ChildSavers is part of national The Child and Adult Food Care Program (CACFP)? This program gives cash reimbursement to child care providers for the nutritious meals and snacks they serve to the children in their care.
Our CACFP team has a goal to bring twenty new providers onto the program in the fiscal year 2023, and we are currently at 65% of the goal five months into FY23! The team is fully staffed and continues to make outreach and relationship building a priority, resulting in the increase of programs applying to join the CACFP.
Are you looking for a quick and inexpensive way to further your early childhood education? The Child Development Associate is a 15-month course covers topics such as learning environments, encouraging creativity in young children, and program management. Enrollment in the last five months was boosted from a solicitation providing information about the benefits of earning a CDA and how this nationally recognized credential could advance child care providers’ careers. Cohorts were made available both virtually and in person to meet the needs and learning styles of the different candidates. Class content focused on CDA competency standards that had practical and immediate application to work in an early childhood classroom.
Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) is a measurement and improvement system that focuses on the quality of all publicly-funded birth-five classrooms and supports families to choose quality programming across different program types. Since the end of August 2022 to December 2022, the team has completed 749 observations (47% of their goal!) with the help of 38 observers.
Our Virginia Quality team provided technical assistance and resources for participants in VQB5 this fall, including multiple trainings on the Virginia Early Learning and Development Standards and general information about some of the more popular curriculums available. Our existing relationships with many of the these providers allowed us to have conversations with providers and opportunities for them to ask questions about which curriculums might be a good fit based on their needs.
ChildSavers is a member organization of Child Care Aware of Central Virginia, Virginia’s child care resource and referral agency and most trusted child care resource.
The CCA Team reached our region’s 26 counties and cities this year providing professional development opportunities, technical assistance, and outreach. By listening to what they need, such as: quality enhancements to curriculum, behavior management techniques, successful program management of teachers and families; we are able to guide them to their goals which provide better outcomes for the children.
Voluntary Registration is a form of regulation offered to family day homes that are not required by law to be licensed. This program has been successful at assisting programs with their renewals this year so they can continue providing quality care to children. Our team is dedicated to making sure renewals remain active to avoid closure, and deliver in-person and virtual hands on support to providers in the areas of documentation preparation, health and safety requirements, and best practices resources.
The Virginia Infant and Toddler Specialist Network (VAITSN) equips child care professionals with the skills needed to provide quality early care and education to children ages 0 – 3. ITSN has built relationships with providers and, in spite of not being able to start coaching for many of our specialists, they have provided TA to multiple classrooms. They are finding it easier to get people signed on this year as they are so eager for support.
Additional Resources
- We are always adding training opportunities to our calendar. Visit our page to see what we have coming soon.
- Blog: Read our August Provider Spotlight who Completed our CDA Program
- Video: What is Child Care Aware of Central Virginia?
