SSTC Partners with Dogwood Health Trust to Build Pathways to Early Childhood Education
One of the key visions of Smart Start of Transylvania County (SSTC) is to see that all young children in North Carolina receive a high quality education that prepares them for success in their school and home lives. Children that are cared for in a loving, emotionally-supportive environment in early childhood are more likely to grow into healthy, well-adjusted, and resilient adults who can in turn build a stronger workforce and a brighter world for us all. The foundation needed to provide this future for our children and ourselves starts with dedicated, high-quality educators.
In recent years, the early childhood teaching field has suffered a critical loss of educators, with many leaving to pursue fields that offer higher pay, fewer challenges, and lower emotional investment. This mass exodus, along with a sharp growth in the number of families with young children living in Transylvania County, has dramatically reduced capacity in local early childhood care settings since the pandemic. Many parents are struggling to return to the workforce or unable to pursue educational opportunities due to an overall lack of childcare options. In order to adequately address the childcare drought in North Carolina, it is imperative that we work diligently to improve both the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators.
SSTC was awarded $550,000, to be distributed over five years, by Dogwood Health Trust, in order to implement the Pathways to Early Childhood Education (ECE) Workforce Stabilization & Expansion initiative. This grant, received in the spring of 2023, will support a variety of approaches to stimulate growth in the local ECE workforce, including engaging high school students, creating educational and financial pathways for teachers to ascend academically and climb the pay scale ladder, and offering internship and apprenticeship opportunities for members of this valuable workforce. The award will also fund the contracting of field experts, who will support ECE workers through specialized in-classroom guidance, targeted professional development, and pathways for career advancement.
As we work within this initiative to both support and retain current ECE, as well as recruit prospective ECE staff to the field, it is important that we equally recognize every modality of care. SSTC firmly believes in meeting people where they are and serving children of all backgrounds. Dogwood grant funding for this project will be directed to all forms of ECE providers and support a multi-pronged approach to building capacity. Whether children are being cared for in traditional licensed centers, faith-based or nature-based care settings, licensed Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs), or are being cared for by a family member, friend, or neighbor, we want to help all caregivers and providers to be able to sustainably offer high-quality care so that children across the region have equitable access to education.
Out of all forms of early childcare offered in Transylvania County, people may be most familiar with full-day, licensed childcare centers and part-day license-exempt church and nature-based care programs. Of 638 local students served in these childcare models, half are enrolled in licensed full-day care and the other half are enrolled in part-day license-exempt care. Part-day care fills the gap created by the limited spaces available in full-day licensed care and offers families choice in instruction type and setting. With grant funding, SSTC will work to increase access to wage supplements for license-exempt caregivers, so that they are able to earn a liveable wage and care for children long-term.
SSTC and Dogwood also recognize the value in lesser-known models of care and the significant role they play in building childcare capacity in the region. Nearly 1,000 of the 1,614 children ages 0-5 in Transylvania County are not enrolled in, or do not have access to, center-based care. In order to equally support these children and their families, this grant award will benefit home-based child care (HBCC) in addition to center-based child care.
Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) care, a form of unlicensed HBCC, is the most widely available form of childcare in rural settings, where families often face transportation barriers and may have few, if any, licensed child care settings available to them in their area. FFN caregivers are often the least recognized caregivers in our community, despite the fact that they care for the largest number of children.
SSTC has built a comprehensive care network for FFN providers in order to connect them to a number of free educational resources, supply them with academic materials for them to use with the children they care for in their home, and provide them with financial assistance. The Dogwood funded grant will allow SSTC to build upon this work in order to offer FFN providers professional development and academic opportunities including equity training and access to ECE credential pathways so that they are equipped with all additional forms of support they may need to offer high quality care for the children in their homes.
Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) are a small but burgeoning form of licensed, regulated care that is provided in a residence. Similarly to FFN care settings, FCCH’s are particularly impactful in more rural areas that are geographically distant from traditional childcare centers. They also have the potential to significantly increase capacity for children ages 0-2. While larger centers often find the cost of caring for infants and toddlers financially unfeasible, FCCH’s are able to serve this age group more efficiently thanks to their smaller size. Currently, children 2 and under are the most underserved population in educational settings in Transylvania County. In order to address this gap, SSTC will work with established and successful providers in the community, who can lead prospective caregivers along the pathway to opening their own FCCH.
This commitment to uplifting the providers and children within all childcare settings aligns with SSTC and Dogwood’s shared commitment to strive towards equity across all forms of childcare. We recognize all parents have the right to choose a form of childcare that is accessible and affordable and that aligns with their values and culture. As we work to meet the needs of local families through quality education and care of children ages 0-5, SSTC staff members will also undergo training on achieving equity in ECE settings, in order to ensure that we are best able to serve all families in our community, across varied backgrounds.
Every provider deserves to work in a supportive environment where they are able to grow their skillset, appropriately care for their physical and emotional health, and afford all of life’s basic necessities. Likewise, every child deserves to be cared for in a loving, nurturing environment where they are able to reach all social and emotional development milestones and receive enriching lessons that prepare them to enter school ready to learn and engage. Thanks to the generous funding of Dogwood, we are one step closer to realizing a future where all caregivers and families in Transylvania County are equipped with the financial, emotional, and educational support they need to thrive and succeed.
Written by: Aiyanna Lollis and Published by: The Transylvania Times
