![[Back to Home
Page]](../starting_points/gifs/home.gif)
Project Description:
Vermont is among the nation's leading states in providing high-quality health care and other supports for pregnant women, infants, children, and youth. In the past four years, Governor Howard Dean and the state legislature have expanded funding for prevention programs while closing a significant budget gap. Success by Six, introduced in 1992, aims to make high-quality child care and child health and family support services more accessible to those in need. The initiative is governed by an early childhood work group, comprising state agency and community leaders, early childhood program providers, children's advocates, and parents. Success by Six is developing core performance standards for all early childhood programs, is setting ambitious progress benchmarks for the entire state in meeting young children's needs, and is coordinating resources and staff training. Last year, the number of children on welfare, the child abuse and neglect rates, and the number of foster care placements fell dramatically.
Vermont has developed strong policies and a sustained financial commitment to meet the Starting Points goals. The Vermont project will develop the local capacity to implement these policies by developing Starting Points networks in each of the state's five regions. The networks will coordinate the services available to meet parents' needs, including child care, parenting education and parent support, home visiting, and preventive health programs. The networks will also be designed to strengthen local community partnerships so that they can manage their resources and develop strategic plans to meet the needs of young children and their families. The state will provide technical assistance and make small capacity-building grants to help launch and sustain the networks. Each community will select a fiscal agent, such as the local United Way, a community organization, or a school, to administer the seed grants provided by the state and to account for the community's performance.
A second key component of the initiative will build upon an innovative public-private partnership, the Child Care Fund of Vermont, established in July 1995 to address Vermont's need for high-quality child care. The fund plans to launch a statewide public education campaign on the importance of children's early years, with an emphasis on the need for high-quality child care. The fund will also make grants to communities to expand information and referral services to disadvantaged families and to provide incentives such as better staff preparation and compensation to improve child care quality.
Vermont's Starting Points project is managed jointly by the Vermont Agency of Human Services and the Vermont Community Foundation, which is responsible for the development of the Child Care Fund. Matching funds are provided by both organizations.
Major Program Components:
Contact:
Cheryl Mitchell
Deputy Secretary, Agency of Human Services/Education Collaboration
State of Vermont
103 South Main Street
Waterbury, VT 05671-0204
Tel: 802/241-2220, Fax: 802/241-2979
E-mail: cherylm@ahs.state.vt.us
Web: http://www.dsw.state.vt.us
Back
to Starting Points Home Page
Starting Points Web: http://www.carnegie.org/startingpoints
Starting Points E-mail:
startingpoints@carnegie.org