News

MASSACHUSETTS February 2017 – The Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP), a leading early literacy/school readiness organization working in 14 states across the country with 114 partner agencies, is proud to announce that Child Care of the Berkshires was awarded a $250,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. These funds will allow the agency to implement PCHP’s Family Child Care model. “It is a top priority of the Department of Early Education and Care to help all programs deliver high-quality care for children, and the Parent Child Home Program will help family child care educators provide enriching environments that support children’s growth and development,” said Early Education and Care Commissioner, Tom Weber. “Providing professional development and guidance to caregivers and families on positive adult-child interactions will help optimize child development, enhance children’s learning experiences, and increase the quality of programs.” Through subcontracts with five PCHP sites, 35 family child care providers statewide will be reached.

Child Care of the Berkshires will subcontract with the Family Nurturing Center in Boston, Leominister Public Schools, the Montachusett Opportunity Council Inc., Worcester Public Schools, and Collaborative Education Services working in Franklin and Hampshire Counties.

“We are thrilled to expand our Family Child Care model in Massachusetts to reach more under-resourced children and families and provide them with the tools, knowledge, and skills so that they can go on to succeed in school and in life. Thank you to the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care for this opportunity to ensure that not only can we give many more families access to school readiness supports for their children but also provide important skill development for FCC providers that will benefit many additional children.” – Sarah Walzer, PCHP CEO

PCHP’s Training and Program Support Director, Michele Morrison, and PCHP’s Family Child Care Project Manager, Sarah Howard, are leading a training March 16 and 17, bringing together all six sites in Massachusetts.

PCHP Family Child Care (FCC) is adapted from PCHP’s evidence-based one-on-one home visiting model, to extend similar supports to the diverse array of family child care settings operating in under-resourced communities. PCHP FCC focuses on enriching the school readiness and early literacy focus of family child care settings by working with providers to build on the unique strengths of home-based care. Utilizing PCHP’s experience building language, literacy, and learning rich home environments, Early Learning Specialists work one-on-one with providers to support school readiness for all the children in their care.

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About The Parent-Child Home Program: PCHP is a national early childhood literacy, parenting, and school readiness program. The evidence-based Program effectively bridges the achievement gap for underserved children through intensive home visiting with children ages two to four and their parents or by working directly with Family Child Care providers. In both models, Trained Early Learning Specialists model reading, play, and conversation activities using books and educational toys that are gifts to the family or child care provider. Over five decades of research demonstrates that PCHP increases parent-child interaction, improves children’s performance on school readiness and third grade assessments, and increases high school graduation rates by 30% – to the same level as middle class students. To learn more about PCHP’s history, please visit our website: www.parent-child.org.

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