The Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council is pleased to announce that it has awarded a grant to  Abilities Network in the amount of $75,000 to provide intensive, customized technical assistance to child care providers throughout Maryland to increase skills, knowledge, and capacity. As a result of this investment, more children with developmental disabilities and special health care needs will be in child care settings alongside children without disabilities throughout the state.

This initiative,  Child Care: Building Capacity Through Technical Assistance, addresses the Council's Five-Year State Plan Objective to "increase access to inclusive opportunities in early childhood care and education, school, and out-of-school time activities." 

With the funding, Abilities Network will increase the capacity of child care providers statewide using three major components: Strategy, Action, and Reflection (STAR). The project will use reflective coaching and require the participation of child care program directors and classroom staff so the strategies learned are retained to benefit many children. Activities will include providing at least three technical assistance sessions, both in-person and remotely, to 75 providers throughout Maryland. By the project's conclusion, at least 225 technical assistance sessions will be facilitated. The program's effectiveness will be measured by the number of child care providers who, as a result of this technical assistance, have increased confidence and ability to include children with disabilities and special health care needs and the number of children with developmental disabilities and their families that get and keep inclusive child care.  Read the  project summary   here.   

Morgan Durand Horvath, M.Ed., Director of Project ACT at Abilities Network, says, "Families depend on early childhood professionals to provide high quality care for their children and we are honored to be awarded these funds from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council so that we can provide them with much needed support.  We will use these funds to offer coaching and mentoring to early childhood professionals across the state . . . Using evidence based inclusive practices, we hope to build their skills and capacity so that they feel confident in educating and caring for children of all abilities. Abilities Network Project ACT has a deep commitment to the child care community and looks forward to expanding our support to early childhood professionals across the state of Maryland."

 

Contact  Morgan Durand Horvath, M.Ed., Director of Project ACT  at Abilities Network for more information about this initiative: mhorvath@abilitiesnetwork.org.

child care impact sheet.  Follow Council communications for updates on grantees and information about new Requests for Proposals. Go to md-council.org.