Last year we had multiple funding opportunities for workforce development in the prenatal to age five space. These opportunities included the Prenatal to Five Workforce Collaborative RFP and the Training Provider and Systems Coordinator RFQ. Both investments promote prenatal-five workforce professional development in King County with an emphasis on racial equity, healthy child development, infant and early childhood mental health, and child care health consultation.
We aim to design and implement a professional development system that promotes equitable outcomes and is aligned with the emerging Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health system.
Our hope is that providers and leaders who participate in the professional development system will:
- strengthen knowledge and skills regarding equity, healthy child development and infant and early childhood mental health
- change attitudes and beliefs in their work with children and families
- understand trauma-informed practice
- increase their knowledge of systems that support families with young children and how to refer and collaborate with these systems
- increase self-efficacy, sense of well-being and reflective capacity.
We are excited to introduce you to our awardees!
Workforce Collaborative Awardees
- Center for Human Services
- Children’s Therapy Center
- El Centro de la Raza
- Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center
- Kindering
- Northwest Center for Early Intervention
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- SOAR
- Somali Parents Education Board
- Southwest Youth and Family Services
- Word Relief Seattle
Workforce Collaboratives embody a variety of roles within the prenatal-five workforce, such as home visitors, early childhood educators, early interventionists (speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, audiologists, vision specialists), special educators, family resource coordinators, pediatric residents, nurses, doulas, lactation consultants, program managers, parent educators, and more!
Many serve populations that face disparities in a variety of health and educational outcomes, such as children and families of African descent, Latinx children and families, medically fragile babies, children with special needs, refugee populations, and low-income families.
Our Systems Coordinators will match appropriate Trainers/Consultants with each Workforce Collaborative depending on specific training needs as well as coordinate funding for reducing or eliminating barriers to training access (including funding for a convener from each Workforce Collaborative to help coordinate).
Training Provider and Systems Coordinator Awardees
- WithinReach
- WestEd
- Washington Association of Infant Mental Health (WA-AIMH)
Rather than one time trainings, our goal is continuous improvement through a coordinated professional development system. Our systems coordinators will support Best Starts in developing the professional development system consisting of large-group trainings, small-group trainings, post-training support, and reflective consultation coordination for the prenatal-five workforce.
We are also very excited to collaborate with the following trainers and consultants:
These trainers and consultants will be developing and offering a wide range of trainings and supports. Some of these trainings will be available to any service provider in King County serving families with children through age five. Others are restricted to specific groups. Want to know where you may fit in and can benefit from this Best Starts investment? See below!
We are excited to build momentum together and are bringing partners together for a kick off event next week! Later this month, trainers and consultants will be participating in an exciting cross-training event, where they will get the opportunity to leverage one another’s expertise to build their own knowledge and competencies across the priority topic areas of Racial Equity, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, and Healthy Child Development.
We will be sure to share training public training opportunities as they arise so stay tuned!