In addition to supporting the professional development of early care and education providers, regional councils support the professional development of other grantees so they can be more successful in addressing the needs of young children and families.
Funding Plan Highlights
Cocopah
The Cocopah Tribe Region, in collaboration with the Yuma Region, provides high-quality professional development opportunities and support to home visitation parent educators. The strategy includes training focused on the challenges and needs that home visitors experience in their work with families. The goal of the strategy is to increase a home visitor’s knowledge base and skills in early childhood education and apply new knowledge and skills to their everyday work.
Yuma
The Yuma Regional Partnership Council invests in the Professional Development Strategy. The local strategy has an annual bilingual conference. The conference is at our local community college. This supports college enrollment and provides the feel of the FTF Early Childhood Summit in Yuma. The conference brings together more than 300 professionals in the region. The strategy also provides six half a day bilingual workshops during the school year. One of the unique parts of the strategy is its three community of practice (COP) groups (for educators, directors and home visitors). The educators’ COP is currently focused on early literacy. The COP for early child care directors is focused on leadership skills. The Home Visitation COP is focused on protective factors and is a cross-regional grant with the Cocopah Tribe Region. The COP brings all of the Yuma County’s home visitors together to enhance partnerships and team building.
Find more details about strategies related to Professional Development in the FTF Strategy Toolkit.