DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL

QUALITY INITIATIVES - The Classroom Coaching and Quality Navigation teams supported 405 child care sites and 1,588 classrooms, impacting over 20,000 children across the city of Denver. 93% of program participants rated classroom coaching as vital to their sites success. In partnership with Denver Preschool Program, DECC launched a collaboration focusing on improving child health and development within Colorados Universal Preschool Program. Key areas include: oral health integration in classrooms and home settings, screening and referral services to support early detection and intervention for improved child outcomes, and capacity-building to help local communities support child care programs in meeting the new Healthy Development Quality Standards. DECCs Quality Navigation team played a pivotal role in administering funds from the State of Colorado to ensure that child care programs had the resources needed to enhance their services and improve outcomes for the children they serve. By working closely with providers, Navigators helped allocate funding for urgent needs such as curriculum materials, health and safety improvements, capital upgrades, technology, and workforce development initiatives. These strategic investments led directly to the creation of 623 new child care slots in high-need areas, addressing the shortage of quality child care services in underserved communities. Through close collaboration with child care providers, DECCs Navigators helped maximize the impact of these funds, driving improvements in the quality of care, learning environments, and workforce sustainabilityultimately benefiting the children of Denver. DECCs Business Services team facilitated real estate walk-throughs to help providers identify optimal locations for new or expanded child care facilities. These efforts resulted in new child care slots for 105 children.

CAREER PATHWAYS: The Career Coaching program played a pivotal role in addressing the challenges faced by early childhood professionals. It served as a significant resource for recruiting new talent into the field while also providing support to retain the existing workforce by working 1-1 with 538 individuals, with 80% of participants rating career coaching from the Council as imperative to the workforce. The Council continued to offer high-quality training for early childhood professionals, with a remarkable 70% surge in participation of professional development trainings compared to the previous fiscal year. This growth reflects the increasing demand for professional development opportunities among ECE providers and underscores the value of the Councils offerings in strengthening the early childhood workforce. The introduction of training programs in additional languages, such as Dari and Farsi, contributed to an 85% increase in non-English training sessions, broadening the reach of our services to a more diverse group of ECE professionals and fostering greater inclusivity within the community. The Conscious Discipline Training equipped educators with practical strategies for emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and classroom management, helping them create safe, supportive, and nurturing environments for children. That training alone served 488 participants with in-depth training courses and provided $70,000 worth of materials to 91 child care programs for educators to implement the strategies they learned during training. The Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference continued to be a hub of innovation, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration for professionals and advocates in the early childhood education field and served over 1,500 attendees with 154 sessions from 209 presenters. 96% would recommend RMECC to a friend or colleague and 87% of the attendees said the event met their expectations and professional goals.