The Alaska Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Plan
The ECCS Impact project for 2016–2021 proposes to improve the developmental skills of place-based communities 0–3 year olds, the vision of the Alaska ECCS project is that Alaska children, families, and communities are safe and healthy, and to promote and protect the developmental health and well-being of Alaskan families. Alaska seeks to improve children’s developmental health and family wellness through improved linkage to necessary resources, reduction of the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and technical assistance for Primary Care Case Management. The long term goal is to build a sustainable system based on community driven solutions.
Methodology
The State of Alaska seeks to partner with community and tribal partners in the place-based communities of Kodiak, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Norton Sound Region to strengthen leadership and expertise in Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) approach, using the Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network (CoIIN) methodology, to drive vertical and horizontal integration and mobilization of early childhood services and systems at the state, community and family/child levels. Using the Collective Impact model, supported by the CoIIN, this project will produce, at the state level, increased integration of early childhood and other health and family wellness systems, development and adoption of core sets of indicators to measure Early Childhood system processes and outcomes, and testing innovative systems changes and improvements. At the community and family levels, this project will support the Collective Impact approach to integrate service delivery and collaboration, resulting in improved child development and family wellness, measured by a 25% increase from baseline in developmental skills in 0–3 year olds by 2021.
Population
In the place based communities of Norton Sound Region, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and Kodiak Island the population served will be 0–3 year old cohorts through the five year duration of the funding opportunity.
The first two and one-half years of the ECCS project were focused on developing the statewide Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Plan. The project brought together public and private partners from around the State of Alaska in a collaborative effort to review existing systems for children prenatal through age 8 and plan for their improvement. Over 100 stakeholders participated in workgroups that reviewed service delivery systems, current initiatives, funding streams, policies, best practices and information on the health/education status of young Alaskan children.
Recommendations were drafted by the workgroups on how systems serving this age group could be improved. The ECCS Plan was approved and published in the fall of 2006 and revised in the spring of 2009. The Alaska ECCS Plan provides direction in Alaska for the development of public policy for young children.
The Plan represents the past, present, and future. It incorporates the thinking from several past planning efforts as well as new ideas and solutions; recognizes the needs of today’s young children and their families; promotes “best practices,” those proven to be most successful; and gives us a vision for the future. The Plan does not intend to represent everything currently underway for young children, but strives to address systems gaps and identify improvements needed to assure that Alaska’s young children have the greatest opportunity for positive health and developmental outcomes.