In our regional Action Plan, the Northern Windsor and Orange BBF council identified “children have positive learning experiences and are properly aware of their emotions” and “professionals have knowledge and resources regarding children’s social and emotional health” as two important aspirations for the region. We have identified Early Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (Early MTSS) as one vehicle to reach these goals. In October, members from the region attended a two-day workshop to learn more about how we can implement Early MTSS at a regional level in a coordinated manner. Currently there are a few different pockets around the region that are implementing Early MTSS at different stages of fidelity: Orange County Parent Child Center, Orange East Supervisory Union, Windsor School and Windsor County Head Start. After attending the training, we decided to begin a region wide implementation leadership team. We have had one meeting to date and are in the process of increasing membership to that group, learning more about what is happening in the region, determining action steps and working through some logistics. Our goal is to eventually be able to support any program interested in implementing the framework, but we understand that we are just at the very beginning of the process and this will be a long term effort.
The council, along with Orange County Parent Child Center and Vermont Farm to School, have been working together to plan and host an upcoming training for early care professionals to strengthen knowledge of farm to early care. The training will take place on December 1st.
Lastly, at our November NWO council meeting we learned about the legislative agenda that the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance will support this year and discussed potential implications of possible legislation. Council members learned about how to build relationships with legislators and ways to advocate effectively.
