RRRECC

Vision: All children enter school healthy and ready to learn

Mission: To promote and support a system of quality, accessibility, affordability, of early childhood for families in the Rural Resort Region

The Rural Resort Region Early Childhood Council - Western Division will:

* Continue to develop research driven, best practice approaches
* Improve quality and increased capacity
* Clearly define measures to demonstrate effectiveness of initiatives and strategies
* Promote awareness among stakeholders and educate citizens regarding the benefits

So that communities will:

* Impact resources to support the emerging Early Childhood System
* Promote and support a system of quality, accessible, affordable, early childhood services with families in the Rural Resort Region - Western Division

Partnerships:

The Council has partnered with local Department of Human Services in each county to support, advocate and fund special initiatives. For more information on the Rural Resort Region, please see:

Eagle County DHHS: http://www.eaglecounty.us/HHS/

Garfield County DHS: http://www.garfield-county.com/Index.aspx?page=573

Lake County DHS: http://www.lakecountyco.com/humanservices/

Pitkin County DHS:  http://www.aspenpitkin.com/Departments/Health-Human-Services/

Listed below are a number of state and local organizations. The Council realizes that there are many more resources to add to the list and will be doing so as we continue to develop the website. Please contact the Council if you have any questions regarding these or if you would like to add a link.

Colorado Children's Campaign is a non-profit organization that is the primary legislative advocate for issues of concern to Colorado's young children and their families. www.coloradokids.org

Qualistar serves as the Colorado’s child care resource and referral agency and provides quality ratings for licensed providers. www.qualistar.org

Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) is the state component of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAAEYC). This is an association of Early Care & Education professionals focused on the continual improvement of the field. www.coloradoaeyc.org

Colorado Dept of Education is the primary funder of the RRRECC’s systems building efforts, along with the following two State Departments: www.cde.state.co.us
Colorado Department of Human Serviceswww.cdhs.state.co.us
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/

Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation is a private foundation that funds the RRRECC’s professional development funds, which offers childcare providers college scholarships, as well as mentoring during their studies. www.buellfoundation.org

Kids First is both the local childcare resource and referral agency and the fiscal agent for the RRRECC http://www.aspenpitkin.com/Departments/Kids-First 

The Early Childhood Network is a non-profit organization that promotes the availability of quality, affordable early childhood education, and provides access to childcare information and resources for Garfield, Pitkin and Eagle counties.  For more information, please contact their office at 970-928-7111 or http://www.earlychildhoodnet.org/

Early Childhood Partners works with licensed childcare centers and the families served by those centers in Eagle County to provider coaching, assessment and consultation in the areas of learning environments, curriculum, and socio-emotional development. Please contact Jeanne McQueeney at 970-328-0774

Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) is low-cost health insurance for Colorado's uninsured children and pregnant women. CHP+ is public health insurance for children and pregnant women who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford private health insurance. www.chpplus.org

Colorado Association of Family Childcare is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and education of licensed family child care providers in the state of Colorado.

Mountain Valley Developmental Services provides a comprehensive array of services to children and adults with developmental disabilities. www.mtnvalley.org

School Districts within the Rural Resort Region:

Aspen School District: www.aspenk12.net
Roaring Fork School District: www.rfsd.k12.co.us
Western Garfield County Schools: www.garfieldre2.k12.co.us, http://admin.garcoschools.org, http://admin.garcoschools.org/
Lake County Schools: www.lakecountyschools.net
Eagle County Schools: www.eagleschools.net

Early Childhood Systems

Colorado is one of many states across the nation striving to link early learning, health, mental health, family support, and parent education so that families and children experience a predictable, high-quality continuum of services and supports. Called "systems-building" work, these efforts also work to align state- and local-level policies across programs, funding streams, and regulatory agencies.

Currently, early childhood programs and services exist across the Rural Resort Region in various agencies and organizations. These are critical components to the comprehensive system and many agencies and organizations make significant contributions to local planning. The Rural Resort Region Early Childhood Council-Western Division has designed our strategic plan to address the whole system of early childhood care and parallel the goals that the state has already identified. The goals and outcomes from the state can be viewed in the published Early Childhood Colorado Framework.