Executive Director

Dear Friends,

We have had a most productive and positive year.  We served more than 550 children in child care programming and another 460 families and children in our family support programs.

Early in the year, the renovations to the Monument Square Early Childhood Center, were completed, which included new lighting and carpeting in the hallways, tile flooring in the classrooms, cubbies for the children, and   improving access and storage for the infant room.  These   improvements were partially funded with a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. At the end of the year, CCB

received a large grant from the MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to participate in the Quality Rating Improvement Scale (QRIS) pilot project.  This grant allowed the four child care centers and eight family child care (FCC) providers to purchase a wide range of new equipment and make improvements in play yards and  plan family engagement activities.  The classroom  improvements coupled with the facility renovations were most  worthwhile initiatives with long lasting impact on both children and parents and a boost to staff and FCC provider morale.

We were able to renew our child care contracts with the Department of Early Education and Care for child care services, for both children of working families and for at-risk children, including the children of teen parents.  We also renewed our contract for the Healthy     Families Program, which offers home visiting, parent education and support to pregnant and parenting adolescents.  CCB is very proud to have been re-contracted by the Children’s Trust Fund in this open bid process;  the agency has many years of experience providing these services and the Healthy Families Program was credentialed in 2008.  Additionally, in order to better coordinate services to  families in Northern Berkshire, we merged four different programs into the Family Resource Center, including  the Family Net,  the  Community Partnership and the Parent Child Home Programs.  We also expanded outreach and services of the Family Resource   Center to include school-age  children and their parents.

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our bid to continue to provide access to voucher subsidies and professional development.

The State chose to contract for these services on a more regional basis, awarding contracts
to agencies based in Springfield, and the Resources for Child Care Program ended.
CCB continues to be governed by an experienced and active Board of Directors.  They have spent the past year putting together a    Strategic Plan to ensure the stability of the agency.  Our staff is made up of many, many persons with strong early childhood and family support backgrounds who work very hard on behalf of  children and families.  They have embraced all the new quality improvement initiatives, including a new assessment tool, a new screening tool, and the levels of the QRIS.  They are committed to providing high quality services and are learning new skills.

We are looking forward to the coming year, to continue to pursue new projects and activities that meet the needs of our families.

Thank you for your interest and support.

 

Anne Nemetz-Carlson
Executive Director