Our Vision: All children are valued, healthy and thriving.

Taking Action Together

In Adams County, ECPAC's task is to convene decision-makers, stakeholders and citizens in order to maximize the positive impact of systems that serve young children and families during the critical early childhood years. ECPAC accomplishes this by collaboratively reviewing data, consolidating funding sources, ensuring public-private partnerships in the early childhood system, and implementing programming to bridge identified gaps.

Adams County leaders have long sought to coordinate services and programs to ensure that the children of Adams County achieve their potential - efforts that led to the formation of ECPAC. In 2004, local early childhood stakeholders came together and agreed that by working collaboratively they might be able to accomplish what none of them could do alone: improve the school readiness of children, increase service quality across the community and provide collective leadership on issues related to the early childhood system.

Following the initial 2004 meeting, and each year since, ECPAC has completed a facilitated strategic planning process where the broad variety of community stakeholders and partners together examine the needs of the community and establish a collaborative work plan for the coming year.

Currently, the ECPAC Governing & Advisory Boards are composed of citizens, parents, elected officials, and representatives from the following organizations:

Adams 12 Five Star Schools Adams 14 Adams 27J Adams 50 Adams County Family Child Care Association Adams County Head Start Adams County Human Services Adams County Youth Initiative Anythink Libraries Child Care Innovations Children's Outreach Project

Colorado Bright Beginnings Community Reach Center Front Range Community College Growing Home Invest in Kids Mapleton Public Schools North Metro Community Services Partnerships for Healthy Communities Salud Family Health Centers Tri-County Health Department

ECPAC also partners with more than 55 Adams County Early Care and Education programs on issues specifically related to Early Learning.

The Power of Partnerships

ECPAC has steadily grown in size and scope since 2004, leveraging strong community ties and financial resources to enhance the coordination and continuum of early childhood services for children and their families. Presently, ECPAC receives direct funding for the following local activities, as a result of the Board's determination that each serves to bridge an identified gap in the existing landscape of early childhood systems, services and supports:

Systems Building

Since its formation, ECPAC has completed three Comprehensive Community Needs Assessments and seven Strategic Plans - resulting in numerous accomplishments in the areas of Partnerships, Communication, Program Implementation and Service Quality - and generated over $4 million in new funds since 2005 to pursue and implement activities to improve the local early childhood system.

Annual Invest in Our Future Summit
ECPAC has hosted an annual early childhood public awareness event for Adams County community leaders since 2005; attended annually by 200-250 individuals.

A Better Adams County Starts with Our Kids
ECPAC developed a widely distributed brochure to assist parents in identifying and promoting their children's school readiness.

Our Families, Our Future Candidate Questionnaire
In partnership with the Adams County Youth Initiative and the Adams County Homeless to Home collaboration, ECPAC conducted a survey of candidates for elected office in 2010, soliciting their responses to questions about child and family issues.

ECPAC Child Care Center Directors' Round Table
ECPAC brings together a group of 25 Child Care Center Directors monthly to conduct co-planning, discussion and leadership development specifically focused on the Early Learning domain. This group works in tandem with ECPAC's existing Governing and Advisory boards.

Health

The first five years are an intense period of physical growth and development. Families and children need knowledge about child development, nutrition and wellness as well as access to high quality medical care. ECPAC is committed to promoting strong health practices in early childhood settings, by forming partnerships between medical providers, early childhood programs and families to ensure that the diverse health needs of children and families are satisfied. All Health activities are currently funded by the Colorado Trust.

Early Identification & Referral Systems
In partnership with North Metro Community Services, local school district Child Find teams, Community Reach Center, Kids In Need of Dentistry, Community Health Services, Partnerships for Healthy Communities and early care and education facilities, ECPAC has initiated work to better link early identification and screening systems - around families' health care needs, oral health needs, mental health needs and developmental concerns - with non-school district child care facilities.

Colorado Physical Activity & Nutrition Best Practices
In partnership with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Tri-County Health Department and Partnerships for Healthy Communities, ECPAC has designed and delivered training and technical assistance to 68 ECE professionals in these research-based best practices since June 2010.

Increasing Oral Health Access
In partnership with Tri-County Health Department, Cavity Free at Three, Kids in Need of Dentistry and Partnerships for Healthy Communities, ECPAC has initiated work to build professional dental screenings and services into existing community WIC clinics.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

In order to be ready for school and life, children must first learn to share, play and feel safe. To promote the social, emotional and mental health of Adams County children, ECPAC has partnered with early childhood programs across the county to implement evidence-based best classroom practices in this area, and provided individualized mental health consultation to empower parents and early childhood professionals with the knowledge and skills they need to support children's development of this critical foundation for later learning.

Incredible Years Dinosaur School
In partnership with Adams County Head Start, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Adams 14, Adams School District 27J, Adams 50, Mapleton Public Schools, and Invest in Kids, ECPAC has supported implementation of this Blueprints for Violence Prevention program in over 114 classrooms countywide, reaching over 2,200 children annually.

Center for the Social Emotional Foundations of Early Learning Pyramid Model
In partnership with Community Reach Center, over 115 local ECE professionals have been trained in this model of early childhood social-emotional best practice for preschoolers since fall 2009.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
In partnership with Community Reach Center, ECPAC has provided 5.0 FTE Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants to serve Adams County ECE facilities since 2006, serving 1,032 children and 132 teachers in 2009-10. These consultants build the capacity of staff and families to form relationships, foster positive child growth and learning, as well as understand, prevent, identify, and manage challenging behaviors.

Family Support and Parent Education

Family is a child's first and most important teacher. In order to provide families with the knowledge and supports they need to help their children grow and learn, ECPAC has supported the expansion of two programs which help to strengthen families for the long-term and whose effectiveness is extensively supported by research-demonstrated child and family outcomes.

Incredible Years Parenting Series
In partnership with Adams 27J, Adams 14, Adams 50 and Mapleton Public Schools, ECPAC has provided funding to implement a 14-week course of training in social emotional child development to over 150 parents since 2008.

Family Leadership Training Institute
In partnership with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Adams County Youth Initiative, ECPAC has provided this 20-week course of leadership training to over 45 Adams County parents since 2009.

Early Learning

Research has shown that high-quality early childhood programs, including well-trained teachers, help children to thrive. To increase the number of high-quality programs in Adams County, ECPAC directs resources and funding toward helping early childhood facilities obtain quality ratings, quality improvement coaching and college-level training in child development.

Early Learning Initiatives Project
In partnership with the Colorado Department of Human Services and Mile High United Way, ECPAC has worked with over 35 local early care and education facilities since 2006 around comprehensive ECE quality improvement. Participating sites receive a quality rating, improvement plan, coaching, training and funding for materials.

ECE Teacher Professional Development
Since the ECPAC Scholarship Program began in 2006, over 300 Adams County ECE professionals have received ECPAC Scholarships for 1,129 credits worth of Early Childhood college coursework in ECE at Front Range Community College. Scholarship and professional development activities are funded by the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation.

Expanding Quality in Infant and Toddler Care
In partnership with the Colorado Department of Education, ECPAC has provided a 16-week course of training and coaching to 160 infant and toddler classroom teachers in research-based best practices for 0-3 year olds since 2008.

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