Family Child Care Partnership Pilot Project

In 2015, Brooklyn Kindergarten Society launched a pilot project to support licensed family child care providers at their locations through coaching, modeling, and professional development.

Through the Family Child Care Partnership (FCCP) pilot program, BKS partnered with community child care providers to share best practices beyond our early childhood learning centers. These partnerships would reach more Brooklyn children, from birth to age five, and provide them with access to high-quality early childhood experiences to prepare them for success in school and life.

FCCP staff gave the providers specific tasks for speaking with and reading to the children in their care and also gave them vocabulary words to add to their ongoing teacher-child and parent-child interactions. Children and providers were assessed by BKS staff with promising preliminary results. The FCCP pilot launched entirely with the generous support of private funders, but, due to a lack of government support, the pilot was scaled back in April 2017.

Nearly all of the FCCP providers, eager to continue receiving guidance and support, approached FCCP Director Gwen McEvilley about ways to continue the program in some form. The providers now meet with Gwen on a monthly basis for trainings and coaching. Providers have also taken the initiative to sign up for additional outside curriculum training, and Gwen is coaching them through accreditation processes. The interest in increased professionalism in family-based programs is evident among both providers and city educational leaders.

BKS will continue to provide a scaled-back version of the FCCP in the year ahead. The FCCP pilot project offered needed support to family child care providers, continues that support today in a new format, and created a valuable network for expanding BKS services to younger children in the future.

Thank you for your interest, generosity, and support!