8.4 Public-Private Partnerships

Lead Agencies must demonstrate how they encourage partnerships among other public agencies, Tribal organizations, private entities, faith-based organizations, businesses, or organizations that promote business involvement, and/or community-based organizations to leverage existing service delivery (i.e., cooperative agreement among providers to pool resources to pay for shared fixed costs and operation) to leverage existing child care and early education service delivery systems and to increase the supply and quality of child care services for children younger than age 13. 8.4.1 Lead Agency public-private partnerships Identify and describe any public-private partnerships encouraged by the Lead Agency to leverage public and private resources to further the goals of CCDF: The Wilmington Early Care and Education Council (WECEC) is a local council by the city government whose mission is to ensure that all Wilmington children have access to an integrated early childhood system, which fosters collaboration among existing programs and identifies gaps in current delivery systems for children birth through 8 years old. The program leverages existing service delivery systems and increases the supply and quality of child care services by providing a professional development center for parents and providers, providing career consultation, mentoring, technical assistance, scholarships, etc. The goals of this partnership include strengthening governance and alignment of early childhood policies, programs and practices, integrating service delivery across agencies, establishing and coordinating a state-wide, cross sector early childhood professional development system, and improving the alignment and efficiency of the use of early childhood funding across agencies. Children and Families First (CFF) is the private agency that the lead agency contracts with to administer the state’s resource and referral services. The lead agency also coordinates with University of Delaware which provides professional development resources and Delaware State University which houses the state’s Early Childhood Innovation Center. The ECIC advocates for the success of early childhood professionals and strives to empower and cultivate a highly skilled, educated and diverse workforce by providing holistic evidence-based supports.