Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe

The Neighborhood Place for Early Head Start will serve 750 infants and toddlers in Miami-Dade County. While The Neighborhood Place for Early Head Start is continuing to enroll and expand its partnerships with hospitals and mental health facilities, the aim of the program is to help enroll children in child care programs that prepare them for academic success, while also working with the parent(s) to receive training, resources, or possibly education that prepare them for a more active role in their child's upbringing. The program serves families of children from birth to age 3.

The Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Education Program prepares early learners for success in kindergarten and beyond. Children must live in Florida and be 4 years old on or before Sept. 1 of the current school year to be eligible. The program helps build a strong foundation for school using educational materials that are geared to various stages in a child's development.

The School Readiness Program offers financial assistance to low-income families for early child education and care so families can become financially self-sufficient and their young children can be successful in school in the future. The program takes into account a child's physical, social, emotional and intellectual development; involves parents as their child's first teacher; prepares children to be ready for school; and gives parents information about child development and other topics of interest. School readiness programs provide developmental screenings for children and referrals to health and educational specialists, and work in cooperation with other programs for young children such as Head Start, Early Head Start and the VPK program.

The CCEP program creates an opportunity for employers and employees to succeed as partners. The families that benefit most from employer-supported child care are low-income. Such employees include restaurant workers, early childhood caregivers, those that work in tourism in addition to sectors. Low-income parents that have financial assistance through employer-supported child care provides parents increased purchasing power.

This program offers early care and education services to teenage parents enrolled in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Children born to adolescent parents enter a world that is very different from that of babies born to older parents. To facilitate this program, the Coalition contracted with the University of Miami Linda Ray Intervention Center to implement the Bright Ideas project, which provides mentoring, coaching and educational information pertaining to the social-emotional development and early literacy needs to the teen parents of these children.