Attention Boston Early Care and Education, Head Start and Early Head Start programs!

The UMass Boston Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation is recruiting early education programs interested in learning new ways to reduce challenging behaviors among children by strengthening social and emotional learning environments, and increasing children's social and emotional competence.

We'll be testing the Breakthrough Series Collaborative method, which supports change by building capacity and recognizing leadership across an organization, rather than more traditional methods which approach quality improvement only through individual coaching or consultation. Collaborative teams are made up of staff at all levels as well as families, who tackle problems, apply their expertise, learn from other teams, and implement evidence-based practices that take local context into account.

This model has worked successfully in the fields of health, child trauma, and child welfare, but has not yet been widely tested in early care and education. This is an exciting opportunity for programs to improve social and emotional learning practices, and build leadership teams, in early childhood programs.

This project is being sponsored by the Culture of Continuous Learning (CCL) Project, which is funded by the federal Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. It will include eight child care and Head Start programs from Boston and take place over a 15-month period.

Applications are due by April 26 at 5 p.m. Apply online: https://bit.ly/2qrnIcq. Applicants must be a center-based child care or Head Start/Early Head Start program in Boston, with at least three or more classrooms.

For more information call 617-287-4852 or email Lynne Mendes, Lynne.Mendes@umb.edu.