ECIC

"I do believe that these types of collaborations made a tremendous
difference in the lives of kids and their families..."

The Early Childhood Interagency Council (ECIC) for Cudahy, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee and St. Francis, WI was established in 1995. The purpose of this Council was to bring together potential partners who serve families of young children with the intention to create a seamless system of support to ease transition from one program to another community program.

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Background of the Program

		“ I'm the Director of Child & Youth Services, a Birth to 3 program in the local area that works very closely with the communities and the people who are on this committee. The group itself started from a grant that was received for the South Milwaukee School District several years ago. The Director of Personnel at that time wrote the grant to say "Hey, wouldn't it be neat to put together a council for this community, of people who work with young children, and try to set up a system that we would be able to network and work in the best interest of the child and their families." That's the background of it, that's how it started. .”
	Director Child & Youth Services (Birth to 3) Curative Center



Missions and Goals

								“ The original position was that this group was going to be advisory--to invite community members, people who worked with young children, to advise. The school district position would be servicing young children in community settings that were not the classroom. It evolved from initially being a mission of just networking within the communities, so that we knew each other and could refer families to one another appropriately, to moving forward and becoming more of an action-based group. Now when we look at our mission we say "Ok, our mission is to work with young children, and to work with families 0-8 years of age. Our goal is to support families and also to support one another in the community so that we aren't duplicating services." We then go through and say "What is it we want to accomplish this year?" We review what we have accomplished last year, what we want to continue and what new things we need to work on. We write down our goals and review them every six months and try to keep things going instead of spinning.”



Room for All at the Table

								“ I come from Birth to 3, with a Birth to 3 and Special Needs background. What's unique for me is that it's so nice to sit at a table with the Superintendent, and the Director of Personnel Services of the local school districts, to sit at a table with them, Senator Grobschmidt and have them show a vested interest in what happens with families. To sit with the childcare providers and teachers and be able to talk very freely about how to help children, how to work with them. To be able to sit with parents, to be able to call a parent and say "You know, we were talking about this issue, this may be important to you, we might be able to help you". We have local food pantries at the table, we have human concerns at the table, we have faith-based organizations at the table, and that's unique, because it really is community based vs. work based or discipline based.”



A Positive Reputation

		“ I'm David Ewald, Superintendent of Schools for South Milwaukee.. I was really pleased that South Milwaukee--really South County, the southeast portion of the county-- had been doing those types of collaborations for some time. The Early Childhood Interagency Council was a group that I wanted to be a part of, because I knew that they were doing good things already. ”
	Superintendent of Schools for South Milwaukee



Focus on Goals

								“ I think one of the things that has made this organization stronger than some that have attempted the same thing is that they've actually spent time to focus on themselves. They do have identified goals; they do know what they're about, and they can be articulate about that to those people who might try to model it, and so forth. I think the thing that sometimes does groups in that try to accomplish the same types of things is that they're too loose-ended. This group does meet on a monthly basis. They do have clearly identified senses of purpose that they share, and they can tell you about that, because they spend time looking at themselves, and identify the characteristics of themselves that they value and therefore work on common goals. ”



Meeting needs in the Natural Environment

		“All the childcare centers are invited to be part of the council. That's where we get a lot of the initial referrals or information that they would like the child to be screened and looked at. It's really a child-find process. We want to leave the child in their natural environment, so that they can interact with their peers all day long and get the help that they need. It should be a 24 hour process where the child is in their natural environment, the childcare center is working with the child, the person working with the child's needs is coming in and working with the child and the staff, and then of course involvement with the parents, so that they can follow through at home. The main goal is to get the children as early as we can, to get them the intervention they need .”
	Family Support Specialist EC Family Support Project

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Click here for ECIC and the EC Family Support Program brochures.