Check out the KOAA News story HERE!
Colorado Springs, CO – Today, Joint Initiatives (JI) announced that the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) awarded $622,000 for JI’s Advancing Early Childhood Educators Program. Joint Initiatives is the nonprofit organization that is home to El Paso County’s early childhood council (Alliance for Kids Council) and that manages the state’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program in the county.
“Based on the data, we estimate that Colorado Springs needs to create at least 16,000 new child care spots to meet the growing child care needs of families with children five and under,” said SherryLynn Boyles, JI President and CEO. “One of the biggest reasons that The Springs has such a wide gap in child care spots is the need for early childhood education teachers and teacher assistants.” [Learn more about gap of 16,000+ child care spots needed in Colorado Springs HERE.]
The Advancing Early Childhood Educators Program is a partnership between Joint Initiatives and Pikes Peak State College designed to attract, educate, and retain early childhood teachers to help address the workforce gap that is contributing to the area’s child care crisis.
“Joint Initiatives provides coaching and business modeling to El Paso County’s 430 state-licensed centers and homes offering child care and preschool for infants through 5-year-olds. Of these, 75% report shortages of teacher-qualified staff,” said Boyles.
The Advancing Educators program aims to reduce barriers for students who enroll in Pikes Peak State College’s flexible-track early childhood teacher and teacher assistant training courses. These courses are already offered tuition-free.
“We know that many would-be students don’t pursue advanced certification due to a number of barriers,” Boyles added. “Students not only need affordable classes, but they often need help with transportation, child care for their own children, and with the costs of books and supplies. Most of the OEDIT grant funding goes to help students with these kinds of expenses.”
The grant also provides a stipend to students when they complete the coursework as well as career navigation to mentor them through the courses and then actively support graduating students with job placement.
“The grant award represents a win for our community on several levels,” Boyles added. “Students receive financial help along with career navigation; schools and child care programs have an expanding pool of possible employees; and our precious children attend child care centers with trained, certified teachers. There is plenty of research showing that quality child care gives youngsters a brighter start in life.”
The Advancing Early Childhood Educators Program expands two no-cost, flexible-track courses already offered by Pikes Peak State College. Track one targets professionals new to the early childhood education field, equipping them to gain a PDIS (Professional Development Information System) Level I certification. Track two moves currently certified Teacher Assistants to becoming Early Childhood Teacher qualified – PDIS Level 2.