Early Years is committed to supporting the rights of young children and their families to have the best possible life through research, services, and advocacy.

Project:

Early Childhood Self Assessment

Partners for Impact completed a three-year pilot project with Child Care Services Association to address the needs of young children experiencing homelessness. It is unimaginable to think of babies and toddlers being homeless with their families. Even shelters that are designed for families are not often designed with the developmental needs of young children in mind. The Office of the Administration for Children and Families’ Early Childhood Self-Assessment Tool for Family Shelters (ECSAT) helps family shelters to assess their environments, their processes, and how they work to support young children. Using this assessment tool, Partners for Impact provided technical assistance for 9 family shelters across the State of North Carolina. Our consultants guided their teams in completing the assessment and developing action plans to improve their services with a young child perspective. We evaluated our process all along and used our learning to develop this Toolkit to help others use the ECSAT to improve their work with young children experiencing homelessness.

RESOURCES