TRAINING & EVENTS

LICCI offers training and technical assistance (TA) for child care centers and providers throughout the state on appropriate child development, anti-bias curriculum, and parent engagement. We also provide workshops for low-income child centers on how to achieve financial stability.

In addition, MLICCI hosts events that bring together the public, providers, and policymakers to discuss reforms to the child care system. We publicize new research and reports through press conferences and engage policymakers in discussions on best practices in child care. Please contact us for more information or if you would like to be involved in any of our activities.

2008 Mississippi Summit on Child Care Subsidies

View a PDF copy of the conference brochure

MLICCI and the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ) are inviting our partners for an exciting summit January 24, 2008 at Jacobs Camp in Utica from 8:30 am–5:00 pm to discuss the child care certificate program in Mississippi, with an emphasis on how our system can be improved.

There will be a wide array of perspectives on this issue from parents to providers to policy analysts. Findings will be of great importance to policy makers as we seek to reform this broken program—and to all Mississippians with limited ability to pay for child care.

We are fortunate to have the participation of national and local experts to guide the discussion:  TOP  »

• Gina Adams from the Urban Institute will talk about reforms that have been successful in other states
• Danielle Ewen from the Center for Law and Social Policy will talk about Head Start and child care providers working together
• Dr. Marty Wiseman of the MSU Stennis Institute of Government will discuss the current state of Mississippi's certificate program
• Dr. Bettye Ward Fletcher of Professional Associates, will assess the impact of the Quality Rating System pilot low income providers
• Ed Sivak of the MS Economic Policy Center will report on current and potential revenue to expand the child care certificate program
• Beth Orlansky of the MS Center for Justice and MLICCI will report the results of last summer's survey of child care providers
• Helen Blank from the National Women's Law Center will bring us up to date on national policy discussions
• Claiborne Barksdale from Barksdale Reading Institute will discuss the recent audit of Mississippi's CCDF program
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On-site Training and Technical Assistance

Curriculum Enhancement Kits

MLICCI is offering training and special curriculum enhancement kits with books, puppets, and other materials to interested low-income child care centers. The kits will focus on cultural diversity, parent engagement, and gender equity. These kits will be made available at training events where MLICCI will help providers understand how to use the materials to enhance early childhood experiences for in their centers. Contact us for more information.    TOP  »

Prepare for ECERS & ITERS Assessment

Mississippi’s new Quality Rating Scale utilized the ECERS (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale) and the ITERS (Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale) as one measure to assign which step&emdash;and therefore&emdash;which reimbursement rate, a center can achieve on the new five-step scale. MLICCI offers resources to help child care centers understand and prepare to be assessed by the ECERS and ITERS rating scales. MLICCI is offering a limited supply of books and DVDs designed to help child care providers understand these rating scales and how to prepare to be assessed. Contact us to find out more.    TOP  »

SPARK Improves Early Childhood Settings

MLICCI is a state partner in the Kellogg Foundation funded Mississippi SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) project spearheaded by the Southern Regional Office of the Children’s Defense Fund. SPARK is a project to align and improve the early childhood education experiences of children ages three through first grade in five public school districts in Mississippi. SPARK involves parents, child care centers, Head Start programs, public school districts, and other partners locally and state-wide. MLICCI provides training and technical assistance to child care centers located in these five school districts and contributes policy analysis related to child care issues on the SPARK State-wide Committee.         TOP  »

MCTT Implemented in Thirteen Centers Across Mississippi

In addition, MLICCI has worked with 13 child care centers across the state to provide extensive training and technical assistance utilizing More Is Caught Than Taught (MCTT)concepts developed by FOCAL (the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama. This extensive training experience takes child care centers, parents, and communities through a process of creating a common vision for our children, and developing an action plan that engages them all to make that vision real.    TOP  »

Achieving Financial Stability

Business training for child care providers —Upcoming Training!

There is little training or technical assistance (TA) available to low-income providers who need help with the "business" side of child care to achieve long-term sustainability. MLICCI is developing a specially designed training & TA to help low-income child care centers across the state acquire the business skills needed to attain financial stability.

The first step in this process has involved research existing business training programs nationwide. Phase two involves meeting with other interested organizations to design an implementation plan. When funded, the program will be offered to providers throughout the state using a variety of techniques and resources geared to serving rural as well as urban areas. The long-term aim is to develop a model that can be replicated in other states. MLICCI is partnering with alt.consulting on this project. Contact us for more information.        TOP  »