National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Child Care Bureau
ICF provides oversight to NCCIC,
a national clearinghouse and technical
assistance center that offers comprehensive
child care information resources
and technical assistance services
to Child Care and Development Fund
grantees, other early care and
education stakeholders, and the
public. NCCIC supports the early
education field through a variety
of services, such as responding
to more than 7,000 requests for
information annually, providing
a nationwide network of technical
assistance specialists in each
Administration for Children and
Families region, and housing a
library containing more than 17,000
items, most of which can be accessed
through the NCCIC Web site at http://www.NCCIC.org.
Head Start Technical Assistance System
Regional Offices (III and VII) of
the Administration for Children and
Families
ICF provides regional management,
content-specific training, and technical
support to approximately 300 Head Start and Early Head Start grantees. Our
technical assistance system is designed
to support grantees in all facets
of program operations and quality enhancements
through a distinguished cadre of
content experts and technical assistance
specialists. To foster enhanced outcomes
for children and families, the system
encourages the development and maintenance
of partnerships among Head Start, child
care, pre-kindergarten, and other
early care and education programs,
offering opportunities for these programs
to share strategies for implementing
federal initiatives (e.g., Good Start
Grow Smart) and Head Start Bureau priorities.
On-site Training, Technical Assistance,
and Accreditation Assistance
U.S. Air Force, Family Member Programs
ICF provides
on-site training, program observations, and accreditation assistance for
Air Force child development programs
at bases around the world. In one-
or two-week training sessions, our
professional teams assist the programs
in formulating goals, developing timelines,
and monitoring progress toward goal
achievement, then follow up with intensive
consultation. We also serve as a continuous
resource for programs as they move
through the stages of the accreditation
process.
Inspection and Technical Assistance
Services
U.S. Navy, Child and Youth Programs
ICF works within three Navy Regions
(Southwest, Northeast, and Europe)
to conduct on-site inspections and
provide technical assistance to support
the Navy’s
Child and Youth Programs in meeting U.S. Department of Defense and Navy certification
inspection standards. In collaboration with the Department of the Navy, our staff
conducts thorough, objective inspections; assists in the development of
a detailed strategic action plan; and provides targeted on-site training and
technical assistance to facilitate program compliance and achieve program objectives.
Professional Development
Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers
West Virginia Department of Health
and Human Resources
On
behalf of West Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources,
ICF developed a comprehensive professional development program for caregivers
of infants and toddlers. The program was designed to standardize and enhance
training in all of West Virginia’s early childhood program settings to
improve the quality of infant and toddler care statewide. The training program
included modules for caregivers, train-the-trainer modules, and modules for
program leaders and administrators. We also developed a performance measurement
model and tools to help programs achieve continuous quality improvement.
Performance Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau
In order to report performance data for five Children’s Bureau discretionary grant programs (Abandoned Infants Assistance, Adoption Opportunities, Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act Research and Demonstration Projects, Child Welfare Training, and Infant Adoption Awareness Training), ICF developed the Performance Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL), a Web-based data collection and reporting system, under the Child Welfare Information Gateway contract. Using the PM-OTOOL, grantees select performance measures (outputs and outcomes), then submit data on these measures at the end of each reporting period. Federal staff and grantees can create reports that reflect and analyze individual grantee data or aggregated data for a program for a particular reporting period or across multiple reporting periods. Grantees also can upload semi-annual and final reports to PM-OTOOL. ICF provides training and technical assistance to the Children’s Bureau and its grantees about performance measurement and how to use PM-OTOOL. |
