The Early Childhood Coalition of Galveston County formed from a merger of the Early Childhood Task Force and the former Healthy Start Consortium in September 2001. The Early Childhood Coalition is composed of persons and organizations who share these goals:

1. To facilitate the education of child care providers, families, social service providers, and the community/county at large in the area of early childhood and related areas, through provision of quarterly workshops and/or other means.
   
2. To continually improve the quality of care of early childhood services through education (as described in 1 above) and/or other means.
   
3. To develop and implement plans to help address the shortage of subsidized child care funding for families in Galveston County.
   
4. To continually be advocates for children, youth, and families in Galveston County through identification of relevant early childhood issues and problems affecting children, youth, and families, and through development and implementation of interventions that are consumer-driven and the product of interagency collaboration.
   
5. To continually educate the community/county at large on the importance of the early years of life in the overall development and well being of the human being and society at large.
   
6. To assist in increasing immunization rates for infants an children.
   
7. To assist families in obtaining, renewing, and appropriately using health insurance coverage (e.g., CHIP, Children's Medicaid, other options) for their children.
   
8. To increase and promote early, quality prenatal care for families.
   
9. To promote education, employment, financial management skills, and self sustainability for perinatal families and families with young children.
   
10. To promote substance abuse prevention/intervention and violence prevention/intervention for prenatal families and families with young children.
    
11. To promote all aspects of health and safety (e.g., care seats, poison prevention, lead poisoning precautions, etc.) for perinatal families and families with young children.
    
12. To develop and produce special projects and programs needed by parents, infants, children, and families (e.g., Parent Resource Manual; Fatherhood Initiatives Program for Galveston County).
    
    

The Early Childhood Coalition meets on a monthly basis. It provides free quarterly workshops for parents, families, child care workers, professionals and the community at large on topics such as post partum depression, lead poisoning, immunizations, inclusion of children with disabilities, language facilitation, SIDS, day care administration, and violence prevention. Child care staff can earn clock hours for licensing by attending the workshops.

Recently, with help from a Duncan Foundation Grant, the Early Childhood Coalition prepared a Local Initiatives Agreement, which with match received through federal dollars, has helped support subsidized child care for children on the island and mainland of Galveston County. The Coalition has initiated a Child Care Directors Roundtable in Galveston County, and is currently working on a Parent Resource Manual.

Funded by private contributions.

If you would like to participate on the Early Childhood Coalition, contact Nancy Shaw at (409) 763-6502.

©2002 The Children's Center, Inc.
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