Program Mission:
To create and sustain a unified, statewide early childhood service system which provides essential resources, shares common standards for quality and respects the diversity and uniqueness of individual children and their families.
We strive to:

• Change the way that Maine communities, organizations, and state government support, nurture, and protect the young children in our state.
• Strengthen the social capital and body of action that plans and puts into practice more humane and culturally respectful systems and policies for early childhood.
• Foster humane ways to help families and young children live, grow, and learn in a safe and healthy environment to reach their highest potentials.
• Humanize and dignify the ways in which we all work, talk with, and relate to each other.
• Change how we think about the public health of children so that it embraces the physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and environmental context of their lives.

Task Force on Early Childhood:

• Reports to the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet
• Is a multidisciplinary, fluid group of stakeholders with authority, expertise and commitment to children and families
• First created as a legislative Task Force to bring quality home visiting and parent education services to Maine
• Now serves as the vehicle to move comprehensive systems change goals of the Early Childhood Initiative (Maine’s Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant from the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau. See www.state-eccs.org for more information)
• Spent three years analyzing the current resources, costs, gaps, and strengths of our public health and social service systems
• Collectively developed a comprehensive systems plan, Invest Early in Maine: A Working Plan for Humane Early Childhood Systems; now in the second year of implementation of the state plan

Program Activities:

• Unite, simplify, and humanize the systems and policies affecting children and families.
• Transform usage of funding streams and reinvest so that we serve the largest number of children and their families possible and have a positive impact upon these children and families.
• Develop clear and simple language that will strengthen the communication that is vital to the system changes that we seek.
• Integrate dental, oral, medical, social and emotional health, early care and education, and educational systems at the community and state levels.
• Influence Maine’s culture so that our actions reflect a powerful commitment to prevention in the prenatal, infant and early childhood stages of life and to parenting as among the most important of all occupations.
• Build an understanding that such a commitment is an essential component to the social, cultural, and economic development of Maine's future.
• Strengthen quality, inclusive early care and education and children’s services so that they optimize children's curiosity and readiness for school, the ability of families to work productively, and the capacity of the state to achieve economic prosperity.

Funding Source:
100%  Federal. Funding is provided through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Grant, HRSA, Department of Health and Human Services. Budget:  $140,000 (FY 2008); Staff Count:  1

Connection to the Maine Children’s Cabinet
Since 1998, the Governor’s Office has supported a statewide coordinating collaborative to convene stakeholders and agencies/programs to improve systems for young children and their families through its Children’s Cabinet and Task Force on Early Childhood. The Governor’s Children’s Cabinet includes the Commissioners of the departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Corrections (Juvenile Services), Labor, and Public Safety. Also involved are the Attorney General and the State Planning Office. The Children’s Cabinet Task Force on Early Childhood consists of scores of early childhood experts and leaders in Maine, including parents and other family members, neighbors, government agencies, community non-profit organizations, business leaders, economists, and service providers.

ROLES

Staff (Sheryl Peavey, Director, Early Childhood Initiative)
To coordinate work of the recommendation workgroups and teams; monitor the schedules of the Teams; provide assistance as needed (e.g., finding meeting locations); participate in team meetings; distribute minutes; ensure that progress is occurring and continually report back to the Steering Committee and Children’s Cabinet.

Steering Committee

Chaired by First Lady Karen Baldacci; meets first Monday of every month at the Blaine House (11a-1:30p); provide oversight, accountability, and endorsement of recommendations; make systemic the changes set forth in the State Plan for Humane Early Childhood Systems; support the current administration with our findings; coordinate the message about children and families externally; membership includes liaisons from former workgroups and current action teams; expand to ensure new voices and broader stakeholder participation.  External Liaisons are entities, partners, organizations, persons, constituencies that have an interest in the work of the TFEC and are welcome at any dialogue, meeting, forum

Accountability Teams

• Serve as the contact(s) for each of the five domains (FAMILY, HEALTH, EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION, LOCAL COMMUNITY, STATEWIDE COMMUNITY)
• Provide regular updates on progress, challenges
• Participate in periodic liaison dialogues facilitated by Task Force staff (Sheryl)

The 2007 Task Force on Early Childhood was comprised of more than 200 community individuals and a Steering Committee that had within its membership the following experts: