Mayor's Cabinet For Young Children

Mayor's Cabinet for Young Children

Established by the Mayor, the Cabinet advises the Mayor in setting policy on all matters affecting young children and their families and acts as the local School Readiness Council. The Cabinet includes both elected and appointed public sector leaders as well as non-governmental appointees representing important stakeholders including parents. Cabinet responsibilities are:
  • Recommend and oversee city policy on early childhood;
  • Establish short - and long-term goals and targets;
  • Advance the City’s Early Childhood Plan or Blueprint; and
  • Assume and extend beyond the functions of the state-mandated School Readiness Council in order to embrace a birth to age nine continuum inclusive of all providers (Center-based, Home-based, and Friends, Families & Neighbors), regardless of funding source.
Mayor's Cabinet for Young Children Meetings:
 4/14/2023  Agenda(ZIP, 925KB) and Zoom Meeting (Passcode: Pe=Kz6b4)
3/29/2023  Agenda and White Pages(ZIP, 1MB)
1/30/20  Agenda, ELN PowerPoint, and Minutes(ZIP, 160MB)
11/15/2022  Agenda, PowerPoint, Minutes and Zoom Meeting Video(ZIP, 406MB) 
9/20/2022  Agenda(PDF, 108KB)Research(PDF, 4MB)  Zoom Meeting Video
5/3/2022  AgendaStaff Report and 
 Presentation(PDF, 1MB) , Minutes
 Zoom Meeting 
2/23/2022  Agenda(PDF, 107KB)  
9/11/2020  Meeting Agenda and Minutes(PDF, 2MB)  
4/30/2021  Meeting Agenda and Minutes(PDF, 3MB)   Zoom Meeting Video Link
11/12/2019  Agenda(PDF, 34KB)Minutes(PDF, 192KB)  
8/22/2019  Minutes(PDF, 29KB)    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Mayor’s Cabinet for Young Children


Role

Representative

Organization

Email

Mayor or Designee

Mayor Luke Bronin

City of Hartford

luke.bronin@hartford.gov

Superintendent or Designee

Leslie Torres-Rodriguez

Hartford Public Schools

leslie.torres-rodriguez@hartfordschools.org

Library

Marie Jarry

Hartford Public Library

mjarry@hplct.org

Healthcare/Local Hospital

Paul Dworkin

CCMC

pdworki@connecticutchildrens.org

McKinney-Vento

Leslie Carrillo

Hartford Public Schools

carrl003@hartfordschools.org

DSS/DCF/HHS

Liany Arroyo

Health & Human Services COH

liany.arroyo@hartford.gov

Parent Ambassador

Minal Kulkarni

minal.kulkarni48@gmail.com

Parent Ambassador

Yeraida Reinheimer

yeraidareinheimer@gmail.com

Parent Ambassador

Ayesha Clarke

aclarke@hesct.org

Parent Ambassador

Stephan Palmer

youthonfireinc@gmail.com

Community Organization support children

Galo Rodriguez

The Village for Family & Children

grodriguez@thevillage.org

Community Organization support children

Jennifer Gifford

United Way

jgifford@unitedwayinc.org

Community Organization support children

Lena Rodriguez

CRT

lenar@crtct.org

Workforce Development

Alex Johnson

Capital Workforce

ajohnson@capitalworkforce.org

Higher Education

Cesarina Thompson

University of Hartford

cthompson@hartford.edu

Head Start

Greg Florio

CREC

gflorio@crec.org

Family Resource Center/Family Center

Joel Cruz

Catholic Charities

jcruz@ccaoh.org

Birth2Three

Maris Pelkey

Creative Interventions

maris@creativeinterventions.net

Family Child Care Provider

Cureene Blake

cureeneblake2001@yahoo.com

Center-Based Child Care Provider

Karen Lott

Women’s League

klott@womensleaguecdc.org

Local Business

Darniel Mojica

LCSW- Private Clinician

mojicadarniel3@gmail.com

 Documents

School Readiness Council

The Connecticut School Readiness Program is a state-funded initiative administered by the State Department of Education that develops a network of school readiness programs throughout the state to:
  • Significantly increase the number of spaces in accredited and/or approved programs for young children to provide access to high quality school readiness programs;
  • Significantly increase the number of full-day, full-year spaces to meet family needs; and
  • Share cost for school readiness and child-care programs among the state and its various agencies, the communities and families.
Hartford resident children who are ages 3-5 who are not eligible to enroll in school may enroll in a school readiness program. The Division for Young Children assumes responsibility for overseeing Hartford’s School Readiness Program under the auspices of the Mayor’s Cabinet for Young Children with the Assistant Director appointed as the local liaison to the State Department of Education.

 SCHOOL READINESS POLICIES:

1. Policy Approval Systems(PDF, 69KB)

11. Policy Non-Residency Option(PDF, 40KB)

2. Policy Budget Guidance(PDF, 60KB)

12. Policy Non-Sectarian(PDF, 32KB)

3. Policy CHEFA Loans(PDF, 125KB)

13 Policy PAF Child Outcome Data(PDF, 99KB)

4. Policy Children with IEP(PDF, 58KB)

14. Policy Professional Development Registry(PDF, 35KB)

5. Policy Eligibility for Program Enrollment(PDF, 71KB)

15. Policy Professional Development(PDF, 17KB)

6. Policy Fees and Subsidies(PDF, 94KB)

16. Policy School Readiness Council Membership(PDF, 101KB)

7. Policy Fee Schedule and Per-Child Contributions(PDF, 94KB)

17. Policy Shot Types(PDF, 94KB)

8. Policy Full-Day Slot Reimbursement(PDF, 24KB)

18. Policy Staff Qualifications(PDF, 59KB)

9. Policy Income Guidelines(PDF, 85KB)

19. Policy Start-Up Cost(PDF, 27KB)

10. Policy NAEYC Requirements(PDF, 111KB)


         

Working Groups

Hartford Early Childhood Working Groups Goals & Strategies(PDF, 234KB)

Recommended Strategic Process:

  • To identify and prioritize 1-2 pressing issues as they relate to supporting families with Hartford’s youngest children
  • To develop CI strategies that respond to and address those 1-2 pressing issues
  • To identify and link the CI strategies to meaningful and measurable community and/or child-level target outcomes
  • To craft a plan for implementation of the 1-2 strategies]

Working Groups

  Promoting Infant + Toddler Development

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative action that brings more support to and create opportunities for families with Hartford's youngest children

Potential Strategies

  • Identify and map the features and milestones that are critical to infant and toddler development, to build shared understanding and inform strategy development
  • Conduct a root cause analysis on the barriers, issues, and challenges to mounting a universal developmental screening system
  • Design a plan for universal developmental screening for all children birth to age 5, to track growth and increase connections to programming and supports
  • Launch a community-wide diaper bank to provide support to vulnerable families on a basic need
  Positive Mental and Behavioral Health

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative action that strengthens positive behavior and mental health supports for children and families

Potential Strategies

  • Conduct a series of focus groups with parents and caregivers to understand areas of need + opportunities for innovation, to inform the design of mental health supports for families
  • Examine the city’s maternal screening data and conduct a series of focus groups with new mothers, local health practitioners, and early educators, to identify patterns, trends, and areas of need, to inform a plan to increase screening for maternal depression
  • Design a capacity-building effort for early educators and relevant programming staff, grounded in the Pyramid Model for Promoting the Social and Emotional Competence of Infants and Young Children
  • Support the pilot of the Community- Wide Benchmarks of Quality tool to assess feasibility and effectiveness for citywide uptake
  Cultivating Strong Language + Literacy Environments

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative action that strengthens and nurtures the development of children's language and literacy skills

Potential Strategies

  • Identify and map the features and milestones that are critical to language and literacy development, to build shared understanding and inform strategy development
  • Develop a funding +

evaluation plan for a trial period to estimate the efficacy and viability of a community of practice for parents and caregivers of children ages 3-5, designed to build their capacity around high-quality language opportunities and interactions

  • Craft a plan to adopt, or retain the expertise to develop a literacy curriculum for the mixed-delivery early education and care system, aligned to HPS K curriculum
  • Establish a network of mobile libraries for greater access to books in neighborhoods of need, based on recent data
Strengthening the Transition to Kindergarten

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative action that increases awareness of and enrollment in Hartford’s kindergarten classrooms

Potential Strategies

  • Map the causes of delayed kindergarten registration/low kindergarten enrollment to identify barriers and underlying issues inhibiting timely enrollment
  • Create an annual calendar of responsibilities for the community to create coordination and increase active engagement and connections
  • Examine policies and practices across community-based preschool to create alignment and to promote smooth transitions for children entering school
  • Launch a communications-based awareness campaign about the kindergarten transition and registration opportunities
  Nutrition in Homes and Communities

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative action that increases access to healthy foods, and educating for healthier families and communities

Potential Strategies

  • Map the city’s supports and services that address family food insecurity + healthy eating—and examine gaps and barriers to inform policy and programming
  • Chart the landscape of the city’s Farmers Markets to identify opportunities for increasing connections with families around healthy eating
  • Design a plan to increase childcare centers’ access across to Little City Sprouts or Mobile Food Pantry
  • Create and lead a social marketing campaign geared to parents around the importance of healthy habits, grounded in 5-2-1-0 messaging and resources/tools www.how2fitkids.org/#5-2-1-0
 Responsive Community Outreach & Engagement

Goal

To take a citywide lens and engage in innovative channeling and amplifying the strategic activity of all working groups, and bring more resources, information, advocacy, and connections to children and families, educators, and caregivers.

Potential Strategies

  • Conduct a series of focus groups with schools, parents, and caregivers, and local health clinics to identity opportunities for greater access to quality services.
  • Create resource hub for active connections and referrals in the early learning and development space.
  • Create an online guide/resource (in multiple languages) of the city’s available child care options, with information including neighborhood, opening hours, ability to offer subsidy, and languages spoken by staff.
  • Conduct a strategic marketing plan which includes communication to champion about the importance of a child’s early years in the Hartford Community.

Mayor's Cabinet for Young Children
and School Readiness Council
Early Learning Parent Cabinet Early Learning Network Hartford Family Child Care Network
 Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)  Hartford Talks  City of Hartford Early Learning Centers  Resources