Moniquin Huggins (center), director of program operations for the federal Child Care Bureau, facilitated break-out discussions on child care subsidy and Head Start eligibility for displaced children. Eva Carter (left), of Lago Vista, Texas, a regional technical assistance specialist for the National Child Care Information Center, and Desiree Reddick-Head (right), representing the Atlanta office of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, greeted Huggins. Click on photo for larger view.   Michele Many, coordinator of the First Responder Support Program of Louisiana State University, facilitated break-out discussions of early childhood mental health care. Click on photo for larger view.   Wendy McEarchern, director of GRCMA Early Childhood Directions in Mobile, Ala., handled on-site arrangements for the forum. Click on photo for larger view.   Cathy Grace, Ed.D. (center), director of Rural Early Childhood, talked with Linda Smith, (left), director of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, and Carol Burnett, director of the Gulf Coast Resource and Referral Agency. Click on photo for larger view. Mike Tauras of Save the Children. Click on photo for larger view.

Needs for Data, Mental Health Training, Interstate Collaboration Emerge from Hurricane Forum

DEC. 12, 2005 | When young children and families flee storms or other disasters, the communities that shelter them need information fast.

One idea to emerge from a forum last week on hurricane recovery was that interstate collection and storage of early childhood services data could help agencies allocate scarce resources in public disasters.

Another idea: Interstate compacts for emergency transfer of federal funds for early care and education could make it possible for dollars to “follow” families to their new or temporary homes.

Rural Early Childhood held the Rural Early Childhood Forum on Hurricane Recovery and Emergency Preparedness Monday, Dec. 5, in Mobile, Alabama.

Approximately 75 invited participants from the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas discussed child care eligibility for displaced children, data collection and management, reconstruction of early care and education facilities, and future emergency preparedness. Rural Early Childhood will publish a report of the forum on this web site.

Joan Lombardi, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, the first director of the federal Child Care Bureau, praised the participants. “You are planting seeds of ideas that will be used in the next disaster,” she said.

Pointing to high rates of child poverty in the regions of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Lombardi said, “We have to be first responders not only in a crisis but to this data. This is not all right in the United States.”

Robin Herskowitz of Austin, Texas, demonstrated how local agencies used interactive software and databases online to make rapid referrals for evacuee families sheltered in the Austin Convention Center. Christopher Fulcher, Ph.D., of the Community Information Resource Center of the Rural Policy Research Institute discussed how an interstate database of early childhood services information could facilitate referrals across state lines.

Participants discussed many ideas, including:

• Early childhood teachers and caregivers need training to provide social-emotional support for young children in crises.

• States need to incorporate early care and education into emergency response and long-term recovery plans for public disasters.

• There is no “one size fits all” emergency plan for early care and education facilities. Programs in the vicinity of a volcano or a railroad may need a two-week supply of gas masks, while programs in the dispersal area of a hurricane zone may need extra pallets and supplies for an influx of evacuee children.

The federal Child Care Bureau, the University of South Alabama Small Business Development Center, GRCMA Early Childhood Directions of Mobile, the Rural Policy Research Institute, and the Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Foundation were co-sponsors of the forum.

The planning committee for the forum included Cathy Grace, Ed.D., professor and director of Rural Early Childhood; Wendy McEarchern, director of GRCMA Early Childhood Directions; Sherry Guarisco of SSG Consulting Services in Baton Rouge, La.; Elizabeth F. Shores, M.A.P.H., senior research associate for Rural Early Childhood; and Gail Lindsey, Ed.D., assistant director, Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute. Morgan McPhail, a graduate assistant in the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute, helped organize the forum.
 

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