The Partnership Alignment Information Response System (PAIRS)

Creating a sustainable collaborative approach for delivery of meaningful resources and support to Head Start and Child Care Grantees.

Executive Summary

Children of low income families experience differences in access and quality of early care and education depending on which Federal division provides the funding for the programs they attend.

To address disparities, National offices have developed specialized grant opportunities and have required Regional offices to collaborate across divisions and work with state agencies. This aims to align efforts, reduce redundancy and develop systems to support equitable development of programs.

Current divisional structures at the Regional level make joint development and distribution of technical assistance fragmented, and this results in differences in quality and consistency of supports to State and Local Grantees and ultimately disparities in their success.

Using the design process, this project engages Region 10 Office of Head Start (OHS) and Office of Child Care (OCC) Specialists in developing a consistent and sustainable model of collaboration and delivery of meaningful and consistent resources and supports to Grantees.

A project supported by the: HHS Ignite Accelerator

Team Members

Mary Seaton (Project Lead), ACF
Agda Burchard, ACF
Laura Bocchetti, ACF

Milestones

March 2016: Project selected into the HHS Ignite Accelerator
March – May 2016: Over 70 stakeholder interviews conducted and four common themes identified
April 2016: Time in the Accelerator began
May – June 2016: Five innovations identified and two prioritized
June 2016: Beta-testing began and process survey conducted
July 2016: Meeting with national office leaders about process, results and potential replication
July 2016: Time in the Accelerator ended
August 2016: Three of the five innovations in development with the other two to follow. Garnered outside funding for two trainings to support effective implementation

Project Sponsor

Julianne Crevatin, Acting Regional Program Manager, Region 10 Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Paul Noski, Regional Program Manager, Region 10, Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Contributing Partners:

Janice King-Dunbar, Deputy Regional Administrator, ACF
Julianne Crevatin, Acting Regional Program Manager, Office of Head Start
Paul Noski, Regional Program Manager, Office of Child Care
Melissa Brodowski, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development
Claudia Shanley, Region 10 T&TA Coordinator
Pattie Ryan, Region 10 Child Care State Systems Specialist

Projects