1. Policy and Programs Committee CSEFEL Proposal

2. CSEFEL Background
The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is a national center for promoting the social emotional development and school readiness of children birth to age 5, and a national organization that has funding from the Office of Head Start and the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
CSEFEL has developed a conceptual model of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s social and emotional competence and for preventing and addressing challenging behavior (The Pyramid Model).
The CSEFEL model is now enacted in ten other states; each fitting the program into its existing framework of child care.

3. CSEFEL Background
The Pyramid Model builds upon a tiered public health approach to providing universal supports to all children to promote wellness, targeted services to those who need more support, and intensive services to those who need them.

4. CSEFEL Background
Massachusetts has been selected to participate. MA has established a CSEFEL Pyramid Model Partnership with a cross-agency Leadership Team.
In Oct. and Dec. 2009, the MA partnership has trained 55 people from the early education and care field as CSEFEL trainers.
The goal of the intensive training and technical assistance (T/TA) is to foster professional development that:
enhances knowledge and skills;
supports the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices;
increases capacity of the workforce skilled to support the social emotional development of young children (birth – 5 years old).

5. CSEFEL Proposal
Augment the Massachusetts CSEFEL initiative by seeking up to $300,000 in ARRA funds to:
Develop/identify a 15 hour intensive training that is approved for 1.5 CEUs;
Train up to 2000 staff working in EEC funded home-based and center-based programs using a team approach (2-4 staff from each program);
Provide follow-up mentoring and support to staff finishing the training such as site visits and telephonic support by specially trained staff.
Tentative implementation timeline:
Issue RFR for development and delivery of training – Apr. 2010
Vendor develops/identifies resources and supports – Spring 2010
Train cohorts – Summer 2010 to September 2011
This initiative will be developed with input, participation, and support from the CSEFEL Leadership Team and others.