Holly Nett completes CCR&R Leadership Development Program

Holly Nett, Child Care Consultation Manager at Lakes & Prairies Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R), completed a 3-year leadership development program offered by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA).  Nett was one of four individuals selected nationally for the intensive mentoring, training, internship, and service opportunities program in the Child Care Resource & Referral field.  During those three years, Nett completed two, 2-week internships.  One focused on child care consultation at the Indiana Association of Child Care Resource & Referral in Indianapolis, IN, in 2010 and a national public policy internship in Washington D.C. in 2011.  Nett has been with Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership, CCR&R for 17 years.  The CCR&R program provides services in northwest Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. 

 ALIGNING TRAINING AND CONSULTATION

As a Child Care Consultation Manager, Holly’s work is about guiding Child Care Consultants who work with child care professionals. The CCR&R role with child care professionals has grown from one that provides training to an extensive relationship that merges training and coaching.  Holly said, “Our coaching work is about helping providers assess their own practices and environments to affirm the good things that they are doing, and offering help where changes can make for an even better program with better results for children and families.  We use an approach that helps child care professionals identify individualized professional development needs, point them towards meaningful training options, and then work on-site with programs to help them put their recently acquired training knowledge into practice.  We try to empower child care providers to set their own goals and work towards improvements.  This is a positive approach with an investment in strength based coaching.”

The coaching along with the training is more and more taking on new avenues to improve the quality of child care.  Especially in large rural areas where distance and costs related to travel were a disadvantage, today, everything from regional training events, online training, coaching in person and coaching by phone or on Skype are just a few of the ways that child care providers and consultants can work together to continually improve the quality of child care being delivered and the satisfaction and success of operating a well-run program and facility.

INTERNSHIPS

Left to Right -- Pattie Ryan, Deputy Director, Indiana Association for CCR&R,
Holly Nett, 

Marsha Thompson, Executive Director, Indiana Association for CCR&R

The Leadership Development Program included opportunities for two internships.  One was in Indianapolis where Holly got to work with the Indiana Association for Child Care Resource & Referral state networkand see how their coaching and consultation programs were structured.  Holly said, “I was most interested in exploring what tools and infrastructure systems they use when working with child care programs as well as identifying resources for staff development and tools for our child care coaches. ,  “Going to college to work in the early childhood field prepares you to work with young children, but it does not necessarily provide us with the skills that are essential to work with adults in a coaching relationship.  My goal has been to identify a variety of resources that will help our staff work with adult learners.        

Washington, D.C. provided a different internship focus.  D.C. provided learning about federal policy and how it relates to child care programming back home.  Holly spent two weeks with the public policy team at NACCRRA learning more about their public policy agenda.  “One of my accomplished goals while doing the Washington D.C. internship, was to meet with the offices of Senator Conrad, Senator Hoeven and Congressman Rick Berg.  One of the critical topics that I covered with each office was the importance of requiring comprehensive background checks for anyone working in the child care industry.  Since that time, Senator Hoeven has signed on as a co-sponsor of a Child Care Protection Act.” 

Throughout this 3-year leadership program the opportunities to network and learn from others in the Child Care Resource & Referral field was valuable. “Through my interactions with CCR&R staff from other states and at the national level, I have become aware of a variety of rich resources that we can begin to integrate within our state system.  “  When asked what she thought about the importance of child care Holly said the following.  Child care is invaluable for parents because it keeps working parents working.  Approx. 80% of parents in this region with children under the age of 5 are in the workforce.   High quality child care also prepares children in many ways so that they will have the social and intellectual skills necessary to help them successfully transition to school.   This is why training and coaching of child care professionals is so important—the individuals who care for young children, while their parents are working, help build the foundation for that child’s success.   There is a mix of challenges and opportunities that the child care industry is responding to.  When those challenges are met, the outcomes and rewards for the child, the family, the provider and the community are unrivaled. 

This was a tremendous experience and I feel privileged to have had this opportunity.