Below are some online links for organizations and other links of interest...

Redleaf National Institute--Redleaf National Institute is a division of Resources for Child Caring, a nonprofit organization located in St. Paul, Minnesota. We work closely with Redleaf Press, another division of Resources for Child Caring, which publishes business resources and other materials for child care professionals.

Resources for Child Caring Resources for Child Caring is a nationally recognized non-profit (50lc3) organization specializing in issues related to child care. Our mission is to improve the lives of children by strengthening and supporting the people who care for them. Carol Rohde is the executive director. Three key values drive our mission: quality, diversity, and accessibility. Today we offer a variety of services and programs that support child care professionals, parents, and diverse communities in nuturing young children. We have also remained a consistent voice in support of a functional child care system in Minnesota and the nation. Redleaf National Institute is a division of Resources for Child Caring.
National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies   NACCRRA is the national network of more than 850 child care resource and referral centers (CCR&Rs) located in every state and most communities across the US. CCR&R centers help families, child care providers, and communities find, provide, and plan for affordable, quality child care. Since 1987, NACCRRA has been working to improve the system of early learning for children by:  Providing training, resources, and best practices standards to local and state CCR&Rs that support high quality, accountable services; and promoting national policies and partnerships that facilitate universal access to quality child care.
The Children's Defense Fund and Children's Defense Fund Minnesota.  CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick or into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8. Founded in 1926, NAEYC is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 100,000 members, a national network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations.

ACEI--The Association for Childhood Education International  The Mission of the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) is to promote and support in the global community the optimal education and development of children, from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society.

The Children, Youth, and Families Education Research Network If you're a professional serving children, youth and families or a parent with your own children, you know that finding reliable, high quality, research-based information on the Web can be a major challenge. That's where CYFERnet can help you. CYFERnet's Web site brings together the best, children, youth and family resources of all the public land-grant universities in the country. Materials are carefully reviewed by college and university faculty. Through CYFERnet you can also interact with your colleagues and share your work nationally.

 
The Center for Inclusive Child Care (formerly Project Exceptional) is a statewide network for promoting and supporting inclusive early childhood and school-age programs and providers in Minnesota. This network provides leadership, administrative support, training and consultation to early care and education providers, school-age care providers, parents and the professionals who support providers and parents of children with special needs.
The Minnesota Child Care Resource & Referral Network works to provide information and support for quality child care that is affordable and accessible for all Minnesota families.  A wide variety of information, support, and services are available on a statewide basis through the Network offices located in St. Paul, and are available locally throughout Minnesota through the twenty-two CCR&R network member sites. 
Eager-to-Learn, a program of the Minnesota Child Care Resource & Referral Network, is designed to provide high quality, affordable in-service training opportunities using electronic or E-Learning technologies and experienced, well-trained instructors. 
Thirteen of Minnesota's Community and Technical Colleges are working together for you through E-LECT (e-learning for early childhood teachers), offering high quality credit-based child development courses, certificate, diploma, and A.A.S. degree on-line. Take courses anytime, anywhere. With E-LECT, a college education is as close as your computer.
action4kids.JPGAction 4 Kids is an e-advocacy network bringing together over 35,000 voices to ensure that every Minnesota child has the best possible start in life.
Together the network will take action to impact decisions in these three key areas: 1. Child Care  2. School Readiness  and 3. Child Poverty and Fiscal/Health Policy
 Ready 4 K Minnesota Ready 4 K seeks to unite parents, communities, organizations and policymakers to act and advocate for school readiness.  In cooperation with many leaders in the early care and education fields, Ready4K has developed policy proposals that integrate the early childhood system, enhance parent education, and improve professional early care and education. 
Child Care WorksThe Child Care WORKS coalition, established in 1983, brings together parents, caregivers and advocates across Minnesota to improve child care services for all families. This is an exceptional source of current legislative information and policies on all issues regarding children.

National Association for Family Child Care
NAFCC is dedicated to strengthening the profession of family child care by promoting high quality, professional early care and education and strengthening communities where providers live and work.

The Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association
A professional family child care organization of licensed family child care providers serving children and family child care providers.  With a mission to To support the highest standard of care for children in licensed family child care homes through education, resources, recognition, and advocacy; while acknowledging the diversity of licensed family child care providers.
 
International Family Day Care Organisation
The IFDCO was organized to to facilitate an international exchange of information, ideas and methods for the development of Family Day Care through a quarterly newsletter, email and web page and to establish an international network of members involved in Family Day Care.
Minnesota Association for the Education of the Young Child and the Institute for Professional Development
The Minnesota Association for the Education of Young Children is a nonprofit association of over 1,500 professionals in Early Childhood Education and related fields working together on behalf of young children and their families.
The Minnesota Professional Development Council
Supporting Professionals who Educate, Advocate and Care for Children, Youth, and Families.  With a mission to facilitate development and ongoing coordination of an inclusive collaborative of the early childhood and youth professional development system in Minnesota. This organization is responsible for the creation of the Minnesota Core Competencies.
Minnesota Autism Center (MAC) provides early intervention services for children with autism up to age 6 (approximately) and educational programs for people providing care for autistic children.
The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome (NCSBS) is the only worldwide organization that is dedicated solely to the prevention of this form of child abuse. The National Center has been providing leadership in the development of prevention programs, training courses and public education campaigns.
The Child Care Nutrition Resource System provides you with recipes, resources, and information on preparing nutritious meals and food safety.  This is a great tool for providers who participate in USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and receive reimbursement for meals served.
KIDS COUNT LogoKids Count is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the U.S. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children. This great resource includes the Kids Count Data Book online, CLIKS with county, city, and community level information, Census Data and more.
Home to the Minnesota Department of Human Services.  [Link to the Home Page.]The Minnesota Department of Human Services has much information about child care programs.  You can even view current listings of licensed child are providers sorted by county.
U.S. Department of EducationThe U.S. Department of Education contains a wealth of information and the ability to order publications online.
SMART is a project of the Professional Development Institute of Minnesota This group will ultimately make key recommendations as to the essential strategies needed to support programs and individuals who utilize mentoring, coaching, consultation and technical assistance in their professional development strategies.
A Great Resource...
The WebGuide is a directory that evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development research and practical advice. Topics are selected on the basis of parent recommendations; they cover all ages, from early child development through adolescence and much more.
Minnesota School-Age Care Alliance MNSACA is an association of 700 child/youth focused professionals who provide care to school-age children and youth in school, park, home and agency settings during out-of-school hours.
The Better Kid Care Satellite Trainings are available for viewing on your computer with the Real Media Basic Player, which you can download for free. After you have installed and configured RealPlayer, click the links below to view the videos.
Caring for Kids are four page information sheets on a variety of topics. The files are in PDF format, so you will need to have Adobe Reader installed and working on your computer to open these.
These are two page information sheets from Penn State. The files are in PDF format, so you will need to have Adobe Reader installed and working on your computer to open these.
Minnesota STREAMS to Quality
Minnesota STREAMS to Quality is a tool designed to serve people who care for children by offering educational opportunities, grants, and financial incentives. This website is for: family child care providers, child care center staff, Head Start, school-age/out of school time program staff, parent educators, parents, and all others interested in the health and development of children.
U of M Extension ServiceUniversity of Minnesota Extension Service--Information on searching for quality child care and other issues. Also able to access INFO U at this address.
Center for Asians and Pacific IslandersCAPI--The Center for Asians and Pacific Islanders--The Centre for Asians and Pacific Islanders is a direct service and informational agency that assists Southeast Asian families to contribute to the economic and social fabric of Minnesota while maintaining their unique cultural heritage and values.

Council for Professional Recognition--The governing body for CDA (Child Development Associate) credential.

Minnesota Association for Family & Early Education... The professional organization for administrators, providers and supporters of high quality family and early childhood education for all families with young children throughout the State of Minnesota. 

The National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), a project of the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a national resource that links information and people to complement, enhance, and promote the child care delivery system, working to ensure that all children and families have access to high-quality comprehensive services

NNCC--The National Network for Child Care--The web site of cooperative Extension Services (includes links to issues of Family Child Care Connections)

The ABCsThe ABC's of Safe and Healthy Child Care cover many issues including health and safety issues for providers, but this fact sheet on childhood diseases can be extremely helpful.
Child Care Resources is a leader, advocating for quality child care and the needs of both families and child care professionals.  As in other fields, we can use technology as a training tool, enabling child care professionals to access high quality, interactive training at their convenience. This web site is specifically for that purpose.
ChildCareExchange is a place to find some of the best Internet resources for providers, directors, teachers and parents.

USA Child Care is an organization for child care providers who believe that all children deserve high quality care. Their mission is to bring the voice of direct services providers to national and state policy dialogue.

Born Learning is an innovative public engagement campaign that helps parents, caregivers and communities create quality early learning opportunities for young children. This public service campaign will raise greater awareness of the importance of quality early learning and increase parent knowledge and skills by recommending simple actions parents can take to help their children be ready for school. The website has a huge amount of resources.
United Way is a leader in early childhood education with programs like Success by 6 and support for early learning activities.  Some background and research information on their website.
Stop It Now! Minnesota is a campaign to prevent child sexual abuse.  Their online information and resources, here to help adults like you prevent the sexual abuse of children before a child is harmed and before an adult, youth, or child acts in a sexually inappropriate way toward a child.
Family Communications, producers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has a website with resources for families, educators, and early education and child care.
The Sesame Workshop--A link to our Sesame Street friendsSesame Workshop is a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs.  The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow; to be prepared for school; to better understand the world and each other; to think, dream and discover; to reach their highest potential.
 
US Consumer Product Safety Commission--Check out product recalls on items you may have in your child care home. Also has Kid Site with lessons on safety and fun games to play while learning.
 PBS TeacherSource
For more than 30 years, teachers have trusted PBS's quality programming and educational services. Maintaining that trust is the foundation of PBS's mission to serve educators and learners.
 

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