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1 Main Street
Newport, Vermont 05855
802.334.4664
Fax
802.334.6555
The Building Bright
Futures (BBF) Council of Orleans/Northern Essex is often described as the glue that holds the early childhood
community together.
A full-time
regional director allows the regional council to accomplish a level of program
planning and implementation that cannot be achieved without staff support. BBF is designed to bridge the communication/collaboration
gap between programs, services, agencies and disciplines, ensuring that all
early childhood service providers know what services are available to the
families they serve.
Regional Plan: Each
of the 12 Vermont
regional councils just completed a strategic plan. The Orleans/Northern Essex region’s early
childhood plan is focused on supporting the social and emotional needs of
preschoolers, creating a better continuum of care for teenage single parents
and their children, and preventing lead poisoning in young children, as well as
creating more access to lead screenings.
The council will be looking to create new partnerships to address these
issues.
Council
Meetings: The Building Bright
Futures Council of Orleans/Northern Essex meets monthly. Meetings are held on the first Monday of the
month from 1-3 PM, in the state office building (Emery Hebard building)
conference room in Newport. Lunch is provided and childcare/travel
reimbursement is available. Meetings are
always open to the public.
Council
Membership: The council strives for
balanced representation and is comprised of representatives from the Department
of Health, public schools, Head Start, Community Action, mental health,
childcare, the Agency of Human Services and others. The council is challenged in trying to
attract and keep parent representatives and representatives from the medical
community.
Children’s Integrated
Services (CIS): In the Newport region, BBF
regional director, Julie Mulroy-Evans, is the facilitator of the CIS
administrative team. The team has been
working for 2 years to brainstorm and implement ways to integrate 3 distinct
home visiting programs: Family, Infant
Toddler Program (FITP), Children’s UPstream Services (CUPS, also known as Early
Childhood and Family Mental Health), and Healthy Babies, Kids and Families
(HBKF). Progress is slowly being made at both the state and regional level to solve complex systems barriers.
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