Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance

While most children live in secure environments and reach young adulthood healthy both emotionally and physically, we know that the opportunity to become productive members of society eludes thousands of Wyoming children.

We challenged you to Step Up for Children on September 16th at the Capital or at your local county courthouse and many of you did!

Event Summaries…

Welcome!

The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance is a non-profit organization with three primary purposes that directly and indirectly impact positive outcomes for children and families in Wyoming:

1. Data Collection & Dissemination
2. Active Advocacy
3. Professional Development

• Data Collection and Dissemination

  

  The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance is the Wyoming KIDS COUNT Grantee. KIDS COUNT, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. 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. The current Wyoming Kids Count factbook, which provides county by county information regarding the well-being of children in Wyoming, is available as a downloadable PDF file or may be ordered for a nominal fee by calling 800-400-3999.

• Active Advocacy

  

  The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance (WCAA) is a member of Voices for America’s Children, a network of state and locally-based child advocacy organizations in forty-four states across the country.

  WCAA is a research-based, non-partisan, independent advocate committed to no interest group other than children. As a member of Voices, WCAA is working to create a society that recognizes and works to ensure that every child:

  1. is economically secure and free from poverty and its debilitating effects;
  2. has quality health care;
  3. has quality educational opportunities throughout their childhood;
  4. is safe from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence; and
  5. lives in a nurturing family, in a supportive community committed to children’s development to their maximum potential.

• Professional Development

  The Wyoming Statewide Training And Resource System program is funded by the Wyoming Department of Family Services and administered by the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance. The programs that fall under the Wyoming STARS umbrella include:

  
  • Training Registry The training registry awards training hours for approved training courses. This program tracks all training hours professionals obtain for licensing through the Department of Family Services, the training registry database (list of all approved trainers/trainings) and the training approval process.
  • Career Development Program The career development program is used to improve the quality of early care and education for child care professionals who actively pursue continuing education and demonstrate a professional commitment to working with children and families. The career ladder consists of nine levels which professionals can use as an avenue to pursue continued professional growth, marketability, and adequate compensation.
  • Child Care Scholarship Program The scholarship fund reimburses licensed child care providers for attending trainings and/or college classes. Each child care professional may be reimbursed if they qualify.
  • Clearinghouse The clearinghouse is a free resource library of books and videos which can be used to meet Department of Family Services licensing requirements. All materials are located at the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance and are available for your use.
  • Apprenticeship The early childhood development apprenticeship program focuses on helping early childhood professionals obtain a child development associate (CDA) through work related training and college instruction. This is a 24 month, “earn while you learn”, tuition paid program. Participants have the opportunity to earn 16 college credits toward a degree in early childhood and over 4,000 hours of on the job training in addition to a CDA.

  For more information about these Professional Development Programs, call the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance at 800-400-3999.

The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance receives funds from the Wyoming Department of Family Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Zero to Three Better Baby Campaign, and caring citizens like you.