Appendix A. BSC Information Session Annoucement

Subject: New FREE social and emotional quality improvement and professional learning opportunity!

We are excited to announce this FREE information session about the Culture of Continuous Learning (CCL) Project – a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) for improving child care and Head Start quality.

At the information session, you will learn:

• What this quality improvement initiative and professional development opportunity is all about, including what a Breakthrough Series Collaborative is

• How it can help your center use the Pyramid Model most effectively to support families and children’s social and emotional development

• What the benefits of participation are

• What the time commitments and other expectations are for participating centers

• How you can get involved

A bit of background

The CCL Project expects to engage up to eight centers in [State/region] for 18-24 months to support improvements in their practices to support children’s social and emotional learning (SEL). We plan to use the Pyramid Model from the Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL). The Pyramid model has been used widely in child care and Head Start programs. Centers that have previous training and familiarity with the Pyramid Model or other SEL practices are ideal candidates to participate in this project and well poised to benefit by bridging the gap between what they know and what they do.

The CCL Project also includes a research study to learn about how the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) is working and participants’ experiences with the BSC. The research will involve things like surveys and focus groups or interviews at several points in time during the BSC.

The CCL Project is funded by the federal Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, to study the implementation of a BSC in child care and Head Start settings and systems.

What is a Breakthrough Series Collaborative?

The BSC methodology focuses on fostering a culture of collaboration and learning within and among child care and Head Start centers. The methodology promotes change by engaging a team at each participating child care and Head Start center. The teams include administrators, educators, and families. A goal is to test, spread, and sustain change in the use of evidence-based SEL practices. The BSC has supported improvements in the health, child trauma, and child welfare fields, but has not yet been widely used in early care and education. The three overarching aims of this BSC are to:

1. Increase the number of classrooms that provide high quality, SEL environments

2. Increase children's social emotional competence

3. Reduce challenging behaviors

We are offering information sessions on DATE and DATE, etc. to share more about the BSC and learn about the work of your center(s) and interests in promoting children’s SEL and development. The information session will last about 1 hour. Please direct any questions about this initiative to [contact person name/contact information]. You may also forward this information to colleagues in your own or other centers / programs who may be interested in this opportunity.

If you are interested in attending an Information Session, please use the link below to RSVP so that we can plan accordingly. [Insert RSVP link]

Sincerely,

The CCL Project team