Cultivating and nurturing community teams as they plan for and implement the inclusion of young children with disabilities and other special needs in early care and education settings.
About the Project
The AOUT Project is coordinated by the WestEd Center for Prevention & Early Intervention under contract with the California Department of Education, Child Development Division using Quality Improvement-Child Care and Development Funds.
AOUT provides team building, problem-solving, and inclusion planning opportunities for community, agency and program teams as they plan for and implement inclusive practices in early care and education settings. The project presents a rich opportunity for teams to dialogue, reflect and problem solve as a way to emphasize relationship building, enhance collaboration skills and shape program practices to support inclusion through a parallel process of support from program administration to staff to parent to child.
Project Activities
Three meetings prior to the Institute: Teams meet in their own communities to conduct a needs assessment and begin inclusion planning with support from a trained facilitator.
Forming a Team
Each team member plays an essential role – directly or indirectly – in supporting the inclusion of young children. Ideally, teams will include between 6-10 members, such as teachers, caregivers, parents, administrators, specialists, local child care planning council members, special educators, Regional Center and First 5 representatives.
Each application will be reviewed based on the following criteria:
- Team composition: The team is representative of the different roles necessary to successfully collaborate and implement the community inclusion plan
- Community benefit: The quality of fit between the team’s strengths, needs, and goals, the project's philosophy, and team’s motivation
- Geographic representation: Teams are representative of California's diverse communities
Sue Bollig at 916.492.4009 mbollig@wested.org.