A federal Preschool Development Grant of $3.8 million was awarded to the University of New Hampshire in 2019. The focus of this planning grant was to conduct a statewide needs assessment and strategic plan related to early childhood systems, as well as provide funding to regional initiatives supporting families with young children to improve their family engagement practices. The Monadnock Region benefited from a portion of this grant money to increase the region’s capacity to engage families and involve parents as leaders in building effective early childhood programs. Monadnock United Way (MUW) is spearheading this work in the Monadnock Region through the efforts of Impact Monadnock, MUW’s signature early childhood initiative, which aims to prepare children from birth to age five for future academic, career and life success.
One essential component of MUW’s family engagement work included meaningful dialogue in the form of family listening sessions throughout the region with parents and caregivers of young children. The data that was gathered from those sessions has given us insight into their experience with NH's early childhood system and informed planning for improvements that would address identified challenges.