When the Lincoln Littles office was formed in 2020, our team was forged with the task of “moving the needle for early childhood in Lincoln, Nebraska.”
The community of childcare administrators in our area have long been concerned about safety and emergency preparedness but without a centralized system of communication, shared protocols, and training – efforts were fragmented.
Emergency preparedness was just one of the ways Lincoln Littles could strengthen the early childhood industry. What we needed was a pathway.
We started by developing a shared communication system to send text and email alerts to childcare providers. This system allowed us to set up individual contact accounts for each childcare center as well as group designations for notifications.
Our next step was to work with our emergency dispatch team at the Lincoln Police Department and design a process for alerting us when there is an emergency: the department calls a centralized number, and our team sends out alerts to the impacted childcare programs. We also can send notifications in the event of severe weather or other urgent situations.
When we sent out first alerts, we learned very quickly that simply being notified of an emergency was not enough. Childcare providers needed training about how to prepare in advance and how to respond during an emergency. While all childcare programs practice fire and tornado drills, we found that they felt unprepared for other crises.
This is where strong partnerships came into the picture.
It was important for us to look at the professionals who had expertise in emergency preparedness and to align with the public school system. We wanted children and families to learn one system with consistent language from early childhood through their school years.
Our partnerships with our local health department and Lincoln Public Schools are the bread and butter of the how and why our community of childcare providers are better prepared today for any emergency, including natural disasters.
By forming these partnerships, we gained access to resources for childcare providers and developed a training program specific for staff working with young children.
We designed a quarterly training program covering topics such as Standard Response Protocols, Relocation, Reunification, Deescalation, and Behavioral Threat Assessment. We repeat these topics so new and additional staff can attend. We also coordinated funding to provide resources such as weather radios, evacuation backpacks, walking ropes, posters, and other preparedness materials.
In addition to training sessions, we created a short training video and curated resources for emergency preparedness which can be found on the Healthy Childcare website for easy access. We also designed an auto alert notification, so childcare providers receive emergency drill reminders each month via text.
With the help of funding from the Child Care Aware of America’s Emergency Preparedness grant, our next step will be to provide training specific for family home childcare providers.
Thanks to a clear pathway, strong partnerships and on-going training – our goal is to have all childcare providers prepared for any emergency our community faces.