Cooperation, Coordination and Collaboration: A Guide for Child Care and Head Start Programs.

Intended for those interested in building a collaborative system of services for young children and their families, this guide describes models used in developing Oregon's coordinated Head Start and early child care programs. Chapter 1, "Introduction and Overview," sets out the goals of the Oregon Child Care/Head Start Collaboration Work Group. Chapter 2, "Historical Overview," outlines how, since August 1993, Head Start and child care officials in Oregon have met and worked to create a collaborative partnership at the state and local levels, leading to a conference set for November 1996. Chapter 3, "Oregon's Childhood Care and Education System," describes the key components of Oregon's vision of a collaborative childhood care and education system. Services provided in this system include parent involvement; family support; child care and education; and health, nutrition, social, and mental health services. Components also include equal access, equitable compensation, qualified staff, quality assurance, quality programs, combination of funding, and parent partnerships. Chapter 4, "Models of Collaboration," presents two types of models for collaboration: (1) "Head Start/Prekindergarten Child Care Service Delivery Models" describes and analyses six models used in Oregon to develop full year/day Head Start Child Care for possible replication within Oregon and the nation--these models are examples of service delivery that builds on existing community resources; and (2) "Early Head Start/Child Care" describes three model programs for infants and toddlers. Chapter 5, "Forming a Child Care/Head Start Work Group in Your Community," describes how to form a work group of representatives from Head Start and child care programs to overcome barriers to collaboration; this chapter includes suggested facilitator's agendas for community meetings. Chapter 6, "Tools and Resources," consists of various worksheets, forms, plans, organizational charts, and lists of agency officials and resource persons relevant to developing collaborative programs. (TM)