Norwalk Early Childhood Council
"Our community hit a plateau in developing our early childhood action plan. HWF staff played a pivotal role in moving the process forward in a way that honored our community's values, used our local talents, and stayed within our budget. Leaders throughout the state view our plan as exemplary. We continue to work with HWF during implementation. Their skill, professionalism, focus, sense of humor, and capacity to take on different roles in projects is quite impressive. HWF's involvement has definitely created value."
- Betsy Bain, Norwalk Early Childhood Council Chairperson
Community leaders in Norwalk, Connecticut organized a comprehensive assessment and planning process to understand the issues (such as a pronounced educational achievement gap) affecting families and young children in their community.
Norwalk's Early Childhood Council called on HWF to provide planning and writing support during the development of Norwalk's Early Childhood Action Plan. Using quantitative and qualitative data, HWF assisted community leaders to develop a Plan with strategies related to early care and education, health, and the creation of an information-rich community. More specifically, HWF facilitated planning sessions, synthesized data sets to help shape strategies, and provided ongoing support related to developing results-based accountability measures. Norwalk's Plan has become a model for other Connecticut communities that are developing early childhood plans.
Following completion of the Norwalk's Early Childhood Action Plan, the Early Childhood Council continued to rely upon HWF for support in overseeing the working committees that implement the Plan through a broad array of community partnerships and a rich blend of public and private funding sources.