The Community Group (TCG) will join with the University of Massachusetts Boston to provide StrongStart Training and Technical Assistance. The funding, from the Department of Early Education and Care, supports an overhaul of the training programs for the 70,000 early educators who work in 9,000 early education and care programs across the state.
The work will be led by the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation (the Leadership Institute), which is housed in UMass Boston's College of Education and Human Development.
TCG will serves as the Northeast StrongStart Professional Development Centers (PDCs) located across Massachusetts. The PDCs will "offer a statewide leadership coaching program to support leaders as they create cultures of continuous learning and improvement in their organizations and establish professional development opportunities in the workplace that strengthen teaching quality and children's learning."
UMass will draws on the expertise of leaders and educators from TCG and other Head Start, child care centers, and family child care programs as well as from an institutional coalition that includes the UMass Donahue Institute, Holyoke Community College, Child Development and Education, Inc., the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and the Pyramid Model Consortium.