The National Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations
for Early Learning
Dr. Matt Timm - Program Coordinator

 The National Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning is a consortium of organizations mandated to validate best practices for the social and emotional development of young children, develop training and technical assistance materials based on the identified practices, strengthen the capacity of Child Care and Head Start systems to use the practices at the local level, and disseminate the Center’s information and materials throughout the early childhood community.  The five year effort funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Bureau and Child Care Bureau is based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  Other consortium members are the University of Connecticut at Storrs; the Education Development Corporation, Boston, MA; the University of South Florida at Tampa; Tennessee Voices for Children, Nashville, TN; and the University of Colorado at Denver.  The National Head Start Association (NHSA), The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children, and the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) serve as primary partners.  Dr. Matt Timm, Tennessee Voices for Children, serves as a senior faculty member of the Center and Dianne Oyama Dixon, Tennessee Voices for Children, serves as a training and technical assistance staff member.   

 The goals and activities of the Center are designed to strengthen the capacity of Child Care and Head Start to improve outcomes for young children and their families through: a) a focus on promoting the social emotional development of children as a means for preventing challenging behaviors, b) a comprehensive, culturally sensitive approach that is inclusive of and responsive to the needs of programs, families, other professionals, and communities, c) the dissemination of evidence-based practices: d) the ongoing identification of the training needs and preferred delivery formats of local programs and training and technical assistance providers, and e) collaboration with existing training and technical assistance providers for the purpose of ensuring the  implementation and sustainability of practices at the local level.

 Key activities include: a) literature reviews of evidence-based practices, b) “what works” briefs on evidence-based practices, c) ongoing identification of training needs of Head Start and Child Care providers and training and technical assistance providers, d) development of training materials on evidence based practices, e) establishment of “Partners in Excellence” in which Head Start and Child Care training and technical assistance providers work with the Center faculty to assist local programs in implementing evidence-based practices, f) creation of Center fellowships in which professionals from Head Start and Child Care (either direct service providers or training and technical assistance providers) are recruited into graduate programs at one of the participating universities to earn a degree and to work on the proposed project, and g) establishment of partnerships with major professional organizations to ensure the widespread dissemination of the information developed by the Center.