Early Childhood Community Needs Assessment
Click here to read the September 2022 Community Needs Assessment.
Community needs assessment
Paso a Paso’s Needs Assessment paired family and provider input with local and state level data to provide a basis to help the Network identify opportunity areas to strengthen and inform strategic goals.
Inequities begin at birth and the impact lasts a lifetime. A child’s brain develops faster from birth to age 5 than at any other time in their lives. Equitably invest in children in their first five years, and you can change everything.
Summary:
The following conclusions were drawn from the Needs Assessment data. These conclusions are presented without regard to priority as they are, in most cases, interdependent and reflective of the Taos community. The conclusion will inform planning and be used as a key call to action and system changes.
Taos County’s children and families are diverse – programs and systems must meet the needs of the diverse population and their experiences.
The high cost of living and low incomes in the county impact family’s ability to afford child care, housing, and meet their basic needs; and the ability of providers to deliver child care affordably.
There is an inadequate supply of child care that meets the needs of families, and we must find ways to support existing care providers and support family innovation in caring for their children.
The early childhood workforce, primarily women of color who are poorly compensated, despite years of experience, education, and expertise, do not experience pay equity across teaching wages.
Families want more family friendly spaces, non-traditional care hours, and more access to care and education.
The Paso a Paso Network provides the opportunity for equitable, collective community action to help address the needs of early childhood services and programs, and families with young children.
The early years matter when it comes to lifelong health and all of the systems that touch the lives of children, and their families, offers an opportunity to strengthen the foundations and capacity that make lifelong healthy development possible. Taos County’s diverse population spread throughout rural areas and townships experience unique strengths, challenges, and visions for their children. Families would like to see more supportive, flexible child care options, more activities for young children, more community spaces, and more local, specialized health care. There is an overarching need to ensure that early childhood professionals are supported and paid equitably, and continue to enhance services and programming that are accessible for families with young children while making early childhood supports the norm for the community. Challenges to achieving a fully functioning system to address these needs include access and availability of interconnected fundamental services including quality child care, medical care, housing, schools, food security, transportation, living wages, and community supports. There is a need to continue working towards a coordinated and aligned early childhood system that leverages the community’s existing assets coupled with sustainable funding for local early childhood systems building. Today’s sustained investment in New Mexico’s early childhood ecosystem serves as a baseline and plants the seeds into the ground for a more prosperous, equitable community in the future.
*This is a living document and may be subject to change per the Network.