The mission of CHILDSPAN is to enhance the professional development of all those individuals serving children birth through age 16 to ensure availability of high-quality care and education services for Rhode Island children, youth, and their families.
What Is CHILDSPAN?
CHILDSPAN is a project of Children's Friend and Service.
CHILDSPAN offers high-quality training and consultation to care and education providers throughout the state.
Founded in 1991 as the Rhode Island Child Care Training System to meet the professional development needs of early childhood, school-age, and youth practitioners, CHILDSPAN is funded by the Rhode Island Department of Human Services in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other private and public funding sources.
Thousands of early childhood, school-age, and youth service practitioners have participated in CHILDSPAN's workshops, conferences, series-based training including the Child Development Associate (CDA) classes, and most recently, college credit-bearing courses. The nearly 5,000 books, videos, educational toys, prop boxes, and program resources housed in CHILDSPAN'S lending library are used extensively by providers statewide.
Why Ongoing Professional Development?
Well-trained caregivers are a key component of high-quality child care programs. Recent brain research reinforces the link between quality child care and positive outcomes for children. All care practitioners, no matter how qualified, need to continue to acquire new knowledge and skills related to working with children and families.
CHILDSPAN's fall and spring training calendars, workshop series, and conferences are designed to aid practitioners in creating professional development plans. The lending library serves as a rich source of reference materials including books, journals, toys, and training videos.