SUMMIT COUNTY – County officials and the Family and Intercultural Resource Center (FIRC) recently finalized an agreement to implement home visitation and assessment as part of the Right Start Program, funded by a voter approved mill levy.During this early learning and development program, FIRC will identify developmental problems and refer children to the appropriate treatment.”At its core, it’s really a prevention program and school readiness program,” said Kameron Holloway, executive director of the FIRC.

FIRC will work with about 20 to 25 children ages 0 to 5, making sure they are on track physically and psychologically. Part of the county agreement is that the children will be legal Summit County residents and that FIRC will conduct screenings and create community support groups.The cost of the program is about $60,000.”This money comes from the local people of Summit County and the money goes right back to serving the families,” Holloway said.Other Right Start programs, which include financial assistance, quality improvement initiatives, recruitment and retention of early childhood educators and care providers and capacity building to create more availability, have already begun to have an impact. The overall goal is to improve the quality, affordability and better prepare children for school. It is being done through the half mill property tax passed in the November 2005 election.

The first part, financial assistance, was implemented during the summer, said Sue Boyd, assistant county manager. Then, in the fall, Early Childhood Options began working on strategies for quality improvement and recruitment and retention of early childhood educators and care providers.Recommendations for the capacity building component of the program will be discussed with the Board of County Commissioners later this month.”I think early childhood issues have been a high priority in Summit County for a long time,” Boyd said. The Right Start initiatives are a supplement to what is available and what other organizations are doing to improve early care, she added.

The process for the tax initiative began about six years ago when a community group formed to address early education in the county, explained Lucinda Burns, executive director of Early Childhood Options, which serves as an advisory group to the board for the Right Start Program. The recommendation was to increase funding to help make early childhood care and education affordable to more families and improve the quality.A telephone survey of residents confirmed that the group’s recommendation was something they agreed with. After that, it was put on the ballot in the 2005 election, said Burns, who added that Summit County has the highest percentage of working moms in the country.The tax initiative provides $600,000 each year for 10 years.”We’re really pound of it because not a lot of counties have done that,” Burns said. “It shows the community cares about children and families.”