Supporting Disaster Recovery in the Caribbean

The Institute for Childhood Preparedness is honored to partner with the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and the Region II Head Start Association to provide capacity building assistance to the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Health Departments and support the recovery and rebuilding of early childhood programs and facilities.

Against a backdrop of beautiful blue water, you can see the many roofs that are still covered with blue tarps and in need of repair

Working to Rebuild Early Childhood Programs and Facilities

Through our work, we will strengthen the relationships between the Departments of Health and the early childhood sector. This includes early learning programs, such as child care centers, family child care providers, Early Head Start, and Head Start programs.

Our work will address the following overall goals:

• Increase engagement between the US Virgin Islands Department of Health and Puerto Rico Department of Health with the early childhood sector.

• Creation of GIS products that will be used by the US Virgin Islands Department of Health and the Puerto Rico Department of Health to provide Increased visibility on the location, status, functioning, capacity, and environmental vulnerabilities of early childhood programs and facilities.

• In collaboration with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, expand upon the existing Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education framework to develop four new tools that can be used in response and recovery.

We will be posting regular updates about our work on this site and also on our Facebook Page.

A beautiful sunset in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands