Learning Collaboratives are a PSE change intervention that uses a learning collaborative model to promote healthy environments, policies, and practices in early care and education (ECE) settings. Participating programs serving children ages birth to five years work to improve policies and practices related to healthy eating, physical activity, screen time, and breastfeeding support. The project aims to increase the number of early child care and education (ECE) programs that meet the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future best practices and Preventing Childhood Obesity (2nd edition) standards, selected from Caring for Our Children (4th edition). 

Target Behavior: Breastfeeding, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Through the ECELC, Nemours and partners work with ECE providers to achieve improvements in program policies and practices related to healthy eating and physical activity.  From 2012 – 2018, learning collaboratives have been convened in 10 states – Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, California (Los Angeles), Missouri, New Jersey, and Virginia. Nemours continues to explore the potential for spreading the model to additional states and communities. In 2022, Nemours Children’s updated the learning collaboratives to reflect partner experiences, virtual delivery approaches and participant feedback from the Better Together project in Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana and Mississippi. Nemours Children’s released two versions of the Learning Collaboratives: 1) Better Together Learning Collaboratives: for use by users in states with a Go NAP SACC license; 2) Nemours Learning Collaboratives for users in any state or community. This version of the Learning Collaboratives uses Nemours Wellness Workbook for Early Care and Education as the program self-assessment.

Setting: Child care

Target Audience: Preschool (<5 years old)

Race/Ethnicity: All

ECELC supports ECE program staff by providing technical assistance and developing materials to help improve capacity and promote sustainability. Learning Collaboratives support early ECE providers in improving policies and practices related to healthy eating, physical activity, screen time, and breastfeeding support. Collaboratives consist of:

• Four learning sessions for, 2-3 representatives from each participating ECE program (sessions can be delivered in-person or virtually).
• Ongoing technical assistance from trainers with expertise in early childhood and/or nutrition
• Access to tools, materials, resources, and curricula based on the Let’s Move! Child Care and Preventing Childhood Obesity (2^nd edition) standards

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Future website includes a variety of tools, materials and resources, such as training curriculum, participant materials, handouts, videos, and newsletters: https://healthykidshealthyfuture.org/trainers/learning-collaboratives/ 

Materials available at no cost

Learning Collaboratives are a  practice-tested intervention that has shown positive improvements in ECE best practices around healthy eating, physical activity, screen time and breastfeeding support as measured by the Let’s Move! Child Care Checklist Quiz (LMCC) and Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAP SACC).

By 2018, more than 2,573 early care and education (ECE) programs in 10 states joined the National ECELC Project to improve healthy eating, physical activity, screen time and breastfeeding support in their programs. Supported by state and local organizations known as “State Implementing Partners”, these programs continued to introduce policy and program changes to support healthy development, learning and growth of more than 201,000 children under five years of age. 

Pre-assessment and post-assessment data collected via the NAP SACC for each of the previous eight implementations (2013 – 2017) of the ECELC have indicated that it has been highly effective in promoting best practices for healthy eating, healthy beverages, physical activity, screen time, and breastfeeding support in ECE programs. 

In the final evaluation of the National ECELC, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition gathered outcome data via the NAP SACC from nine implementation cycles across 2013 to 2018 of the ECELC. This sub-evaluation demonstrated that among all ECE programs analyzed (n = 1,466), significant improvements from pre-assessment to post-assessment were seen across all topic areas and all 11 locations where the ECELC intervention was implemented (p < 0.01). Findings can be communicated according to NAP SACC topic area(s), location, and NAP SACC change score(s) of interest to a variety of audiences and should be disseminated broadly. 

https://healthykidshealthyfuture.org/about-ecelc/national-project/resources/ 

Classification: Practice-tested

Based on the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, the following outcome indicators can be used to evaluate intervention progress and success.

	Readiness and Capacity – Short Term (ST)	Changes – Medium Term (MT)	Effectiveness and Maintenance – Long Term (LT)	Population Results (R)
Individual	ST1, ST3	MT1, MT3	LT1, LT3
Environmental Settings	ST5, ST6, ST7	MT5, MT6	LT5, LT6, LT7, LT8, LT9, LT10, LT11
Sectors of Influence

The Nemours Learning Collaboratives and Better Together Learning Collaboratives use the Wellness Workbook for Early Care and Education and Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAP SACC) can be used to assess program outcomes. 

 

Wellness Workbook for ECE (English): https://workbook.healthykidshealthyfuture.org/ 

 

Wellness Workbook for ECE (Spanish): https://workbook.healthykidshealthyfuture.org/es/ 

 

Go NAP SACC Self-Assessments (for use with Better Together Learning Collaboratives): https://gonapsacc.org/self-assessment-materials 

Website: The Healthy Kids, Healthy Future website (https://healthykidshealthyfuture.org/trainers/learning-collaboratives/) includes information and resources about Learning Collaboratives.

Contact Person:
Roshelle Payes – Project Director

202-329-3905

Roshelle.Payes@nemours.org

 

*Updated as of September 4, 2023