In Pennsylvania, Janine Pagano, the state’s Family Childcare (FCC) Coordinator has built robust community networks of FCC providers across the state to support one another, learn from each other, and be stronger advocates for their ECE sector. In doing so, she employed the skills she honed by taking Leading for Change, our 14-week entrepreneurial leadership program.
Pagano was among a group of Pennsylvania ECE leaders and FCC coaches who completed a Leading for Change facilitator training led by Early Education Leaders Executive Director Anne Douglass and Early Education Leaders staff members.
“It was the most wonderful experience we’ve ever had,” said Pagano, who helped coordinate the training. “And I’m not speaking just for myself, I’m speaking for everyone who took that class.”
Leading for Change in Early Care and Education was developed by Early Education Leaders and anchors all of our programs. Participants learn how to lead for change to improve program quality and promote equity in early care and education.
Pagano is employed by the Pennsylvania Key (PA Key), an entity created by Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) to implement the state’s ECE policies and procedures. As a participant in the Leading for Change Train the Trainer course, she completed the same assignments required of all Leading for Change participants, including developing and implementing a Change Project designed to improve a specific area of ECE.
Pagano was fairly new to her position at PA Key when she enrolled in Leading for Change. She wanted her Change Project to meaningfully address a weakness she observed through her work: the absence of supportive community among FCC providers working in the state.
“One of my tasks was to make sure that all of the family childcare providers were connected, that they understood their leadership roles, that they understand that they can make a difference. That social connection is important,” Pagano said.
As part of her project, Pagano secured a grant from Home Grown’s Building Comprehensive Networks initiative, which supports the creation of local networks that can connect FCC providers to each other and to ECE system infrastructure, including funding and policy.
With the funding, Pagano built out a network structure, starting with creating a statewide group consisting of FCC leaders from all regions of the state. The group provides members—and Pagano—with a bird’s eye view of what’s happening in the FCC sector across Pennsylvania.
“We have so many wonderful initiatives, so many wonderful things happening with family childcare. So I thought, let’s build the thread to connect them so we can learn from what’s happening and share that,” she said.
Pagano also co-led her first Leading for Change course for FCC providers along with several of her fellow facilitator trainees. Graduates of the course are now mentoring and supporting their professional peers, expanding the circle of support available to FCC providers. Soon, Pagano will facilitate a Leading for Change Train the Trainer course for the workforce coaches from the state’s 19 Early Learning Resource Centers, which provide training, coaching and other resources to ECE providers. Her goal is to have two cohorts each of Leading for Change graduates and trained Leading for Change facilitators by the end of the current fiscal year. Pagana also has plans to organize a local leadership conference for Leading for Change alumni and participants to network and share their Change Projects.
“I’m implementing what I learned,” said Pagano. “One of the greatest joys that it brings me is that I’m actually seeing some of my work come to fruition.”
Pagano’s early education career stretches back 30 years, when she began teaching. She eventually became a coach, which put her into contact with many FCC providers, and Pagano grew to love the dedication and community spirit they brought to their work. Her son had also attended a home-based childcare program as a young child, so Pagano had valuable perspective on FCC as both coach and consumer. When Pennsylvania Key created the Family Childcare Coordinator post about two years ago, Pagano thought, “this is where I’m supposed to be,” and applied for the job.
“They’re such a diverse group of people, they have such a welcoming and caring community, and they’re passionate about what they do,” said Pagano. “And they know there’s no money in it, yet they continue with this line of work.”
Their dedication, said Pagano, stems from the fact that FCC providers live in the communities they serve. As such, they tend to take a more holistic approach to families, as opposed to simply focusing on educating their children.
Pagano credits Leading for Change with helping her remember and renew her passion for early education.
“Sometimes when you’re on this journey through work, and all these changes with policies and procedures and regulations, you forget how you got here and lose some of yourself along the way,” she said. “This particular course really made me dig down deep and remember who I am outside of everything else and my job. It was kind of a breath of fresh air and helped renew and motivate me. I realized I have a deeper personal connection to this work, and I’m going to make changes, but they’re the changes that I feel are important to me. It really helped me recreate my vision a little bit.”
Leading for Change is currently offered for free to licensed early educators in Massachusetts in partnership with the MA Department of Early Education and Care through its statewide network of Professional Development Centers. Leading for Change is also offered to early educators in Maryland through the Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Education Program at the Shriver Center at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and in Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Key and the Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development & Early Learning. It was offered to educators in California through a pilot program.
