SPOTLIGHT: Family, Friend, and Neighbor Program

Ages Served /Eligibility Requirements:

We enroll anyone in Pinal County who has a child between 0 and 5 in their care who is not their own child. We enroll grandparents, foster parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, lawfully unlicensed business-oriented child care providers, etc.
Child care providers enrolling in FFN must meet the following requirements: - 18 years of age or older - Provide child care to at least one child (but no more than 4) between 0 and 5 years (not their own child) for at least 5 hours per week - Provide this child care in a home-based setting in Pinal County - Can not be DES or DHS licensed before joining FFN (foster license is ok!)

Service Delivery Area: All of Pinal County | Todo el Condado de Pinal

Brief Overview of Program:

The Family, Friend, and Neighbor Program believes children thrive when they are in the care of family and friends in a warm, loving, home-like environment. The goal of our program is to improve the quality of the care and education these children receive as well as enhance their early learning environment with quality educational materials.
Through our monthly training events, we provide high-quality early childhood education to our enrolled providers on a wide range of topics such as health and safety, school readiness, early brain development, social emotional development, etc.
After attending our events, participants earn materials to bring back to the children in their care equipped with the knowledge of incorporating these items to best educate young children in a hands-on, play-based educational model.

Benefits of the Program:

Our enrolled child care professionals become part of our FFN family, not only receiving training and early learning materials, but having the unwavering support of both the FFN Family Child Care Specialists and their fellow early childhood professionals.
Our FFN team were all once part of the program as enrolled child care providers and we haven't forgotten what the day to day challenges are for our population. Our program allows for long-term enrollment, which leads to years of support and friendship among our team and our group of child care providers.

To Access Services: Call, Text, or Email Lindsey Kreider for the English program or Sonia Soto for the Spanish program. https://unitedwayofpc.org/ https://www.facebook.com/FFNCOAP

Spanish Speaking Services:

The Family, Friend and Neighbor program is designed to provide the same quality of services in both English and Spanish and is staffed by fully bilingual employees who are familiar with the specific needs of the Spanish-speaking community.
The family childcare specialists provide support on an individual basis to each of the members of the group according to their circumstances or needs.
The family child care providers who belong to the FFN program are part of a community that is characterized by its unity, support and desire to excel with the aim of benefiting the children in their care.

What To Expect:

When someone is interested in enrolling, we send them our digital enrollment paperwork, along with

some informational flyers about the program.

Once we have verified their eligibility, one of the Family Child Care Specialists will reach out to them to schedule an enrollment visit, which is an informal meeting with the caregiver and the children in their care.
During the visit, we provide education on FTF strategies and the goals of the FFN program, review the history of the program as well as introduce the staff, present our private Facebook group where we do much of our communication and community-building, and explain the enrollee's responsibilities as part of the program. The remainder of the visit is spent discussing the individual's needs and goals and how the program can help.
We observe their child care space and the materials they currently have and determine how best to enhance and improve the environment. We observe their interactions with the children and guide them in best practice in all areas as needed, such as age-appropriate discipline, scaffolding learning to improve outcomes.
Every visit looks slightly different because we tailor the program to meet the needs of each individual. Once they begin attending our training events, they begin earning their materials. We visit each year so we can see each person's improvements and outcomes and guide them with whatever new challenges they may have.

Additional Information:

We are passionate about watching children and their caregivers thrive!

The United Way of Pinal County has provided the Family, Friend & Neighbor Program, funded by First Things First, for over 15 years. The program was originally launched in hopes of finding at least 35 FFN child care providers in Pinal County and has since grown to serve over 350 FFN providers annually!
Currently, we work with participants in 13 communities around the county and our program impacted the lives of over 860 children in just the last fiscal year across both our English and Spanish populations.
We look forward to continuing to grow our program to include even more outlying areas and underserved populations.

What are your hopes and dreams for Pinal County’s young children?

We hope all young children have access to safe, child-centered, play-based, developmentally-appropriate early education.
We hope the children feel supported and loved with caregivers who understand brain development and are ready to provide child-friendly learning environments.
We want children to be free to explore their world with confidence knowing they will always have a loving adult right there to guide them when needed.
FFN caregivers are an integral part of child care in Pinal County, which has been called a 'child care desert'. Our program strives to build the knowledge and awareness of our enrolled child care providers and help them realize the importance of their role in children's lives. We hope every child has the opportunity to experience their most important first five years with a loving, passionate, knowledgeable caregiver with access to open-ended early learning materials in a child-focused environment.