The Partnership is proud to announce the launch of the Early Childhood Training Institute (ECTI) to provide training and resources for professionals who work with families with young children. The ECTI serves as a collaborative platform for providers, emphasizing a common language and a consistent, strengths-based approach for professionals across disciplines. Through the ECTI, the Partnership seeks to change the way systems, providers and families work together for the long-term benefit of children and the community.
The development of the ECTI grew out of the success of theDurham Touchpoints™ Collaborative, founded by the Partnership in 2013.Touchpoints is an evidence-based theory of child development based on the work of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton that brings together providers from across disciplines to strengthen relationships and provide a common approach to working with families during child development milestones. To date, 121 providers and leaders from 16 service organizations have completed training, and the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative is a certified training site with a training team of 10 professionals. More than 3,000 familiesin Durham have received services from Touchpoints-trained practitioners.
Using the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative as its central pillar, the ECTI will continue to offer the Touchpoints training as a foundation, as well as address additional needs identified by professionals in an effort to provide the best support to young children and their families. These needs include training components that increase professionals’ skills in working with parents with mental health concerns such as maternal depression, cultural competency and racial equity, and the impacts of poverty and toxic stress.
The ECTI will focus on offering the trainings to professionals who have the most impact on young children, while also engaging with the larger community around these critical issues affecting families in Durham. Through the ECTI, the Partnership will continue to build a healthy and thriving community for all of Durham’s children and their families. For more information, please contact Paulette Stephens, Director of Training and Community Engagement.“The ECTI will address the passion that service providers have for adopting new knowledge and skill to enhance their work with Durham’s most vulnerable children and families,” says Partnership Executive Director Laura Benson. “Service providers are collaborating across systems more than ever before, and the ECTI offers a new way to strengthen those relationships for the benefit of the whole community.”
