Quality Rating 4: Community Resources

Instructions

To meet the requirements for Administrative Policies and Practices: Community Resources: ADM 13.4 and 14.4, you will provide a statement that describes:

  • Community resources available to families and staff
  • Referral resources available to families and staff for children with special health care needs and disabilities
  • How resources are identified and kept current
  • Ways families and staff access the available resources, including the local public library

The Policy or Statement Builder provides a step-by-step guide for creating your statement.

Community and Referral Resources

Accessing and sharing resources help connect families, children, and staff members to the community. These community connections are opportunities to participate in events, workshops, and community groups that offer beneficial information, support, and services. Social service and child advocacy agencies are examples of resources available within a community. Others include:

A collage including community colleges, pediatric care, family support centers, libraries, mental health services, public schools and food banks.

What does the documentation look like?

A written statement that describes:

  • Resources available in your community, including your local public library, referral resources and early intervention/special education resources
  • How you select and update these resources
  • How resources are accessed and used by families and staff members.

You may use photos in addition to your statement to show how resources are made available to families (example: photo of a bulletin board with resource information displayed).

Policy or Statement Builder

Develop a statement that describes how your program identifies, updates, accesses and uses community resources. The Reflection Questions below will help you think about what you do in your program to capture it when creating your statement. Once you have spent time reflecting on the questions below, you’re ready to write your Community Resources Statement.

Reflection Questions
  1. What community resources are shared with families and staff?
  2. What referral resources do you share with families and staff regarding children with disabilities and special health care needs?
  3. How do you identify the resources that meet the needs of your program?
  4. How do you keep the resources current?
  5. How do you share the resources with families and staff?

Use of Community Resources

  1. What community resources are accessed and used by the program? (must include the local public library)
  2. How do you learn about the community resources that you use?
  3. How are the community resources used in your program?
  4. How do you identify the community resources that meet the needs of your program?
  5. What is the process used for updating the community resources?
Statement Builder Resources

Use these optional PDF resources  to reflect on your program’s practices and create your Community Resources statement.

Technology Tips

Choose the way that the provided resources will be most useful to you.

You can:

Download the PDF.

Save the PDF.

Print the PDF.

Edit the PDF.

Where can you learn more?

 

  • Sharing Community Resources Find tips for providing community resources to families in meaningful and engaging ways.
  • Maryland Child Care Resource Network Contact your local child care resource center for assistance in finding and accessing resources. Resource centers offer guidance on the types of resources available to support the families and children in your program.