Child care improvement on a shoestring: Evaluating a low-cost approach to improving the availability of quality child care

The Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative (the Collaborative) was desi gned to improve the quality of child care by increasing coordination among organizations that locally deliver professional resources to child care pro viders. The evaluation examined the implementation of the Collaborative, ut ilization of its services, and the impact of service use on child care qual ity. Child care providers reported gains in their professional knowledge an d behavior from using Collaborative resources and rated the resources highl y No long-term effects on provider behavior; knowledge, or attitudes were o bserved. Although the original organizations were able to function collabor atively and Collaborative services were widely used, more intensive interve ntions may be required to charge the availability of quality child care.