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The Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant began in July of 2003 with a small grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB.) The mission of the project was to develop a strategic plan to support a coordinated system of resources and supports for young children from birth through age five and their families in Indiana. The goal of the project is to ensure that Indiana’s children arrive to school healthy and ready to learn.
The first two years of the grant were dedicated to infrastructure building. Toward that goal, a Core Partners group (functioning as the steering committee) along with five subcommittees was convened. The subcommittees were formed to address: medical provider/ medical home issues; mental health and socio-emotional development; early care and education; parent education; and family support. Members included key stakeholders representing families, state agencies, professional trade associations, public and private early childhood providers, etc. They met regularly to develop a Program vision and mission, service standards, desired outcomes, and issue identification. Community Dialogues were also conducted across the state.
The project was renamed Sunny Start: Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds. 
MCHB committed to funding the project for an additional three years to work toward the implementation of the strategic plan, which focuses on improving the array of services available to young Hoosier children and their families. Work has involved: the expansion of a website to provide families and early childhood providers with resource and support information Early Childhood Meeting Place, the adoption of Utah Clicks universal application software by the Indiana WINS project, which is currently in the pilot test phase, support of a study on the economic dimensions of the child care industry in Indiana, and the development of a consensus statement regarding the content and core competencies for social-emotional training activities across all providers/caretakers of young children, birth to five.
A developmental calendar which highlights important health and safety information such as infant and toddler’s nutritional needs, oral health issues, communication and gross motor development has been developed for families and providers. The calendar is available in English on the Early Childhood Meeting Place as well as a limited number of hard copies in print. A Spanish version of the calendar will be available in the future. To help families navigate the system in the area of financial resources for children and families, Sunny Start is supporting the development of a series of informational documents which explain the specifics of various programs like Medicaid, Medicaid Waivers, C.H.O.I.C.E., Children’s Special Health Care Services and Private Insurance. The list of documents available will continue to grow and all will be posted on the Early Childhood Meeting Place.
Social and emotional development in young children continues to be a focus of Sunny Start. After receiving final approval from the Sunny Start Core Partners, the Social and Emotional Consensus Statement described above was finalized. A tool has been developed in conjunction with the Consensus Statement that will help individuals assess the social and emotional competencies that their training addresses. Sunny Start sponsored a comprehensive one week Summer Institute in July, 2007 which assisted mental health professionals in Indiana to build skills in the area of social and emotional development in young children, infants and toddlers. In August 2008, the support for mental health professionals will continue as Sunny Start is sponsoring additional training to help build competencies at the Indiana Infant and Toddler Mental Health Annual Conference.
The Core Partners and subcommittees continue to meet regularly with updates from these meetings posted on this website. For more information, please see the contact information below:
Project Director: Judith Ganser, MD, MPH
Contact Person: Andrea L Wilkes
Grantee: Indiana State Department of Health
Address: 2 North Meridian St, 8C
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: 317/233-1246 Fax: 317/233-1300
E-mail Address: sunnystart@isdh.in.gov
