ELCBP 
Early Learning Community Based Partnerships
(ELCBP), a strategic initiative recommended by the Early Learning Commission, is modeled after the success of Smart Start's SPARK Georgia, a W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded initiative. The ELCBP initiative ensures that children are ready for school by developing strategic partnerships to (1) engage parents in their child's early learning experience; (2) link families to needed social services; and, (3) build grassroots leadership to advocate for improvements in policy and systems that impact child outcomes.

In 2006, the Early Learning Commission was formed to develop a regional, multi-year plan to ensure that children are ready to succeed when they enter kindergarten. Made up of leaders from the civic and business community as well as child advocates and state and local policy makers, its recommendations are captured in the Early Learning Blue Print, with the initiative-level work to be implemented by Smart Start, the early childhood division of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. This initiative is currently being implemented in Fulton and Cobb counties with two additional counties to be added in 2009.

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