Mindy Bennett

Mindy Bennett
Mindy Bennett brings over 25 years of experience in the early childhood sector including teaching for children birth – kindergarten, owning a family child care home, child care center administration, as well as directing Indiana’s largest local CCR&R agency and later the work of Indiana’s state CCR&R network. In July of 2017 Mindy joined the staff at Child Care Aware® of America and is currently the Senior Director over Member Relations where she oversees supports for our members and works with strategic partnerships.

Recent Posts

Recap CCAoA’s 2024 Symposium – Raise Child Care! Raise America!

By Mindy Bennett on June 10, 2024

This year’s CCAoA Symposium came at a turning point for the field. Never before has America been more child care aware. Never before have we had the opportunity to make child care strong. We did a lot of deep thinking and strategizing during the week, encouraging participants to engage with the sessions and each other.  

Topics: Events

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Child Care Capacity Building — a Human Centered Design Approach

By Mindy Bennett on July 12, 2021

 

We are all lifelong learners. Granted, for some of us, the pursuit of learning is an inherent strength. For others, it can be a challenge, a heavier lift, but our changing world demands it of us. So for folks like me, where it most certainly is not a strength, we take a deep breath and dive in. And we survive, often even thrive, and want to share that learning with others. But let me back up.

Topics: Business Operations for CCR&Rs, Systems Building

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Highlights from the 2019 Leadership Institute

By Mindy Bennett on October 21, 2019

The 2019 Leadership Institute has come to an end, and we are in full planning mode for our 2020 Symposium – Breakthrough Barriers, Breakout Solutions on May 3 - 6 in Crystal City, Virginia. But before we put the 2019 Leadership Institute to bed, I wanted to share some of the highlights from the week.

Topics: Business Operations for CCR&Rs, Workforce, Professional Development, Policy & Advocacy

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Exceeding the Vision, Expanding the Possibilities

By Mindy Bennett on May 30, 2019

Child Care Aware® of America is in full planning mode for our 2019 Leadership Institute - Exceeding the VisionExpanding the Possibilities. This year our Institute will be held in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota, from October 6 – 9 at the Embassy Suites Hotel.   

The Leadership Institute (formerly known as the State Network Leadership Institute / Membership Council Institute) was created to enhance the future of the Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) community by developing the skills of current and future leaders in the industry. The Institute’s content and engagement activities are particularly relevant to CEOs, executive directors, program directors, leaders and emerging leaders at State CCR&R Networks, Local or Regional CCR&R agencies and CCR&R Parent Agencies. We encourage you to invite your key state and community partners to join you at the Institute to reflect on and plan for your joint work.  

Topics: Professional Development

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Ideas CCR&Rs can use to Strategically Prepare for Workforce Recommendations

By Mindy Bennett on February 14, 2019

The Power to the Profession task force recently released the Decision Cycles 345 + 6 draft document. See a high-level overview of the decision cycles by downloading our fourth e-book in our Power to the Profession series: Understanding the Recommendations from Decision Cycles 345 + 6. The goal of these Decision Cycles is to establish the very first unified framework of the early childhood education workforce that defines the professional preparation, responsibilities, scope of practice, specialization, and compensation needed to drive policy, funding, and systems change in our field.

Topics: Workforce, Professional Development

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New Website Design, New Resources for Consumer Education

By Mindy Bennett on November 29, 2018

 

As a Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agency, you play a critical role within your state and community. The work that you do every day to help families learn about and locate quality child care for their unique family needs is not only important to that specific family but to the community at large. Equally important is the work that you do with early childhood educators and potential educators. You spend countless hours working to build the supply of quality child care either by providing professional development opportunities and coaching to existing child care programs or seeking out and helping individuals open new child care programs. It is important that you have the resources that you need to help with this work.

Topics: Family & Community Engagement

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