Begin your project by reviewing this section, where you will receive tips and instructions for getting your project off the ground.

This page describes the first step in completing a Building Blocks Community Assessment --assembling a group of committed agencies and individuals. 

Once the steering committee is established, you will need to identify the geographic boundaries within which to evaluate child care and early education needs. This section provides general guidelines for determining your focal geography.

This page offers tips for assembling a rich and diverse group of community members to participate in the planning process.

Review this checklist of preparation activities before moving on to the next step of your project, gathering data.

Once you've completed "Start a New Project," you are ready to start the crucial quantitative needs assessment phase of BBCA. Quantitative analysis provides an objective basis for organizing your discussion and adds credibility to your final conclusions.

On this page you will define the community to be analyzed in your needs assessment. 

This section outlines the steps to download and print the data needed for your project from the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM) and to locate other community data.

Users complete the Needs Assessment Worksheet using the IECAM Building Blocks Community Assessment Data Sheet or data collected from other resources.

Here you will review the results of your needs assessment and download a report to share with the community. 

On this page you will upload your data report to the Community Forum.

This section will guide you through the steps for each of three recommended meetings.  Additionally, you can add additional documents and images, such as meeting agendas and notes, to the Community Forum.

On this page you can begin planning community meetings and review the current status of meetings that have already been planned.  Additionally, you can add additional documents and images to the project document space.

This page displays all current project documents.

This page will help you prepare an agenda and goals for the first community meeting, which will focus on examination of data and key community issues.

On this page you can enter Meeting 1 details including date/time/location, add a map URL, and upload related documents.

This page will help you prepare an agenda and goals for the second community meeting, which will focus on identifying priority issues and strategies to address them.

This page presents a list of issues commonly encountered in Illinois communities and suggested strategies for addressing them.

On this page you can enter Meeting 2 details including date/time/location, add a map URL, and upload related documents.

This page will help you prepare an agenda and goals for the third community meeting, which will focus on identifying action steps for implementing the project.

On this page you can enter Meeting 3 details including date/time/location, add a map URL, and upload related documents.

The community forum is a publically accessible space where project information including meeting details and related documents are available for review and public comment.

This section provides resources and suggestions for implementing your project. 

Start implementing your plan by identifying both available and needed resources.  
This page outlines funding resources for: general support, program expansion, and brick-and-mortar expansion.

This page presents ideas for identifying the agency or group that will oversee  your plan and follow-up on long-term goals.

A polished report can be a powerful tool when soliciting funds or other support for your initiatives. This page presents ideas for creating and distributing a final report.

This page presents a collection of additional project planning resources from around the web.