Maryland Child Care Resource Network

Fall 2023

BACKGROUND

Maryland Family Network (MFN) was formed in 2009 with the merger of two nonprofits – Maryland Committee for Children, founded in 1945 to advocate for high quality child care, and Friends of the Family, founded in 1986 to administer Maryland’s network of Family Support Centers. Maryland’s regional Child Care Resource Centers (CCRCs) make up the Maryland Child Care Resource Network (MCCRN), which provides leadership, training and other services to improve the quality, availability, and affordability of child care in communities across the state.

THE CHALLENGE

Eight organizational entities represent the totality of Maryland’s diverse counties as the state’s Child Care Resource Centers. These centers serve parents, child care providers, the local business community, and others interested in the care and education during a child’s earliest years. While the functional purpose of each center is similar, the context from which it functions ranges from mid-size local government to independent nonprofit organization to university-funded entity. 

After weathering a number of structural changes, a potentially existential funding threat, and the general stress of the last few years, MFN wanted to bring the leaders of each organization across the network together for a retreat. A number of these leaders are new to their roles and had never met their counterparts from across the state. The goal of the retreat, from MFN’s perspective, was to build this group’s identity as a team, and to help them feel connected to each other both individually and as a unit.

OUR APPROACH

We conducted 10 interviews with a total of 16 stakeholders who would all be in attendance at the retreat. Based on what we heard during these interviews, we developed a few key objectives for our in-person time together that would span two days:  

• Connection - an opportunity to get to know one another, and to build relationships. 

• Leadership Development - explore ways to remain resilient through change and uncertainty. 

• Goal Setting - clarify actionable goals for the Network as a collective, and better understand MFN’s existing goals for the Network, including the plan for advocacy to ensure that funding continues. 

• Collaboration - time to share and learn from what’s going well, and to share and develop solutions around specific challenges.  

• Innovation - explore what the group needs in order to create space for innovation.  

We began our first day together the way we begin most team engagements - by introducing the emotional intelligence model and ways to build resonance, setting intentions, and creating norms. Participants reflected, and then shared with one another, on their holistic selves - who they are as individuals across their full range of self. 

We saw our role in the two day retreat as true facilitators - our job was to create the conditions for the group to connect and build its identity. After setting the stage, the rest of the first day was designed for participants to share successes and challenges, and to turn to one another for inspiration and support. During the second day, participants generated ideas for innovation and worked in self-selected small groups to brainstorm recommendations and possible solutions. The retreat ended with space for individual reflection, followed by small group sharing, on personal renewal strategies.  

We were moved and honored to have spent a few days with such a powerful group of women leaders. Every participant arrived open to building deeper connections, and they left deeply aware that they are, together, a resource-rich unit.