Tammy Rowland-James of Northwest Arkansas Family Child Care Association

However, this opened Tammy up to the opportunity to join NWAFCCA as a staff member. The NWAFCCA Administrator at the time was considering retiring and start implementing a 5-year succession plan. NWAFCCA reached out to Tammy and asked her to begin transitioning to be the new Administrator, working part-time to learn the ins and outs of the organization. Tammy has now been the NWAFCCA Administrator for 5 years and believes that her background as a family child care home is a major contributor to her success as a CACFP sponsoring organization.

“I think what makes us successful is understanding the difficulties of being a family child care home – the amount of time that they spend working, having to share their home, and all of the different situations that arise. I think understanding their burdens, looking for ways to help them carry the load and following through with support has been what makes us successful.”

Through their work to help ease the burdens of family child care homes and promote quality care, NWAFCCA have leveraged multiple partnerships in their community. Through Remembering Nicholas, NWAFCCA is able to provide free CPR and first aid trainings to their providers. Similarly, through their Public Library they are able to provide Serve Safe training. Child Care Aware of Northwest Arkansas provided air purifiers and the University of Arkansas provided laptops, copiers and other technology to all of their family homes.

NWAFCCA considers themselves “pulse-keepers,” staying in the know on what’s happening across the early childhood space and getting involved wherever they can.  Through these efforts, NWAFCCA has become very active in advocating for family child care. NWAFCCA does many speaking engagements, has participated in studies about barriers to access in Arkansas and have even contributing to re-writing licensing standards and zoning restrictions in Arkansas. They also work closely with local elected officials and Chambers of Commerce to address current barriers that make it difficult for family homes to operate.

NWAFCCA also continues to advocate for the CACFP as a vital support for family child care homes. They recognize that reimbursements are critical for family homes to serve healthy foods, and that the CACFP makes a difference in children’s eating habits and nutrition education. This is exactly what motivates Tammy to continue being a sponsor of the CACFP.

“The CACFP is definitely making the difference. Before I had my children I worked in marketing. Theres a lot to be said about having a fun job or a job that makes you lots of money, but when you know that it’s truly making a difference and there’s an opportunity to watch children grow and learn healthy eating habits and have a good mindset around nutrition, that’s what keeps me in this.”

NWAFCCA just celebrated their 45^th year as an organization and leveraged it as an opportunity to renew excitement among their staff and the providers they work with. After reflecting on the past, Tammy looks forward to planning for the future of their association. NWAFCCA recently received a community donation from Ozark Cares to help them continue to promote quality in family child care and they have many exciting ideas for the funding.