ECHO & Family Center
Early Childhood Council
The ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council is a broad network of partners serving Fremont County for 50 years. Our community’s shared goal is to improve outcomes for the youngest children and their families.
The ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council’s mission is to promote and sustain a comprehensive high-quality early childhood system to support families and providers to prepare children for success in school and in life.
ECHO serves as the Local Coordinating Organization (LCO) for Fremont County, systemizing the implementation of Universal Preschool (UPK) in our community.
The State of Child Care in Fremont County
This 2024 report provides an overview of the current dynamics of child care in Fremont County, including availability, access and funding.
The report also identifies opportunities to advance solutions to create more equitable access to affordable child care.
Building and Sustaining Strong Systems to Support Families
The ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council built and maintains a seamless, comprehensive, and highly collaborative early childhood system in our community that is centered on the needs of our young children.
Integrating local child care, health and mental health care, and other essential systems for families, the ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council serves as the hub of the wheel coordinating and aligning partners to ensure comprehensive support for local families.
Single Seamless Entry to Supportive Family Programs
With over five decades collaboration amongst a broad range of community partners, the ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council has created a single process of entry to ensure that every family gets the support they need to thrive.
Because of the ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council’s leadership and strong community partnerships, families in Fremont County have access to a coordinated and efficient single process of entry into local programs and services.
These programs are supported by the member agencies of ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council. The easy access for families reduces service duplication and ensures funds are spent efficiently in support of local families.
The community-wide screening and assessment program that ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council built and sustains in Fremont County is among some of the most successful examples of cross-agency collaboration in Colorado.
Referral Hub Ensures No Family Slips Through the Cracks
Recognizing that a strong network of community referrals is vital to ensure families access the services their children need, ECHO and Family Center has innovated a local approach that maximizes resources, eliminates waste in the system, and provides the best services to children and families.
The Referral Hub is a group of mental health providers and early childhood professionals, convened by ECHO and Family Center, who meet regularly to review referrals and coordinate services for individual families.
Once a family receives a referral for an evaluation or for developmental support services, Referral Hub members track each family and each referral, following up to ensure children connect with the services they need.
History and Impact of Early Childhood Councils
ECHO & Family Center Early Childhood Council is one of 34 Early Childhood Councils across Colorado, but our history begins long before Early Childhood Councils were legislated into existence.
Learn more about the evolution of Councils and the essential role Councils play in supporting Colorado’s youngest children, their families, programs, and professionals that care for them.
“It’s one thing to manage funds and coordinate funds in a community to try and meet as many needs as you can. It’s another thing altogether to build a local system that is strong enough to survive the ebb and flow of funds, administrations, state and local priorities while always keeping forward momentum to build a better system for our kids. That’s what Early Childhood Councils have achieved.”
- Sharon Triolo Moloney, Colorado Dept. of Education (ret.)