ABOUT The Dynamic Community Connections Project
The Dynamic Community Connections Project (DCCP) was developed to enhance public awareness about early intervention services and the referral process for the services for young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families in Montana. The awareness of the need to enhance public awareness and child find efforts became apparent as the Infant and Toddler Program agencies in Montana prepared for federal monitoring of Montana's Part C Early Intervention (EI) services. Therefore, when the Department of Education issued a request for proposals concerning child find programs the Rural Institute collaborated with Montana's Part C lead agency, the Developmental Disabilities Program of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, Teaching Research of Western Oregon University and regional early intervention agencies in Montana and Oregon to develop a grant proposal. DCCP was one of six grants funded for four years to develop unique child find demonstration projects.
DCCP is based on the premise that how people access information may be unique in rural areas and that statewide public awareness campaigns may not reach certain rural populations. Thus, public awareness and child find campaigns need to be specifically developed for rural areas. Other key foundations for successful and comprehensive campaigns in rural areas are:

Local early intervention agencies need to partner with other health, human, and education service providers and agencies.

Parents of children with disabilities need to be full partners in designing local campaigns.

Public awareness and child find campaigns should help children and families access any service they may need not just Part C EI services.

Individuals organizing local efforts need skills in coordinating multiple agency community efforts, conducting planning oriented meetings, and marketing programs.
The primary outcome of the project is the demonstration of an innovative process model for developing comprehensive child find programs that are replicable in Early Intervention programs in rural communities and results in:

an increased number of children served under Part C EI;

an increased number of children referred to local child find by specific referral sources;

an increased number and proportion of infants (birth to one year) served under Part C EI relative to the total number served;

changes in the collaborative linkages and efforts among local health, human services, education and child care programs;

documentation of project strategies in the forms of component guidelines, project manual and reports;

expansion of knowledge concerning application of a collaborative process model for improving child find programs in rural areas; and

dissemination of project products and findings to audiences concerned about and involved with Early Intervention services in rural and remote areas.

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