Tri-County
Contact Info
Network Coordinator: Samantha Marsh (309) 929-0266 smarsh@tchd.net
Family Engagement Specialist: Kristina Gillis (309) 929-0224 kgillis@tchd.net
Tazewell, Peoria, and Woodford Counties: Promoting Positive Early Childhood Outcomes Through Referrals
The Tri-County AOK Network, comprised of Tazewell, Peoria, and Woodford Counties, is based in Central Illinois, which is built around the Illinois River. This area has a strong agriculture and manufacturing presence, as well as a large system of healthcare. Each of the three counties features a mix of urban, suburban, and rural communities. With the cost of living being in flux, as everyday expenses increase, family units are feeling the additional stress this brings in conjunction with the normal pressures of maintaining a household. New and expanding families are often faced with challenges navigating early childhood systems in their area, which is made additionally difficult to participate when providers are managing budget cuts, staff turnover, and other roadblocks to providing services to families in an appropriate timeframe.
All Our Kids Early Childhood Networks strive to improve the quality of and access to early childhood systems for families by utilizing parent/caregiver voice regarding their experience navigating these systems. Every 5 years, AOK Networks gather population data and qualitative data from parents and caregivers in the area, as well as important actors in local early childhood systems to assess both child and family outcomes, and the local early childhood system in general. This data is used to inform strategies that will address the causes of problems within these systems with an overall goal of ensuring all children under 5 are set up for the most success in kindergarten, and ultimately, in life.
The most recent assessment revealed that, in the Tri-County area, not all children are on a positive developmental trajectory. Within the three counties, an average of 32% of children are demonstrating lower social-emotional development than the state average. What’s more: not all infants and toddlers are enrolled in high-quality learning programs. There are only 12 licensed childcare centers that have the prestigious ExceleRate rating of Gold in Tri-County, and they’re all in Peoria County. While all three counties have, as of 2024, a population of 25,225 children aged 5 and under. This lack of access to these quality early learning programs for most children in the area is a massive disservice to the future outcomes for our children and the communities they live in. This also reveals the disproportionate availability of early childhood services in Peoria County, the lack thereof in Tazewell County and especially Woodford County. The Tri-County AOK Network hopes to continue shining a light on this and other barriers for parents and caregivers so that they can be improved over time. Partnerships with local early childhood programs and other early childhood collaborations have shared goals with the AOK Network to continue to improve the likelihood of positive change.
Assessments are a large part of informing AOK Network initiatives, but in addition to this, planning is informed through ongoing engagement with families. Via the assistance of Parent Ambassadors, parent volunteers work with AOK staff to engage family voice through community events and other outreach work obtaining stories from parents and caregivers that help shine a light on the strengths and shortcomings of the local early childhood systems. Over the next year, local AOK staff hope to increase access to these stories via these community events and through web-based portals for submitting experiences navigating local early childhood systems. Staff are hoping to start a social media portal for story submissions by the end of FY27 (June 2027).
When parent voice is not included in decision making, those providing the services in the early childhood space tend to miss opportunities to better serve families. This creates an environment where parents/caregivers don’t feel invested in participating and don’t show up or simply fail to receive needed services as partners continue to work in siloes. By engaging parent voice in planning and decision making, AOK Network staff and partners can better understand critical gaps in services and other frustrations parents/caregivers share about navigating these systems.
One of the major triumphs of the AOK Networks across the state has been the implementation of IRIS: the Integrated Referral and Intake System. Organizations in the Tri-County area have access to this cutting-edge referral program. IRIS is a “closed loop” intake and referral system that organizations can use to send, receive, and monitor referrals in real time. The presence of this resource in our communities only strengthens the AOK Network’s ability to prioritize cross-sector community partnerships and gauge parent voice to continuously improve the local early childhood systems.
