Support for Collaborations
On-Demand Consultation
Get Support
The Community Systems Statewide Support team provides on-demand consultation for early childhood community collaborations tackling a specific, short-term issue. Consultants are matched with communities based on area of need and will provide up to 20 hours of consultation over the course of the fiscal year. Some of the areas available to request support include:
- Governance
- Sustainability
- Equity
- Coordinated Intake
- And much more!
FAQs
Through on-demand consultation, early childhood community collaborations can request support on a specific issue and receive up to 20 hours of consultation around that issue. Consultants bring their technical expertise to offer advice and solutions. On-demand consultation is available year-round.
On-demand consultation is not intended for issues that require more than 20 hours of consultation and does not include long-term coaching, which is more intensive and provided over a longer period of time to Partner Plan Act Collaboration Institute participants. For longer-term assistance, please refer to the Partner Plan Act Collaboration Institute.
You will match with a consultant within two weeks of your initial on-demand consultation request. The consultant will reach out to you to have an initial conversation. Together, you will schedule future consultation sessions.
While you may request support at any point within the year, the requested hours (up to 20 hours in total) must take place within one fiscal year (July-June).
Our goal is to provide comprehensive support to early childhood collaborations throughout the state of Illinois. If you are unsure if your request aligns with our work, please submit a request anyway—we want to be responsive to your collaboration’s needs.
You may receive consultation over the phone, video conferencing, or in-person—the collaboration and consultant will decide on the setting.
Communities will match with consultants based on the community’s specific need and the consultants’ availability. If there is a specific consultant you would like to work with, please include that in your request notes, and we will try to accommodate your request.
A request for on-demand consultation may be denied if fulfilling the request requires consultation beyond 20 hours. In that case, apply to the Partner Plan Act Collaboration Institute to receive long-term coaching and training supports. In addition, the IAFC Community Systems Statewide Supports team will connect you to other resources and supports available.