The 1st Years provides technical assistance to family childcare homes and Class A centers in the Lafayette and Lake Charles Regions.

The technical assistance program is designed to promote and increase the quality of child care in these regions by offering these providers the tools, materials and guidance necessary to implement changes in their environment that are necessary to captivate and hold the attention and interest of the children in their care while enhancing their learning and increasing the enjoyment of their overall childcare experience.

Technical assistance personnel deliver educational material, Prevent Child Abuse pamphlets, various brochures, song sheets, booklets on depression and anger management, and a wide variety of other material to providers.

The specialists talk with the providers to determine what problems they are having, what their critical needs are, and what the specialist can do to help.

Technical assistance specialists also encourage providers to attend more training classes to learn more about what they can do to improve the learning environment, and how they can teach in a way that will hold the children's interest while allowing them to have fun during the learning process.

Specialists encourage the providers to set career development goals for themselves, and provide information on various grants that are available to providers to help improve the environments in which the children learn.

The centers and homes should be visited at least once in an eighteen month period so the providers can receive the most recent information about the child care industry.